"Most people don't think they "could" cure Alzheimers by snapping  their fingers, and so they don't feel terrible about failing to do this. By contrast, people who fail to resist overeating, or who fail to  stop playing Civilization at a reasonable hour, feel strongly that they  "could have" resisted, and take this as a license to feel terrible about  their decisions. As I said last week, most people have broken "coulds.  Willpower is scarce in this world. Sometimes, you can will yourself  out of a mental rut you're in, but only rarely; more often, sheer force  of will alone is not sufficient. If your plan to stop staying up too  late playing Civilization is "well I'll just force myself harder next  time," then this plan is doomed to failure. If it didn't work last time,  it likely won't work next time. Willpower is a stopgap, not a remedy." -------- Original post: http://mindingourway.com/where-coulds-go/ Find Nate Soares at http://mindingourway.com Find Gianluca Truda at http://gianlucatruda.com Replacing Guilt is written by Nate Soares and produced, with permission, by Gianluca Truda. The theme music is a remix of Algorithms by Chad Crouch.