The Willpower Autopsy

For decades, "willpower" had a flagship theory, ego depletion, the idea that self-control is a fuel tank you drain and run empty. It was reported as a solid, medium-to-large effect. Then researchers did the thing science is supposed to do: they ran it again, carefully, across 23 labs and 2,141 people, pre-registered so nobody could fudge it. The effect came back at 0.04, statistically indistinguishable from zero. The tank, as advertised, basically isn't there. Sit with what that means for your story: you spent years believing you were failing at a thing everyone else could do. You weren't. You were told to fuel up from a tank that may not exist, and then blamed for running dry. That's not a you problem. That was never a fair fight.