My challenge of willpower is that I want to step out of my comfort zone. Staying in my comfort zone deprived me of many opportunities that could have provided me with a good experience. So I want to change that. I want to be able to have the willpower to say yes when an opportunity presents itself. To motivate and get excited about my willpower challenge, I made a list of opportunities that are outside of my comfort zone. The part of the brain I use is the prefrontal cortex, located just behind the forehead. The prefrontal cortex is divided into three regions: the, I want, I don't want and I want. I Want is located on the left side of the brain. The I Won't is located on the right side of the brain. The I will is located in the middle region of the prefrontal cortex, which is the area of ​​the brain that I will use to complete my will challenge. Kelly McGonigal states that the I want part of the brain is responsible for "Keeping track of your goals and desires; it motivates you to take action and resist temptation even when your brain is screaming, "Eat this! »Drink this! Smoke this! Buy this! Or in my case, my brain will scream “Don’t take the risk!” » I want to be able to resist this temptation and take my chances. I have never attempted this challenge before, it has crossed my mind many times but I have never acted on it until now. As I have never attempted this challenge, I cannot say exactly what challenges I will face, but I can predict them. I think the hardest part of changing this behavior is the unhealthy habit I use to get out of situations that force me out of my comfort zone. This habit is an excuse, my popular excuse is to tell myself that I have a school project to work on. I'm not lying, I end up doing the project, however, the project isn't due for another three weeks. I have this compulsion to put school before everything else, including my personal life and most likely my challenge of willpower. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay I will know I have succeeded in my willpower challenge when I am able to prepare two meals a week for my family. Cooking for people is the main thing I'm most uncomfortable with. If someone puts ingredients in front of me, I immediately tense up and think about how I can make a colossal mess with those ingredients. I want to be able to overcome the feeling of uneasiness and just cook a meal. To help me overcome my willpower challenge, I will apply strategies and concepts that I learned in psychology class. I will use meditation as one of my strategies to help me get through stressful situations. Moral license is a concept I have been sensitive to. This means that when I do something good, I give myself permission to cheat on my willpower challenge. I make decision after decision every day. Making all these decisions can exhaust the brain. When I'm tired, the last thing I want to do is make even more complicated decisions. When I fail at something, I get stressed and feel extremely guilty. The guilt eats away at me, and then I make the exact same mistake again. This is called the What-the-Hell effect. The good news is that there is a way out of this cycle. Meditation has become a very popular strategy for relieving stress. This is the practice of deep breathing. Meditation helps you become aware of your body, mind and feelings. A research study compared two groups of people, with the first group consisting of experienced meditators or practicing meditation. The second groupwas made up of people who did not practice meditation. Each participant received an MPRAGE. Through MPRAGE treatment, they found that group one, who regularly practiced meditation, had increased subsection thickness of cortical regions related to somatosensory, auditory, visual, and interceptive processing. This means that they actually slow the age-related thinning of the frontal cortex” (Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness 2005). Participants in the first group aged forty to fifty had the thickness of the prefrontal cortex of a twenty to thirty year old. Meditation experience has also proven that regular meditation practice will gradually help you become more aware of your body and handle stressful situations better. Since I am anxious and going out of my comfort zone is a very stressful situation. I will practice meditation every morning before going to school. Mediation will help me keep a clear and calm mind throughout the day. So when an opportunity presents itself for me to step out of my comfort zone, I won't panic or make an excuse. Some people say it's okay to cheat once in a while, but cheating once in a while won't kill you. It’s true that this may not be the case, but it creates unhealthy habits and behaviors. When people have done a good deed, they feel good, their self-esteem is boosted, and they feel really good about themselves. However, people might use this good action to do something bad, according to the psychologist, this is called moral license. In my case, staying in my comfort zone is the moral permission I give myself when I think I have taken enough opportunities in a week or weekend to step out of my comfort zone. Two psychologists Monin and Miller were testing the theory on stereotypes and decision making. Students were given two sets of statements, their job was to indicate whether they agreed or disagreed with these statements. A series of surveys stated that "most women are not really intelligent, and most women are better off staying home and taking care of children." » The students rejected these sexist remarks. They received another survey that indicated that some women aren't really smart and others are better off staying home and taking care of the kids. All the students were neutral on the subject. Next, they were asked to make a hypothetical decision regarding a hiring situation, with both male and female applicants. You would think that students wouldn't be sexist when making a decision after rejecting the very first survey. It turns out that students who strongly disagreed with the gender-biased survey were more likely to hire a man than a woman. This shows that "students who rejected the sexist statement felt they had established their moral credentials, proving they were not sexist but leaving them vulnerable to moral licensing." That is, they let themselves off the hook by saying: "you've shown that you're not sexist, they wouldn't notice if you hired male candidates, as long as you interviewed the women by giving them a fair chance. When I took the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone, and another opportunity presents itself. There are times when I tell myself, “You’ve done enough for today, treat yourself and stay in your comfort zone for the rest of the day.” » However, this type of thinking is more harmful than helpful. Allow myself to think that myreward for stepping out of my comfort zone is staying in my comfort zone will make me forget what my real goal is. I keep track of the number of times I stepped out of my comfort zone during the week. I find that when I do this, I am essentially giving myself permission to avoid any further opportunities to step out of my comfort zone. I need to stop thinking like that, I need to remember why I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone and how each opportunity brings me even closer to successfully completing my willpower challenge. Remembering this will change the way I view my so-called reward for staying in my comfort zone. Hoping that eventually, I will see the comfort zone as a threat rather than an asset. It's not just your muscles that get exhausted, your brain too! Decision fatigue is when your mind gets tired after making so many decisions. You can relate it to exercise, your body gets so tired after a while that you can't do that last push. The New York Times published an interesting article on the judge's dilemma. Showing the effects of decision fatigue related to parole decisions. Four men were convicted that day, but only two of them were granted parole. The two men who were granted parole saw the judge at 8:50 a.m. and the other man saw the judge at 1:27 p.m. The other two men who were not granted parole, saw the judge at 3 p.m. and the other man saw the judge at 4:25 p.m. Research shows that "70% of inmates who see the judge in the morning are more likely to be paroled than those who see the judge later in the morning." the day.” The judge had to make some pretty important decisions throughout the day. Decision fatigue seemed to set in later in the day, between 3:10 p.m. and 4:25 p.m. The judge was mentally exhausted and decided not to make any major decisions. He decided to take the safer route and did not grant any parole to the last two prisoners. This applies to my challenge as I am a hairdressing student, every day I have to help make decisions for my clients. I have to take into account my clients' hair type, porosity, density, texture, wave pattern, elasticity, length and more to determine if the look my client is going for is achievable. It may not seem like much, but when you have to do this every day, it gets really exhausting. When I arrive at the last client of the day, I am so tempted to take shortcuts so that their appointment goes faster and I can get home. When I get home, facing my willpower challenge is the last thing on my mind. I just want to stay home and surf the internet, watch Netflix, or take a long nap. So, starting from the research on the judge's dilemma and comparing it to my own life. I learned that I should try to do my willpower challenge on the weekends, when I don't have to make a lot of decisions. This way my brain won't be exhausted and my willpower challenge will be my top priority. According to Janet Polivy and C. Peter Herman, “the What-the-hell effect is a cycle of indulgences, regrets, and greater indulgences” (Kelly McGonigal 104). When we feel stressed, guilty and ashamed, we return to the things that make us feel guilty and ashamed. Because our minds tell us that these things will make us feel better. The Willpower Instinct wrote about a research project involving psychologist and addiction researchers from New York University and the University of Pittsburg conducted a study consisting of 144 participants..