Opinion: Willpower doesn’t work. This does.

Successful people rarely rely on inner fortitude to resist temptations.
From The Times
January 13, 2026

As a psychologist who studies how people achieve their goals, Angela Duckworth sees data showing that willpower is overrated, she writes in Times Opinion. Instead, arranging our lives to minimize the need for willpower in the first place can lead to success.

An illustration of a man lying on his back, reading papers, with his leg vertical against a brick wall.

Andrey Kasay

Opinion

Read the essay. →

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