Master Self Control & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Kentaro Fujita

0:00In my own research, we have shown that if we can get people to think about their whys, the purposes behind their decisions, the broader purposes behind what they're doing, they're much more likely to be able to overcome the temptation.

0:13So if there's a piece of chocolate cake in front of me and I'm trying not to eat it, if you said, oh, I'm not supposed to eat that because I'm on a diet, that doesn't have much magic to it.

0:22But if instead I'm saying things like, I need to do this for my family, I want to look good for my children's wedding photos, or, you know, my children are looking at me, or I want to be a good example, or all these other kinds of reasons that you might, these higher order reasons that you might have for getting healthy or being fitter or whatever, not eating the cake, we show that that increases the odds that people will avoid the cake.

0:43And we think it's because it's giving people meaning.

0:44These are higher order things that I care about, and these are what's going to motivate me to hold out.

0:50Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.

0:59I'm Adrian Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.