To the majority, every problem seems to be a problem of willpower. This isn't a thread about willpower being unimportant or not a solution to problems it's about the overprescription of willpower as a solution to problems.

Name a problem, someone will tell you the answer is to work hard or toughen up. Problems become a matter of character, it's your fault for not being strong enough and only look for alternative explanations if you're trying to escape the reality.

1. Willpower is undependable.

People are lazy and there are biological explanations to why they're lazy. You can't ignore the fact that people lack willpower while evaluating it as a solution, it's like evaluating a car while omitting the fact it breaks down all the time.

There are things you can do to increase your willpower but as a solution for problems, If your willpower is insufficient to complete a task then you've got to train your willpower to be sufficient to complete the task. The pre-requisite for willpower appears to be willpower and at least that's how I believe most people think. If you drill yourself hard enough, if you accept all the blame - you'll do the right thing next time - then you'll be able to solve your problems.

2. People are ignorant

I think a huge factor in any widespread issue is that people haven't got a clue what to do. "Work smart, not hard" but half the time that's not even relevant because people don't have a clue what to do at all.

People do diets which they'd realise don't work if they just it plugged into a calorie counter, they do exercise programs which they invented rather than following a guide with proven results. People don't make plans for the future, they don't understand what they should be doing with their money. They don't know how to structure responses to exams and they've got no realistic plan.

Worse yet, many of the "experts" are just as ignorant as everyone else.

3. Other reasons

I don't want an essay for my OP but we've got habits, interpretations, environments and problems which are more responsible for our problems than willpower.

People try to break habits with willpower but again, that's not a good method for breaking habits. You should try to plan as if you have absolutely no willpower whatsoever. Make a plan that requires you to have willpower for the shortest time possible, as few times as possible and ensure your plan relies on your willpower as little as possible.

I think it's a huge problem. People overprescribe willpower as a solution and but also too often inaccurately blame a lack of willpower for their lack of success. If something is really hard, you're probably not doing it well or there's a reason it's hard and you need to remove that reason.

Even people with great willpower waste their efforts because they assume willpower will give results when realistically, as with any scarce and important resource you should be trying to use it as efficiently as possible. There's no point working hard to do something that doesn't work well - or doesn't work at all, you may as well just be working less hard to do something that does work well. If people made a plan for what they're trying to achieve, more likely than not it would show their plan to be unrealistic or just plain wrong.