- The Huberman Lab Podcast discusses science and science-based tools for everyday life.
- This episode focuses on building tenacity and willpower.
- Tenacity is the ability to persist under pressure and resistance, while willpower involves both motivation and resistance.
- The podcast explores the psychology and neuroscience of tenacity and willpower.
- The host emphasizes that the podcast is separate from his teaching and research roles at Stanford.
- The episode is sponsored by Maui Nui Venison and Helix Sleep.
- Tenacity and willpower are distinct from habit execution and require effort and energy.
- The discussion highlights the continuum between tenacity and willpower on one end and apathy and depression on the other.
- The podcast will provide research-supported tools for enhancing tenacity and willpower.

- The speaker discusses the relationship between motivation, tenacity, willpower, apathy, and depression.
- They mention the concept of ego depletion and the belief that willpower is a limited resource.
- The speaker acknowledges the controversy surrounding this theory and presents conflicting evidence.
- They emphasize the importance of understanding the theory of willpower as a limited resource in order to fully grasp the controversy and explore alternative perspectives.
- The speaker introduces the idea of tools and protocols for increasing tenacity and willpower, categorizing them as modulators.
- They highlight the limitations of simply telling oneself to "just do it" and the need for additional tools and mechanisms to engage in desired behaviors or resist unwanted ones.

- The autonomic nervous system plays a crucial role in generating tenacity and willpower.
- The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for alertness, movement, and resistance to movement.
- The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for relaxation, sleep, and inaction.
- The balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems determines our level of alertness and ability to engage in tenacity and willpower.
- Sleep deprivation, physical and emotional pain, and distractions can diminish our ability to access tenacity and willpower.
- There is currently no simple metric to measure autonomic function, but it is important to prioritize sleep and manage stress levels for optimal tenacity and willpower.
- AG1 is a supplement that provides foundational nutrition and can support stress management.
- Baumeister's research suggests that willpower is a limited resource, but there are other studies with similar findings.
- These studies involve tasks that require mental effort, and participants show reduced willpower after exerting it.

- The study explores the concept of willpower and its limitations
- Participants are divided into two groups, one told to resist eating radishes and the other told to resist eating cookies
- The participants are then observed during this time, with the goal of testing their willpower
- The second part of the experiment involves participants attempting to solve a difficult puzzle
- The study concludes that if participants had to resist something difficult, like cookies, they would have less willpower to solve the puzzle compared to those who had to resist something easier, like radishes
- The researchers hypothesize that glucose availability in the brain may be the limited resource that affects willpower
- Further experiments show that participants who consumed a glucose beverage between tasks maintained or increased their levels of willpower compared to those who did not consume glucose.

- The study aimed to bridge the psychological construct of tenacity and willpower with a physiological variable, glucose availability in the brain.
- The initial findings suggested that keeping glucose levels elevated or stable throughout the day could increase willpower and tenacity.
- However, subsequent studies attempted to replicate these findings and raised controversy over the interpretation of the results.
- A study by Dr. Carol Dweck found that ingesting glucose can improve performance on challenging tasks, but the degree of improvement depends on whether individuals believe willpower is a limited resource and whether glucose is the source of willpower.
- Beliefs about willpower determine the impact of glucose on self-control.
- Baumeister conducted subsequent experiments that counter the results of Dweck's study.

- Baumeister's experiments counter Dweck's results on willpower
- There are multiple camps of thought and experimentation on tenacity and willpower
- Meta-analyses have both confirmed and refuted Baumeister's findings
- Baumeister found that glucose availability during multiple challenges maintained willpower
- Tenacity and willpower have a unified source in the anterior mid-cingulate cortex
- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex is highly subject to plasticity
- There is evidence from multiple studies supporting the role of the anterior mid-cingulate cortex in tenacity and willpower.

- The size of a brain area can be assessed before and after learning a new skill, such as playing a musical instrument, to determine its involvement in the learning process.
- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex receives input from various brain areas, including the autonomic nervous system, reward systems, and context-setting areas.
- Studies have shown that the anterior mid-cingulate cortex shows elevated activity during difficult tasks and in individuals with high academic performance.
- Lesions or disruptions of the anterior mid-cingulate cortex are associated with increased apathy and depression, and reduced levels of tenacity and motivation.
- Successful dieters and individuals with high willpower show elevated activity in the anterior mid-cingulate cortex, while individuals who lack willpower or have eating disorders show diminished activity.
- Super-agers, who maintain youthful levels of cognition, have a larger anterior mid-cingulate cortex volume compared to their age-matched peers.
- Willpower can be categorized as either "I will" or "I won't," and the anterior mid-cingulate cortex is likely involved in generating both expressions of willpower.
- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex operates on a graded scale rather than a simple on/off switch for willpower.
- Understanding the role of the anterior mid-cingulate cortex in generating tenacity and willpower is important for various contexts in life.

- The Huberman Lab Podcast discusses science and tools for everyday life.
- This episode focuses on building tenacity and willpower.
- Tenacity is the ability to persist under pressure, while willpower involves motivation and resistance.
- The podcast explores the psychology and neuroscience of tenacity and willpower.
- The episode is sponsored by Maui Nui Venison and Helix Sleep.
- Tenacity and willpower require effort and energy.
- The podcast will provide research-supported tools for enhancing tenacity and willpower.
- The relationship between motivation, tenacity, willpower, apathy, and depression is discussed.
- The concept of ego depletion and the controversy surrounding it is mentioned.
- Tools and protocols for increasing tenacity and willpower are introduced.
- The autonomic nervous system plays a crucial role in generating tenacity and willpower.
- Sleep, stress levels, and glucose availability affect our ability to access tenacity and willpower.
- Baumeister's research suggests that willpower is a limited resource, but there are conflicting studies.
- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex is involved in tenacity and willpower.
- Lesions or disruptions in this brain area are associated with decreased tenacity and motivation.
- Successful dieters and super-agers have elevated activity in the anterior mid-cingulate cortex.
- Understanding the role of this brain area is important for various contexts in life.

- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex plays a role in tenacity and willpower.
- It receives and sends information to various brain areas and systems, including autonomic centers, immune system, endocrine system, and reward pathways.
- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex is linked to the perception of internal and external sensations.
- Studies have shown that stimulation of the anterior mid-cingulate cortex induces feelings of pressure and the need to resist or push through challenges.
- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex is a major seat for tenacity and motivation.

- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex is a hub that receives information from different brain areas and generates a sense of tenacity and willpower.
- It plays a role in allocating resources to different brain areas based on motivational goals and challenges.
- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex is involved in controlling energy consumption and activation levels in the brain and body.
- It is activated when we move our bodies and when we experience resistance in tasks.
- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex can be built up through engaging in challenging behaviors and resisting temptations.
- Building up the anterior mid-cingulate cortex's capacity for tenacity and willpower carries over to other aspects of life.

- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex is important for generating tenacity and willpower in the brain.
- A study showed that moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise can increase the volume of the anterior mid-cingulate cortex and the size of the anterior white matter tracts.
- The study involved individuals aged 60-79 who did cardiovascular exercise for 1 hour, 3 times per week, while another group did calisthenics and stretching.
- Compliance with the exercise was high, with 85% of participants completing the sessions over a 6-month period.
- The study suggests that engaging in cardiovascular exercise can improve tenacity and willpower by allocating resources and engaging in the activity.
- It is important to engage in some form of physical exercise to increase tenacity and willpower.
- Adding 3 hours of cardio may not be necessary, but engaging in exercise that is not already being done can be beneficial.

- Engaging in activities that are already easy for you will not increase your level of tenacity and willpower.
- The study showed that cardiovascular training increased the volume of the anterior mid-cingulate cortex, which is associated with tenacity and willpower.
- Activities that are easier to carry out, like calisthenics and stretching, did not create changes in this brain structure.
- To increase tenacity and willpower, you need to engage in something that is challenging and that you don't want to do.
- Engaging in hard tasks or challenges activates the anterior mid-cingulate cortex, while easy tasks or reflexive habits do not.
- Adding "micro sucks" or activities that require effort and resistance can help build tenacity and willpower.
- It is important to pick activities that are safe and do not cause harm.
- The goal is to engage in behaviors that you least want to do in order to build up willpower and tenacity.

- Building up willpower and tenacity involves suppressing certain behaviors
- However, it is important to avoid going to extremes and harming ourselves psychologically, emotionally, or physically
- It is important to activate tenacity and willpower voluntarily, but also learn how to turn it off when necessary
- Engaging in challenging activities and seeking out uncomfortable environments can help build tenacity and willpower
- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex plays a role in allocating resources for motivation and willpower
- Building up tenacity and willpower is possible and can be reinforced through a closed loop process
- Stress relief and rewarding oneself for getting through stressful situations can increase capacity for tenacity and willpower in the future.

- Developing tools and protocols to increase tenacity and willpower is beneficial as we age
- Overcoming challenges and resisting behaviors can strengthen tenacity and willpower
- Occasionally rewarding oneself after demonstrating tenacity and willpower can reinforce the behavior
- Taking care of autonomic functions is important for maintaining tenacity and willpower
- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex is a key brain structure involved in generating tenacity and willpower
- Engaging in challenging activities, such as exercise or learning, can strengthen the anterior mid-cingulate cortex
- Building tenacity and willpower should be done safely and in a healthy manner
- Tenacity and willpower can enhance enjoyment of life and potentially extend lifespan
- Support the podcast by subscribing, leaving reviews, and checking out the sponsors
- Supplements may be beneficial for improving sleep, hormone support, and focus
- Follow Huberman Lab on social media for science-related content
- Subscribe to the Neural Network newsletter for podcast summaries and toolkits
- Thank you for your interest in science.

- The anterior mid-cingulate cortex is involved in tenacity and willpower.
- It receives and sends information to various brain areas and systems.
- Stimulation of the anterior mid-cingulate cortex induces feelings of pressure and the need to resist challenges.
- It plays a role in allocating resources and controlling energy consumption.
- Engaging in challenging activities, such as exercise, can strengthen the anterior mid-cingulate cortex and improve tenacity and willpower.

In this episode, I discuss neuroscience and psychology studies that address the basis of willpower and tenacity, how they differ from motivation and how we can all increase our levels of willpower and tenacity. I discuss whether willpower is a limited resource, the controversial “ego depletion” theory of willpower and the role that beliefs play in determining our tenacity and willpower. Then I discuss the neural basis of willpower in the brain and body and how tenacity and willpower relate to sleep, stress, focus and possibly to lifespan. Then, I provide a series of science-supported tools and protocols to increase your level of tenacity and willpower.

#HubermanLab #Science #Willpower

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Articles
Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource?: https://bit.ly/3LTqnVY
Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: Willpower is more than a metaphor: https://bit.ly/46Gs15n
Beliefs about willpower determine the impact of glucose on self-control: https://bit.ly/3Fa9Au6
The tenacious brain: How the anterior mid-cingulate contributes to achieving goals: https://bit.ly/48LnGzJ
The Will to Persevere Induced by Electrical Stimulation of the Human Cingulate Gyrus: https://bit.ly/3tift5M
Aerobic Exercise Training Increases Brain Volume in Aging Humans: https://bit.ly/45nmM9F
Stress relief as a natural resilience mechanism against depression-like behaviors: https://bit.ly/46AVhuc
The Good, the Bad, and the Irrelevant: Neural Mechanisms of Learning Real and Hypothetical Rewards and Effort: https://bit.ly/46mqWA6

Other Resources
Dr. Roy Baumeister: https://roybaumeister.com 
Dr. Carol Dweck: https://profiles.stanford.edu/carol-dweck 
Dr. Lisa Feldman Barret: https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com 
Sleep Toolkit: Tools for Optimizing Sleep & Sleep-Wake Timing (Huberman Lab episode): https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/sleep-toolkit-tools-for-optimizing-sleep-and-sleep-wake-timing 
Toolkit for Sleep (Huberman Lab Neural Network newsletter): https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/toolkit-for-sleep 
Dr. Matthew Walker: The Science & Practice of Perfecting Your Sleep (Huberman Lab episode): https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/dr-matthew-walker-the-science-and-practice-of-perfecting-your-sleep 
Healthy Eating & Eating Disorders - Anorexia, Bulimia, Binging (Huberman Lab episode): https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/healthy-eating-and-eating-disorders-anorexia-bulimia-binging 
Dr. Robert Sapolsky: Science of Stress, Testosterone & Free Will (Huberman Lab episode): https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/dr-robert-sapolsky-science-of-stress-testosterone-and-free-will 
Fitness Toolkit: Protocol & Tools to Optimize Physical Health (Huberman Lab episode): https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/fitness-toolkit-protocol-and-tools-to-optimize-physical-health

Timestamps
00:00:00 Tenacity & Willpower
00:01:19 Sponsors: Maui Nui & Helix Sleep
00:03:49 Tenacity & Willpower vs. Habit Execution; Apathy, Depression & Motivation 
00:10:40 Ego Depletion & Willpower as a Limited Resource; Controversy 
00:19:14 Tool: Autonomic Function, Tenacity & Willpower; Sleep & Stress 
00:28:02 Sponsor: AG1
00:28:58 Willpower as a Limited Resource (Theory)
00:35:36 Willpower & Glucose, Brain Energetics
00:42:44 Beliefs about Willpower & Glucose; Multiple Challenges
00:52:43 Sponsor: LMNT
00:54:01 Willpower Brain ‘Hub’; Anorexia Nervosa, Super-Agers
01:07:15 Anterior Midcingulate Cortex & Brain/Body Communication 
01:14:54 Allostasis, Anterior Midcingulate Cortex Function
01:25:19 Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex (aMCC), Difficult Tasks & Neuroplasticity
01:29:30 Tool: Novel Physical Exercise & Brain; Cognitive Exercise
01:43:43 Tool: “Micro-sucks”, Increase Tenacity/Willpower
01:50:58 Impossible Tasks, Super-Agers & Learning, Will to Live
01:57:23 Tool: Rewards & Improving Tenacity/Willpower
02:01:07 Tenacity & Willpower Recap
02:05:55 Zero-Cost Support, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, YouTube Feedback, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter

Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac - https://www.blabacphoto.com

Disclaimer: https://www.hubermanlab.com/disclaimer

the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.

a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.

Today, we are discussing how to build tenacity and willpower.

Previous episodes of the Huberman Lab Podcast have focused on the topic of motivation.

And while motivation and willpower are linked thematically and mechanistically, today we are going to discuss tenacity, that is the willingness to persist under pressure and resistance of different kinds and willpower, which has to do with both the motivation to do things and the motivation to resist certain things.

Today, you will learn about the psychology and neuroscience of tenacity and willpower.

And I must tell you, this is a fascinating literature.

In fact, you will learn about a brain structure that at least to my knowledge, most neuroscientists are not even aware of.

And yet in researching this episode, I absolutely fell in love with this brain structure because of its incredible ability to integrate the very sorts of information from within and from outside of you to harness and build tenacity and willpower.

And indeed, today you will learn research supported tools for how to enhance your level of tenacity and willpower in any circumstance.

Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford.

It is however, part of my desire and effort to bring 0 cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public.

In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast.

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Okay, let's talk about tenacity and willpower and how to enhance your level of tenacity and willpower.

I will also mention certain cases where having too much tenacity and willpower can be problematic for mental health and physical health.

But for most people, I believe that enhancing one's level of tenacity and willpower would be advantageous.

Now you'll be relieved to know that while there are a near infinite number of different circumstances where 1 would need to draw on tenacity and willpower in order to succeed, there is 1 major mechanism within the brain, indeed, 1 major mechanism by which tenacity and willpower are generated.

And it arrives through the activation of a particular brain center that is a hub.

That is, it lies at the interface of many other neural circuits and has input from all the critical neural circuits that 1 would need in order to generate tenacity and willpower.

Now, we are going to return to that particular neural circuit a little bit later after we talk about the psychology of willpower, because in talking about the psychology of willpower, it will frame up as to why understanding this 1 particular brain center or hub of inputs and outputs from different neural structures in the brain and body will indeed allow you to get the most out of the tools that have been shown in scientific research to enhance your level of tenacity and willpower.

In other words, understanding the psychology of tenacity and willpower, while valuable, if it's coupled with an understanding of the underlying Neural mechanism, and notice I use the singular, neural mechanism, not mechanisms, for generating tenacity and willpower, will allow you to use and to tailor the specific protocols for enhancing tenacity and willpower to your unique circumstances.

So this is yet another case where certainly life circumstances vary from 1 person to the next.

The need for tenacity and willpower varies tremendously.

For instance, some people may need more tenacity and willpower in order to engage in certain behaviors.

Others of us might need more tenacity and willpower in order to resist certain types of behaviors.

Today, you will learn about the brain center that governs all of that.

And then you can frame it within the psychological understanding of tenacity and willpower so that you can get the most out of the protocols that we will discuss.

Let's start by talking about what tenacity and willpower clearly are, and separating tenacity and willpower from some other psychological constructs that they often get confused with.

Because this will be important in understanding exactly what we are trying to build when we say we want to build tenacity and willpower.

So tenacity and willpower can be distinguished from habit execution.

Habit execution is what you do anytime you wake up in the morning, maybe you lie there for a bit, maybe you get out of bed immediately, hopefully you get outside and get some sunlight in your eyes, especially on cloudy days, go brush your teeth, use the restroom, engage with others in your home if you live with others, et cetera.

All of those sorts of behaviors, while on some days can be a bit more challenging, especially the get out of bed part.

Maybe you didn't get a great night's sleep the night before, for instance.

But all of those sorts of behaviors are behaviors that you have the neural circuits to generate.

And that typically you can generate without a lot of willpower required.

Now, willpower, sometimes also referred to as tenacity, grit, or persistence, is a distinctly different phenomenon than habit execution.

Because willpower and tenacity require that we intervene in our own default neural processes, such as habits or particular patterns of thinking, and essentially govern ourselves to do or not do some particular thing.

And I think all of us are familiar with that feeling of effort or energy that's required in order to engage in a behavior that we really don't feel like engaging in or avoiding a behavior or a thought that by default, we would naturally just engage in.

And when I talk about energy in this context, I'm mainly talking about neural energy.

Remember that neurons, nerve cells in your brain and body use chemical and electrical signaling to communicate with 1 another.

That's what allows you and all of us to do all the things that we do, think, feel, move, et cetera.

Now, Of course, that chemical and electrical communication requires fuel sources that indeed come from things like glucose, ketones, the creatine phosphate system, multiple fuel systems feed the energetics of the brain.

But ultimately, when I talk about energy in today's discussion, I'm talking about the energy required to engage in or to resist in a particular behavior.

And that level of energy can be quite high, depending on how much resistance we are feeling internally or externally, right?

Somebody can be telling us, you're not going to be able to do this.

And you can say, no, I have a ton of resolve.

I have a ton of tenacity, willpower, and I'm going to push past all the barriers that you are setting up for me on the outside.

Oftentimes, all too often, I should say, we experience resistance from the inside where we are feeling like we don't want to do something or we really want to do something and we are having trouble either engaging in the thing that we don't want to do or that we know we should do, but we just don't feel that level of motivation for, or we are having a hard time resisting the thing that's pulling us toward it.

So in that context, it's important for us not to just distinguish tenacity and willpower from habit execution, but also draw out a continuum with tenacity and willpower at their most extreme on 1 end of that continuum and apathy and yes, depression on the other end of that continuum.

And we will return to the topic of depression a little bit later, but I can just cue it up right now by saying that 1 of the hallmark features of major depression is a lack of positive anticipation about the future that leads to, this is important, there's a verb tense here, that leads to a much lower tendency to engage in the specific types of behavior that would allow 1 to arrive at a particular new, different, and positive future.

So I'm deliberately putting apathy and depression next to 1 another at 1 end of the continuum, and I'm putting grit, persistence, tenacity, and willpower at the other end of the continuum.

And a little bit later, it will become very clear to you why I put those particular items on the continuum as opposed to other psychological constructs such as motivation.

Because it turns out that motivation is what allows you to move up and down that continuum.

But motivation itself as a verb is distinct from what we call tenacity and willpower.

And motivation itself is distinct from what we call tenacity and willpower.

And motivation itself is distinct from what we call apathy and depression.

But motivation is the engine or the motor, the verb that allows you to move up and down that continuum.

And today you will learn multiple tools that will allow you to move toward the tenacity and willpower end of that continuum by engaging a very specific neural circuit.

Before we get into the discussion of neural circuits, I'd like to talk about the psychology of willpower.

And this is something that really has been considered by psychologists for well over a hundred years.

The topic of willpower is certainly not a new 1.

And yet the formal study of willpower in the laboratory context, that is bringing human subjects into the laboratory and examining what sorts of conditions allow them to engage their willpower and tenacity.

What sorts of conditions really sap or drain their willpower and tenacity.

And of course, parallel experiments done in what we call preclinical models, which are animal studies, have revealed to us a lot about the sorts of conditions that allow us to generate willpower and the sorts of conditions that drain our willpower.

Now, if we are to throw our arms around that entire literature, there is a big batch of that literature, not the whole batch, but there's a big batch of that literature that believed and still believes that willpower is a limited resource, much like fuel in the body or fuel in a car.

Now, the idea of willpower as a limited resource is certainly not a new idea, but again, the formal study of willpower and willpower as a limited resource really dates back a little over 20, 25 years when Roy Baumeister and colleagues started to explore the idea that of course had been kicked around for years, that with each additional decision that we have to engage across the day and with each additional bout of willpower that we have to draw on as a resource, that we would drain this reservoir of willpower that we all have within us.

Now, Baumeister and colleagues referred to that process as ego depletion.

Now, when people hear the word ego, some people think Freud, ego, super ego, id and so forth.

Most people think ego, like somebody having a big personality where they think a lot of themselves.

When Baumeister referred to ego depletion, he was defining ego depletion as a concept of oneself and a concept of outside challenges and the degree of effort required to bridge one's concept of self and those challenges.

And so ego depletion is really a operational construct within the field of psychology.

So we don't wanna get too distracted by that word ego.

There's a tendency anytime people hear ego, if they hear narcissism, or if they hear gaslighting, to immediately assume that they know what that means, when in fact, the formal definitions of those quite often differ from the way that they're kicked around on social media, the internet, and even in a lot of popular writing about psychology.

Okay, so let's just note that ego depletion is the term that Baumeister used to describe the ability for our willpower to be depleted with each successive attempt to engage willpower and by extension, our ability to replenish our degree of willpower if we take a break from making decisions and engaging our willpower.

But ego depletion itself isn't the focus right now.

The focus right now is whether or not indeed willpower is a limited resource and whether or not with each decision that we make and each effort to either engage in an activity that we prefer not to, at least in that moment, and with each attempt to resist a behavior, thought, et cetera that is pulling on us or that we feel that we want to engage in by default, either eating the cookie or thinking the thought or engaging in a particular type of behavior of any kind, and we need to resist that, that it is draining that willpower resource.

Now, before I go any further, I know that some of you out there are probably aware that ego depletion and the Baumeister theory of willpower as a limited resource has been very contentious especially in recent years.

And so today what I'm going to do is I'm going to first present the Baumeister and colleagues work about willpower as a limited resource.

And then I'm going to present some of the conflicting evidence that Carol Dweck, my colleague at Stanford School of Medicine and researchers elsewhere have carried out meta-analyses and entirely new experiments, which indeed in some cases contradict the findings of Baumeister, but more often than not, contradict the conclusions that Baumeister drew about willpower.

So if we are to understand the psychology of willpower and tenacity, it's important that we understand the concepts of ego depletion and willpower as a limited resource, even if after hearing all the evidence, you decide that willpower is not a limited resource.

And in fact, I'm quite confident that once you hear about the Baumeister work and then you hear about the work of Dweck and others, which in some ways counters the conclusions of Baumeister, that you'll have a much firmer and certainly a much more complete understanding about what tenacity and willpower are.

And perhaps, and here I'm revealing my own leanings when having examined the totality of the data, that tenacity and willpower in some cases is a limited resource that can be replenished by engaging particular processes within the body.

That's right, within the body, but that willpower and tenacity, and most importantly, how to engage tenacity and willpower, especially when you have a lot of challenges in front of you, not just 1 challenge, but multiple challenges that need to be carried out throughout the day, over weeks, over months, et cetera, that tenacity and willpower can be drawn upon repeatedly without them being depleted if you are clear on your beliefs about tenacity and willpower.

So I realized that what I just brought up was a controversy about something that I haven't even discussed yet.

So it might seem like a bit of a swirl of information for which there's really no context.

But the reason I bring up the controversy at this stage of our conversation is that the moment that the words ego depletion or willpower is a limited resource falls out of my mouth, I can hear those voices out there saying, wait a second, I thought that was all debunked.

And I want to make very clear, willpower is a limited resource and ego depletion have not been debunked.

It's simply a controversial area of psychological research.

And more importantly for today's discussion, we have to understand the theory of willpower as a limited resource.

If we are to understand the controversy, that is the counter argument of what willpower really is that comes from other groups.

So I really wanna give you both sides of the story so that when we get to the underlying neural mechanisms for tenacity and willpower, and we get to the tools and protocols for increasing your level of tenacity and willpower and your flexibility of willpower in different contexts, that you'll be able to get the most out of those tools and protocols.

Okay, so let's take a look at the evidence that willpower is a limited resource.

I think most of us are familiar with what willpower feels like.

That is, what it feels like to be tenacious.

And again, there are 2 sides to this coin.

There's willpower and tenacity of the sort of trying to engage in a behavior when we really don't want to, or when our impulse is not to engage in that behavior.

And I say when our Impulse is not to engage in that behavior because oftentimes we want to engage in the behavior.

We want to study, we want to learn the instrument, we want to perform well, we want to exercise, we want the benefits of all those things.

So it's not that we don't want the outcomes or the rewards of those things.

And in many cases, it's not that we don't enjoy those activities, but that for whatever reason, we are feeling a lack of motivation.

We're drifting down that continuum toward the more apathetic end of things.

Hopefully not all the way to deep depression and apathy, but we're drifting that way, or we're not far enough up the continuum, and we're not engaging enough motivation to feel like the desire to do something, either for its own sake or for the rewards and outcomes of that thing, are sufficient to allow us to just do that thing.

Hence the Nike slogan, just do it, which is a wonderful slogan, except that in the absence of any understanding about the mechanisms of how we can get ourselves to just do something, oftentimes it falls short.

And to be honest, anytime I hear about people saying, well, just eliminate the thinking and just do it.

That is valuable advice until it doesn't work because when it doesn't work, it simply doesn't work.

And then you need to rely on other tools and mechanisms which are the sort that we will talk about today.

So while I have great respect for the just do it mantra, when it doesn't work, it doesn't offer any alternative solutions to engage tenacity and willpower.

And I do not know anyone on this planet, I don't care if you're David Goggins or Courtney Dewalter, there will be days when telling yourself, just do this or just don't do that is not going to be sufficient for you to engage in the behaviors or resist the behaviors or thoughts that you need to engage in or resist.

And we should ask ourselves, why is that reality?

And in fact, really illustrates the first bucket of tools and protocols for increasing tenacity and willpower.

And these are the tools and protocols that I would categorize under the rubric of modulators.

I've talked before on this podcast about the important distinction between mediators and modulators.

Mediators are things, either psychological or biological, et cetera, that are directly in the mechanisms that generate some sort of action or emotion.

This could be neurochemicals like dopamine or serotonin and so on.

Modulators are things that can modulate, that is can change our probability of doing something or not doing something, but they do so indirectly.

And in the context of tools and protocols to increase our level of tenacity and willpower, I would be completely remiss if 1 of the sets of tools, that is the protocols for increasing the probability that we can access high levels of tenacity and willpower didn't include at least some of these modulators.

So I'm just going to spend about 3 minutes on these modulators, because what we know for certain is that the regions of the brain that generate tenacity, and again, there is literally a brain hub for generating willpower and tenacity, gets strong input from the so-called autonomic nervous system.

The autonomic nervous system has 2 major components.

They are referred to as the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.

Keep in mind, because when most people hear the word sympathetic, they think sympathy, they think emotion, it has nothing to do with that.

Sympa means together, And the sympathetic arm of the autonomic nervous system, I know that's a mouthful, is responsible for generating states of alertness in our brain and body.

Everything from panic to being alert and calm, our tendency to move or our likelihood of moving under pressure.

It is also responsible for our ability to resist movement when we need to resist movement and therefore it's an active process.

So the sympathetic nervous system is all the things of action.

And when it is involved in generating inaction, those are cases where inaction requires energy, okay?

The sympathetic nervous system isn't just about moving our body, although it has a lot to do with that, it is also responsible for our ability to resist movement or thought or emotion when we need to do that, clamp down on ourselves.

The parasympathetic aspect of our autonomic nervous system is the 1 that's sometimes referred to as the rest and digest neural circuits and chemicals.

And that's true, but there's a lot more to the parasympathetic component of the autonomic nervous system.

It's also responsible for falling asleep.

It is responsible for most of the states of mind and body in which we are quiescent, where we don't feel an impulse to move, or when we have a difficult time getting into action.

So the sympathetic and the parasympathetic aspect of the autonomic nervous system are always in a push pull with 1 another.

Think of them more or less on a teeter totter.

When 1 end goes up, the other end goes down.

They're really in competition with 1 another and it's their balance that reflects how alert or how sleepy we happen to be.

Now, the reason I'm giving you this rather geeky, nerd speak, nomenclature filled discussion about the autonomic nervous system in the context of willpower is that regardless of whether or not you believe willpower is a limited or an unlimited resource, we know 1 thing for sure.

And that's that willpower and tenacity ride on our current autonomic function.

We can translate that to everyday language by saying that when we are well-rested, for instance, when we've been getting great sleep of sufficient duration the previous night and the night before that, our level of tenacity and willpower to engage in things that we would not ordinarily engage in by default, and our ability to resist behaviors and thought patterns that would otherwise be our default behaviors and thought patterns is much higher.

Conversely, when we are not getting enough quality sleep on a regular basis, our ability to call on tenacity and willpower is diminished.

Now that series of statements I just made is clearly going to be a duh for most people, but it is very important to understand that when we are sleep deprived, when we are in physical pain, when we are in emotional pain, and or when we are distracted, when we are thinking about something else, aside from what we are trying to engage tenacity and willpower in order to do or not do, tenacity and willpower will be diminished.

Now, all of those things together are just a bigger duh.

If you got a splinter in your foot, it's really hard to think about not thinking about something else.

If you are extremely hungry, or if you had an argument with somebody that you really care about, and they said something that was particularly vexing to you, and it's looping around in your head, It's going to be very hard to engage in something else that you need to do because you're going to be distracted.

Likewise, if you're sleep deprived, likewise, if you are a bit sick or run down, or if you're in any kind of physical or emotional pain, your ability to draw on tenacity and willpower will be diminished.

So it's an absolute truth that your ability to generate tenacity and willpower rides on a reservoir of autonomic function.

And today we don't really have a way of quantifying the level of autonomic function or dysfunction in a very simple way.

It's not like resting heart rate, although resting heart rate is involved.

For instance, if you haven't slept well for a few nights or if you're particularly stressed, over-trained, you'll wake up in the morning with a significantly elevated heart rate.

However, there is no simple metric like heart rate or blood pressure, or even cortisol level that can tell you whether or not your autonomic function is in balance.

That is the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems of your autonomic nervous system are in the best possible balance to generate tenacity and willpower.

We don't yet have such a metric, although there are companies that are starting to develop devices that hopefully will give us indices of autonomic function or dysfunction.

But it is important that we acknowledge that if you're not taking care of the foundational modulators of tenacity and willpower, none of the subsequent tools and protocols that we will discuss are going to help you that much over time.

You might get tenacity and willpower to engage 1 day when you're very sleep deprived, but it's going to be very difficult to consistently engage tenacity and willpower.

For that reason, if you have any struggles with sleep, that is getting enough quality sleep on a regular basis, please see the 0 cost toolkit for sleep that we've put at hubermanlab.com.

Please also see the perfect your sleep, master your sleep episodes also at hubermanlab.com.

And please also see the episode with expert guest, Dr.

Matthew Walker, professor of sleep neuroscience and psychology at University of California, Berkeley.

We just revamped the Huberman Lab website.

So if you go to hubermanlab.com and you put something like sleep into the search function, it will take you not just to the toolkit for sleep, but to the exact timestamps that will queue up particular topics and protocols around sleep.

So if you were to put sleep and light, it would take you to those particular protocols.

If you were to put sleep and magnesium 3 and 8, it would take you to those particular protocols and so on and so forth.

Hey, I don't wanna get too far off topic here during today's discussion, but if you're not sleeping well, and if you're not managing your stress levels well, it's going to be much harder for you to engage tenacity and willpower, regardless of the tools you happen to use.

And those tools could be everything from behavioral tools to supplements, to prescription drugs.

You need to get those foundational modulators in check.

And there are a lot of 0 cost ways to do that, that are all spelled out very clearly at the resources I just described.

See all Andrew Huberman transcripts on Youtube

How to Increase Your Willpower & Tenacity | Huberman Lab Podcast