LPT: When trying to resist temptation to do something that's part of a habit you're trying to break, say to yourself "I WON'T do this", not "I CAN'T do this".
Credit to /u/randomusefulbits for finding the scientific paper and posting a TIL that supports and inspired this Life Pro Tip (link in comments)
Some examples:
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For someone trying to eat healthy: "I WON'T buy this big giant bag of potato chips" versus "I CAN'T buy this big bag of potato chips"
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For someone on a budget: "I WON'T go out drinking at the bars tonight and blow a lot of cash."
There's a better chance that you'll resist the temptation if you think with the word "won't".
The reasons this works better is because the word "won't" is all about making it an internal CHOICE that we have power over. We are telling ourselves that our decision is not to.
But the word "can't" is more about things that we don't have choice over, they're inflicted on us and we are not really making a decision at all.
People like having power over their own lives, and the phrase "I won't do this" is much more in line with that than "I can't do this".
