Coaching practices for How to Resist Future Temptation

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Resist Future Temptation, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• When I’m trying to resist something I keep it right in front of me and stare it down, telling myself "just don’t"
• The temptation is right there every single day
• I keep trying to white-knuckle my way past the same temptations sitting right in front of me, losing more often than I win
• In a calm moment I swear I’ll save the raise or skip the splurge, but when the actual moment comes my willpower just isn’t there
• Telling myself to resist a craving forever feels impossible and I give up before I start

Practices that may help

1. Redirect attention away from the reward
   You do not resist the temptation by staring at it — you win by looking elsewhere.
   Delayed Gratification, Made Practical
2. Engineer the temptation out of reach
   Don’t out-wait the temptation — arrange your environment so the choice rarely arises.
   Delayed Gratification, Made Practical
3. Remove temptations from the environment rather than resisting them
   People with good self-control succeed by avoiding temptation, not by resisting it.
   Self-Regulation Failure and Ego Depletion
4. Use precommitment devices to bind your present self to your future self’s preferences
   Commit future behavior before the moment of temptation, because your present self is the weak link.
   Future Self Continuity, Made Practical
5. Buy time with a brief delay
   Commit to waiting just ten minutes before acting on the urge.
   Urge Surfing: Riding the Wave of a Craving
6. Write an if–then plan for your most predictable temptation
   "If I feel the urge to [temptation], then I will [alternative action] instead."
   If–Then Planning, Made Practical
7. Use precommitment devices to lock in future behavior from a patient vantage point
   Remove the option to defect when temptation peaks by committing now, before present bias activates.
   Hyperbolic Discounting — Why Future You Always Gets the Short End
8. Use a precommitment device to lock in future behavior
   Restrict your future self’s choices now, when motivation is high.
   Nudge Theory, Made Practical
9. Reduce the demand on willpower through environment design
   The most reliably self-disciplined people resist temptation less — they encounter it less.
   The Willpower Instinct: What Self-Control Actually Is
10. Arm an if-then plan for the impulsive moment
    Decide in advance exactly what you’ll do when the urge hits, so the impulse meets a plan.
    Delayed Gratification, Made Practical

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