Coaching practices for How to Resist Temptation

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Resist 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
• The same urge gets me every time
• 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. 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
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. 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
7. Surf the urge instead of fighting it
   Urges are waves — they rise, peak, and fall without action if you observe rather than fight them.
   The Willpower Instinct: What Self-Control Actually Is
8. 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
9. Remove or modify the cue rather than resist the response
   Eliminating or changing the environmental stimulus is more effective than relying on willpower to resist it.
   Stimulus Control, Made Practical
10. Track your temptation-to-confidence ratio
    Confidence in your ability to resist temptation must outpace the pull of the old behavior.
    The Transtheoretical Model of Change, Made Practical

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