Life doesn't always go the way we expect, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from it. When the unexpected comes knocking — and it always will — how do you greet it? Do you open the door with an ...

At the start of every new year, many of us think about how to make our lives better going forward. Perhaps we want to lose weight or stop drinking or stay off of our cell phones. If only we had more ...

This is part four of a five-part series. Leaders routinely repress or defer their own needs, desires, goals, or emotions in service of others, which is called self-control. While many leaders are ...

So much of our lives are affected by our ability (or inability) to reach a goal. Whatever the plan may be, willpower, self-control, and motivation are at the forefront. Yet, too often, we pressure ...

In Greek mythology, the story of Odysseus and the Sirens illustrates a paradigmatic example of self-control. When the hero of Homer's epic prepared to travel past the Sirens, mythical creatures who ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about relationships, personality, and everyday psychology. Do you ever feel like ‘staying on track’ just comes naturally ...

It’s probably all too familiar. Against your best intentions, you find yourself reaching for a late-night snack again. You snap at a colleague who didn’t really say anything wrong. You find excuses so ...

Neuroticism may moderate the relationship between certain personality traits and self-control, and the interaction effects appear to differ by the type of self-control, according to a new study.

A scientific squabble over how to define self-control draws from an unlikely source: A story from Greek mythology. Sailing home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, Odysseus longed to hear the Sirens’ ...