Milyavskaya, M. & Inzlicht, M. (2017). What’s so great about self-control? Examining the importance of self-control and temptation in predicting real-life depletion and goal attainment. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8, 603-611.
When we think about attaining our goals, we frequently think about the need for self-control. But does restraining one’s desires actually lead to better outcomes? In this study, we examined participants’ experiences of temptations in their daily life. Five times per day for seven days, participants responded (on their smartphone) to questions about their experiences of desires that conflicted with personal goals, and the extent to which they used effortful self-control to resist these desires. Two months later, we assessed how much progress participants made on three personally important goals. Contrary to predominant views, the use of self-control was unrelated to goal progress. However, those people who experienced more temptations in the first place (whether they resisted the temptations or not) were less likely to attain their goals.
See here
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/dont-delay/201801/what-best-predicts-goal-attainment