Willpower is a finite resource

I just finished reading a quick Q&A with the author of "Willpower" over at the Freakonomics blog : http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/09/22/the-authors-of-willpower-answer-your-questions/ and one interesting question jumped out for me :

Q.Is willpower a single commodity (so to speak), or is there, as I suspect, a one type of willpower for, say, dieting, another one for academic study, another for this, another for that? -AaronS

A.No, there’s just one single resource (or commodity). There’s one source of mental energy for resisting temptation and performing other acts of self-control, and this willpower is also depleted by making decisions. What you experience may reflect the fact that willpower is limited and so people have to allocate it: they use it at the office to work effectively and diligently, but have messy homes and are short-tempered in the evening. Or people who show wonderful self-control at dealing with personal relationships but can’t seem to meet their deadlines.

This got me thinking about my own situation. As the year went by (and still goes by), i've noticed something rather stunning about my poker habits ; I played about the same volume this year, with literally no other work-related obligations, as I did last year, when I studied full time.

With my current pace, I should finish the year at about 120k VPPs, quite a bit less than I initially planned. Thus, it's time for a little introspection. After all, poker is all about playing the hand we're dealt as best we can, not the hand we wish we had. After two years of data, the conclusion I have to draw is that mass grinding isn't for me.

The good news is that I can still make poker work for me as a great second job, maintaining Supernova with relative ease playing 40-50k hands a month. Even by dropping from 24 to 12-16 tables, this is a pace that's fairly easy for me to maintain. This will free up energy I can dedicate elsewhere in life ; starting in January i'm going back to college and starting my Master's degree.

That little Q&A gave me some insight as to probably why my poker volume evolved this way. Although willpower is a finite resource, i've come to realize that different tasks drain it in different ways. Add/bpd certainly don't help, in that managing my mood drains a significant amount of energy, and poker only makes it that much more taxing. On the other hand, i'm very happy with myself in a lot of other vital areas of my life ; relationships, fitness and eating habits being the most important to me.

However I still believe I can do quite well with poker in the long run, since players like Mike Matusow have overcome these obstacles and went on to be very succesful. Thus, it's time to change my attack plan ; reduce the number of tables, play a bit less volume/month, but focus much harder on playing well. When you can't play more, the only way to make more money is to play better. I spent the last few weeks off the tables completely and going through Dynamic Full Ring poker, an excellent book.

Armed with extensive note-taking and study material, I should be back at the tables, sharper than ever, in about a week. I'm pretty psyched and looking forward to it! So take this for what it's worth, and realize that whatever your situation is, there's always hope for your game if you're always willing to get back up, no matter how many times you fall. Good luck at the tables (and in life)!