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DEPLETING AND STRENGTHENING SELF-CONTROL Self-control is the ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for longer- term rewards. In studies, this ability has predicted good adjustment, better grades, and so- cial success (Tangney et al., 2004). Students who planned their day’s activities and then lived out their day as planned were also at low risk for depression (Nezlek, 2001). Self-control often fluctuates. Like a muscle, self-control temporarily weakens after an exertion, replenishes with rest, and becomes stronger with exercise (Baumeister & Exline, 2000; Hagger et al., 2010; Vohs & Baumeister, 2011). Exercising willpower temporarily de- pletes the mental energy needed for self-control on other tasks (Gailliott & Baumeister, 2007). In one experiment, hungry people who had resisted the temptation to eat chocolate chip cookies abandoned a tedious task sooner than those who had not resisted the cookies. And after expending willpower on laboratory tasks, such as stifling prejudice or saying the color of words (for example, “red” even if the red-colored word was green), people were less restrained in their aggressive responses to provocation and in their sexuality (DeWall et al., 2007; Gaillot & Baumeister, 2007). Researchers have found that exercising willpower depletes the blood sugar and neural activity associated with mental focus (Inzlicht & Gutsell, 2007). What, then, might be the effect of deliberately boosting people’s blood sugar when self-control is depleted? Giving energy-boosting sugar (in a naturally rather than an artificially sweetened lemonade) had a sweet effect: It strengthened people’s effortful thinking and reduced their financial impul- siveness (Masicampo & Baumeister, 2008; Wang & Dvorak, 2010). Even dogs can experi- ence both self-control depletion on the one hand and rejuvenation with sugar on the other (Miller et al., 2010). In the long run, self-control requires attention and energy. With physical exercise and time-managed study programs, people have strengthened their self-control, as seen in both their performance on laboratory tasks and their improved self-management of eating, drinking, smoking, and household chores (Oaten & Cheng, 2006a,b). The bottom line: We can grow our willpower muscles—our capacity for self-regulation. But doing so requires some (dare I say it?) willpower.