In Good Habits Bad Habits, Dr. Wendy Wood tells us:
“Participants who scored highest in self-control seldom reported resisting desires, period.”
Dr. Roy Baumeister tells us:
“…willpower exemplars play offense not defense… self-control may in general operate more by forming and breaking habits.”
Dr. Angela Duckworth tells us:
“I used to think suppressing impulses was the magic of self-control. But then I learned self-controlled people have an armory of strategies, very clever hacks that let them avoid temptation.”
Dr. Katy Milkman tells us:
“…good habits put good choices on autopilot, so you don’t have to exert willpower to do the right thing.”
There you have it. Willpower exemplars are not even using willpower. They are not tempted in the first place because they have knowingly or unknowingly used behavior design tactics such as bright lines, implementation intentions, temptation bundling, celebration, and more to install and delete habits that run on autopilot.