The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It

THE WILLPOWER INSTINCT: PAUSE AND PLAN
Suzanne Segerstrom, a psychologist at the University of Kentucky, studies how states of mind like
stress and hope influence the body. She has found that, just like stress, self-control has a biological
signature. The need for self-control sets into motion a coordinated set of changes in the brain and
body that help you resist temptation and override self-destructive urges. Segerstrom calls those
changes the pause-and-plan response, which couldn’t look more different from the fight-or-flight
response.
You’ll recall from our trip to the Serengeti that a fight-or-flight stress response starts when you
recognize an external threat. Your brain and body then go into the self-defense mode of attack or
escape. The pause-and-plan response differs in one very crucial way: It starts with the perception of
an 
internal
conflict, not an external threat. You want to do one thing (smoke a cigarette, supersize
your lunch, visit inappropriate websites at work), but know you shouldn’t. Or you know you 
should
do something (file your taxes, finish a project, go to the gym), but you’d rather do nothing. This
internal conflict is its own kind of threat: Your instincts are pushing you toward a potentially bad
decision. What’s needed, therefore, is protection of yourself by yourself. This is what self-control is
all about. The most helpful response will be to slow you down, not speed you up (as a fight-or-flight
response does). And this is precisely what the pause-and-plan response does. The perception of an
internal conflict triggers changes in the brain and body that help you slow down and control your
impulses.

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THIS IS YOUR BRAIN AND BODY ON WILLPOWER
Like the fight-or-flight response, the pause-and-plan response begins in the brain. Just as the alarm
system of your brain is always monitoring what you hear, see, and smell, other areas are keeping track
of what’s going on inside of you. This self-monitoring system is distributed throughout the brain,
connecting the self-control regions of the prefrontal cortex with areas of the brain that keep track of
your body sensations, thoughts, and emotions. One important job of this system is to keep you from
making stupid mistakes, like breaking a six-month stretch of sobriety, yelling at your boss, or ignoring
your overdue credit card bills. The self-monitoring system is just waiting to detect warning signs—in
the form of thoughts, emotions, and sensations—that you are about to do something you will later
regret. When your brain recognizes such a warning, our good friend the prefrontal cortex jumps into
action to help you make the right choice. To help the prefrontal cortex, the pause-and-plan response
redirects energy from the body to the brain. For self-control, you don’t need legs ready to run or arms
ready to punch, but a well-fueled brain ready to flex its power.
As we saw with the fight-or-flight response, the pause-and-plan response doesn’t stop in the brain.
Remember, your body has already started to respond to that cheesecake. Your brain needs to bring the
body on board with your goals and put the brakes on your impulses. To do this, your prefrontal cortex
will communicate the need for self-control to lower brain regions that regulate your heart rate, blood
pressure, breathing, and other automatic functions. The pause-and-plan response drives you in the
opposite direction of the fight-or-flight response. Instead of speeding up, your heart slows down, and
your blood pressure stays normal. Instead of hyperventilating like a madman, you take a deep breath.
Instead of tensing muscles to prime them for action, your body relaxes a little.
The pause-and-plan response puts your body into a calmer state, but not too sedate. The goal is not
to paralyze you in the face of internal conflict, but to give you freedom. By keeping you from
immediately following your impulses, the pause-and-plan response gives you the time for more
flexible, thoughtful action. From this state of mind and body, you can choose to walk away from the
cheesecake, with both your pride and your diet intact.
While the pause-and-plan response is as innate to our human nature as the fight-or-flight response,
you’ve no doubt noticed that it doesn’t always 
feel
as instinctive as, say, eating the cheesecake. To
understand why the willpower instinct doesn’t always kick in, we need to dive a little deeper into the
biology of both stress and self-control.

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