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With so many temptations around us- hundreds of irresistible things we could buy, and food we could eat, it is only self-control which enables us to maintain a healthy body and habits.

But then how does it exactly work? It is believed that different people have different levels of self-control which enables some people to have better resistance than others.

However, according to a research conducted recently by researchers Michael Inzlicht of the University of Toronto and Brandon Schmeichel of Texas A&M University, the prevailing model of self-control may not be as precise as researchers once thought. They argue that rather than being a limited resource, self-control may actually be more like a motivation- and attention-driven process, reports Medical Xpress.

In the last decade, there have been many researchers which have focused on the resource model of self-control.

The original model of self-control proposed by Roy Baumeister and colleagues describe it as a limited resource. It says, that if we practice self-control more in the beginning of the day, we might not have it by the end of the day. For example, if we refused a second slice of cake, we may not be able to control ourselves from the urge to shop later in the day.

Although there have been many other studies supporting the original model, Inzlicht and Schmeichel point out that a newer crop of studies are not yielding the same results and do not conclude self-control as an exhaustible resource.

According to recent studies, factors like incentives, individual perceptions of task difficulty, personal beliefs about willpower, feedback on task performance, and changes in mood, all together seem to influence a person's ability to exercise self-control.  

Accommodating the new findings Inzlicht and Schmeichel propose an alternative model of self-control that includes motivation and attention as key influencers.

"Engaging in self-control by definition, is hard work; it involves deliberation, attention, and vigilance," the authors write.

They say that if we resist the second slice of cake and later decide not to stop ourselves, it is not because we "run out" of self control. Rather, it is because there is a shift in motivation and we feel justified in indulging ourselves later on.

Also, our attention shifts and we are less likely to notice cues that tell us where we need self-control (cake = empty calories) and focus more on the reward (cake = delicious treat).

"The idea that self-control is a resource is one possibility, but there are alternative possibilities that can accommodate more of the accumulated data," Inzlicht says.

An understanding of the mechanisms behind self-control can also pave way for better understanding of wider range of problems such as obesity, impulsive spending, gambling, and drug abuse.

The researchers hope that this model would help build effective ways of improving self-control.

The article was published in the September 2012 issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.