Have you ever wondered if you were one of the few who doesn’t have any discipline or willpower? If so, how can you succeed when most goals worth accessing require a certain amount of persistence?
- 27% of stressed out people state that a lack of willpower stopped a change they wanted to achieve
- Studies show that people with more self-control, or willpower, do better in life
- Creative Geniuses appear to have less willpower than most because of different brain wiring
- The more you have to use willpower in the day, the more your “bank of willpower” gets depleted and you have less willpower – it leads to more decision fatigue
- You deplete your willpower far less if you are in a positive mood, have a strong belief that persistence will lead to success and have a good overall attitude
- Willpower can be strengthened through practice and using strategies such as avoiding
- Use implementation intention if / then statements to manage persistence and obstacles to persistence,
- for example, if you chose to write every morning at 6 am you can state and make arrangements to, as Mary did, “if it’s 6 am, then I’ll be writing”.
- If you can anticipate obstacles you can state something like, “if my friends call when I had planned to write, then I will let them know I can’t talk to them right now, but will quickly schedule a time for me to call/ or I won’t answer the call”
- Steady blood glucose increases motivation – avoid sugar rushes or starving yourself
- Start with one small goal – break down a large goal into smaller tasks that can be done in the time you’ve set aside
Best Strategy to Avoid Having to Deal with Willpower: Create Habits
- They reduce decisions so they keep decision fatigue at bay
- They free up limited brain energy for more important and creative tasks
- Start with the one-pound (or half-kilogram) habit and build your habit muscle to avoid having to rely solely on willpower
