Every person has a desire to achieve their goals and satisfy their needs. Realizing and developing your own potential makes it possible to feel happiness and fulfillment in life. The path to achieving various goals requires enormous work, knowledge, patience, perseverance, experience and many other qualities and efforts. All this does not arise out of nowhere and all this has Start, which arises in the ability to overcome both external difficulties associated with the place, time and circumstances in which a person finds himself, and with internal conflicts caused by doubts, reluctance, fear and indecision. To overcome both external and internal problems, willpower is required. Willpower is a quality that underlies the ability to persevere through difficulties and firmly pursue your goal.
Willpower - what is it?
Willpower is the ability to act based on volitional effort, rather than desire or mentality.
It is also the ability, with the help of will, to suppress negative attitudes that prevent the achievement of a goal. Negative mindsets are fear , doubt, uncertainty, anxiety, apathy , laziness and other qualities that prevent you from acting and achieving your goals.
Willpower makes it possible to act based on reason and goals set in advance. Desires and moods very often lead a person astray from the intended path, and only with an effort of will it becomes possible to suppress the desire that will interfere with achieving the goal. People face various goals, but it is willpower, throughout the entire journey, that can make it possible not only not to deviate, but also to steadfastly adhere to a predetermined route.
A person must learn to submit to himself and obey his decisions.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
The influence of mindset and desires on actions is colossal. Suffice it to remember how the reasonable goal of acquiring a positive habit of running in the morning defeats the desire to sleep, and the mentality of rest all the more prevents a person from using his will. This is how many barely begun paths end, under the influence of the desire for comfort, pleasure or reluctance to act. The lack of willpower in such cases leads to the inability to overcome the established order, whether it is in the global rhythm of life or only in sleep patterns. The important thing is that the very ability to change life for the better comes precisely from conscious volitional efforts. Whereas life always slides towards the worse on its own.
Willpower is the ability to use volitional efforts to solve problems. Willpower is necessary where we do not have successful experience of the final result, which means that for a person who is just moving towards his goal, willpower is one of the most necessary skills that will make it possible to constantly achieve and move towards the goal.
Examples of developed will
Everyone who studies foreign languages has at least once heard about the polyglot Heinrich Schliemann. Every day he memorized several pages of printed text in the language he was studying. Such persistence helped Schliemann achieve a good level of proficiency in a new language within the first few months.
No less interesting in this regard is the biography of the domestic scientist A. A. Lyubishchev. During his life, he was able to write about 12 thousand pages of scientific works devoted to biological and philosophical research. Careful saving of life's time helped him do this - for modern time management gurus, Lyubishchev is one of the most important examples.
How does lack of will and willpower manifest itself?
Willpower is the ability to consciously use will in solving problems associated with reluctance or lack of motivation to do something purposefully. The manifestation of willpower, elevated to a habit or quality, is discipline. Will itself is the ability to make decisions based on reason, the expediency of certain actions, and not on the basis of whether they will be pleasant or not. Depending on whether a person is guided by reason or intelligence, his actions will show a tendency to act in a certain way. The mind will incline towards pleasant actions, and the mind towards expedient ones. That is, those goals that bring you closer to your goal and contribute to the development and improvement of life through work and encounters with unpleasant events.
Pleasant activities, such as entertainment or relaxation, will improve a person’s life at the moment, but, more often than not, lead to further degradation. This is due not only to the fact that the attractive process of entertainment turns a person away from work and also takes away many potential opportunities, but also to the fact that entertainment creates a way of life in which the use of will to achieve goals is simply not necessary. When faced with real problems, such a person will be more inclined to give up activities due to both the awareness of the need for work and after the first difficulties.
An ordinary person, in this case, is more inclined to show willpower, realizing that his failure is not so much a manifestation of the inability to achieve the desired result, but rather an indication of a lack of experience or an incorrect approach to solving a problem. All other things being equal, the chances of achieving success in any field are greater for those who try again and again, trying to approach problems from different angles, changing their behavior and improving in their activities, than for those who gave up after the first failure or didn't start at all.
Yes, you are imperfect. So what? Stop considering every mistake you make as a valid reason for admitting complete failure.
Robin Hobb
Volitional efforts are necessary not only in activity, but also in self-control, discipline, patience, perseverance and many other qualities. In relationships, volitional efforts help not to experience negative emotions. Precisely not to experience, since the mind most often strives to inflate as much as possible various manifestations of anger, envy, anxiety, resentment, etc. Also, in relationships, volitional efforts are necessary both to demonstrate positive qualities such as generosity, patience, understanding, etc., but also to preserve the relationship in difficult times, which, no doubt, were present in most relationships.
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Willpower is one of the main keys to the ability to develop and change your character, leveling out negative qualities in yourself and cultivating positive ones. The fight against desires, attachments, imposed ideas, shame, guilt, resentment and other obstacles on the path to a happy and free life is a matter of the ability to show your will to work on yourself. It is not always easy to admit a flaw in yourself, but it is even more difficult to eradicate it, and it is this work that most requires the manifestation of willpower.
Lack of will, as the opposite of willpower, manifests itself in refusal to activity based on mood and unwillingness to overcome anything. Lack of will is the lack of ability to exercise will, that is, the inability to act based on understanding and the decision made. This manifests itself in both impulsive and depressed behavior.
That is, either the inability to act purposefully due to being busy with nonsense, or the inability to act due to general depression: uncertainty, doubt, apathy. Lack of will does not provide the opportunity to change life, but only provides the opportunity to swim with the flow of the mind and moods, desires and fears, which, without a doubt, only aggravate a person’s situation.
Mark Monacelli – initial weight 217 kg, lost 136 kg.
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Mark has always been a chubby child. It all started with the fact that at the slightest criticism, sign of frustration or depression, he began to “seize” the problem. He went on a diet more than once, but very quickly gained back what he managed to lose, adding a couple more kilos on top. One day he looked back and realized that his friends and acquaintances had long had a full life: home, family, work, but he was still alone. Then depression did not force him to eat like a zombie in the dark of the night, standing by the refrigerator, but, on the contrary, to begin to lead a normal life. And again, diet and good gradual physical activity did the trick.
Qualities of willpower
The qualities of willpower are both those qualities that come from willpower and those qualities from which willpower comes.
Qualities from which willpower comes:
- reasonableness
- consciousness
- zeal
- durability
- determination
- hardness
- fearlessness
Reasonableness is the ability to set the right goals and understand how to achieve them. Consciousness is the acceptance and awareness of full responsibility for one’s life and actions. Diligence is the ability to both perform work and derive satisfaction from it. Resilience is the ability to remain oneself, in the same state, both in joy and in sorrow. Determination is the ability to suppress doubts and achieve a goal with stability and energy. Firmness is the unswerving adherence to one’s path and the ability to maintain one’s principles and qualities over time and in different circumstances. Fearlessness is the absence of fear, worry and doubt.
If there is no opportunity to exercise willpower, then the development of these individual qualities will give impetus to the manifestation of will and its application.
Qualities that come from willpower:
- constancy
- discipline
- control of feelings and emotions
- determination
- asceticism
- calmness
- self-control
- forgiveness
- strength of mind
Constancy is the ability to stick to the chosen path without deviating from it under various pretexts. Discipline is the ability to follow the rules and norms established for oneself. Control of feelings and emotions is the ability to control the manifestation, origin and growth of certain emotions, as well as level them. Determination is a conscious commitment to a goal and following the path to it. Asceticism is the ability to endure various physical and psychological deprivations. Calmness is independence in a stable state of mind from external circumstances. Self-control is the ability to manage emotions and maintain the necessary state of mind. Forgiveness is the absence of resentment towards life, the world and other people, the ability to forgive everyone. Strength of spirit is insusceptibility to despondency, apathy, doubt, fear and other decadent moods. The ability to act sensibly and not break down in a desperate situation.
Ben Carstens – original weight 190 kg, lost 90 kg.
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Ben was never a little boy. Watching the men working on his father's farm work hard and eat heartily to replenish his strength, he became accustomed to eating well. After a long day of work and subsequent work on the farm, it was necessary. But at a certain point, the food got out of control: large portions, fast food, a lot of sugar, and Ben simply became incredibly fat from being dense. He lost his job, his beloved girlfriend, and in general life gave the man a good shake-up. Then he began a long work on his body, gradually reducing his weight by almost half.
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Development of willpower. Strengthening willpower.
Developing and strengthening willpower is very similar to developing and strengthening any skill. Since the main instrument of willpower is the will itself, the development of willpower lies in its constant use. But, if in everyday life the use of willpower is quite difficult, given its absence, then you should begin to use willpower on an educational scale.
The classic method of developing willpower is to perform an action that requires volitional effort. The greater the volitional effort, the more willpower will develop. Getting up in the morning, running, physical exercise, meditation , journaling, developing new habits and useful qualities, conscious behavior and communication , reading books - all this requires the use of willpower.
A separate exercise is to develop willpower through a specific action that is not labor-intensive. If it’s hard to wake up in the morning and run and you don’t have the strength, and you simply don’t have enough attention to keep a diary or conscious behavior, then you should perform a certain daily ritual that will not cause stress, but will contribute to the development of will. For example, rearrange one thing from one place to another a certain number of times, or simply sit in silence for 5-10 minutes without doing anything. It is very important to realize that in these cases the will will turn on and it will gradually develop as a skill.
If this method seems too easy or you want something faster, then you should use direct asceticism to develop will:
- fast
- vow of silence, abstinence
- struggle with one’s own shortcomings and their manifestations
- temporary renunciation of comforts and sources of pleasure.
The power of asceticism lies in the strong development of willpower and that is why, after completed asceticism, a feeling of omnipotence arises in a person, based on the ability to use the will to the maximum.
However, you should distribute your efforts wisely in order to develop willpower in the long term. You should start with simple exercises, and if after 3-5 weeks everything goes flawlessly, you can switch to more complex exercises, and subsequently to austerities.
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That is, ideally, you should start with a simple ritual that will allow you to simply use your willpower without unnecessary physical or mental stress. Then, in case of continued success, begin to apply willpower in everyday life, that is: getting up earlier, reading books, doing physical exercise, and so on. Having achieved success in this too, you can perform austerities. And after asceticism, willpower will be so strong that it can be freely developed.
Willpower also develops from actions that are difficult for you due to certain mental patterns, such as guilt, shame, uncertainty, doubt, etc. That is, willpower develops at the moment of overcoming those difficulties that did not give you the opportunity to achieve what you wanted and change your life for the better. Overcoming yourself requires a strong will and the result is not as important as the attempt itself to change something. It is more likely that in the area where you do not act, such as communication, you will fail. But it is through failure and the learning process that the communication skill that will bring success will be developed.
Marshmallow experiment
In the 1960s, researcher Walter Mischel, sometimes jokingly called the “Father of Self-Control,” and his students conducted the now classic “marshmallow experiment.” Young children had to go into a room where they were asked to make a choice: get a marshmallow or a cookie; or wait for 20 minutes and then get two marshmallows or two livers. Scientists found that their behavior in the experimental situation predetermined their future adult life. Those who showed more persistence and could make themselves wait for cookies received higher grades in school. And at the age of 27-32 years, they did not suffer from obesity, achieved professional goals faster, and coped with stress and difficulties more easily. When brain scans were carried out on representatives of both categories (strong-willed and “weak”), it turned out that they had significantly different brain areas responsible for the tendency to overeat and other bad habits.
Based on these experiments, scientists were able to deduce the main method by which everyone can strengthen their willpower: you need to mentally “cool down” the temptations of the present, and, on the contrary, “warm up” the future goal. The method is effective no matter how old you are.
In order to master self-control skills, you need to prepare the necessary instructions for yourself in advance. Refusal from temptation cannot happen with the wave of a magic wand - after all, at this decisive moment only the “harmful” strategy will dominate. When we break down, our psychology protects us well from unnecessary self-criticism:
- yes, today I yelled at my wife because it was a bad day at work;
- I ate half the cake because I can’t cope with all these problems;
- It's not my fault, it's his fault.
And such self-justifications significantly reduce our chances that in the future we will be able to learn to control fleeting impulses.
How to use willpower?
Willpower opens up new and new boundaries for a person, making it possible to act freely where others give up. On the one hand, in some cases it is enough to use willpower just a few times in order to advance in a certain area. It's basically about starting something. If it’s hard for you to develop a habit or start communicating, then by using willpower several times it will become easier and more natural each time. Doing something for the first time can be scary, but getting rid of fear lies in overcoming the fear rather than waiting for the right moment. Therefore, in such cases, willpower must be applied with great force several times, so that it makes it possible to develop a habit or do something for the first time.
On the other hand, willpower on a global scale must, simply must, be applied constantly. This applies mainly to life goals. On the way to one's main goals, sometimes falls and failures occur, and it is with the help of willpower that a person is able to get up and continue the path. This is the meaning of willpower, to constantly get up and continue to act. It is unlikely to meet a person who has achieved his goal without ever falling. Only those who have never walked have never fallen, and it is not the fall itself that is considered a failure, but the refusal to get up and continue on their way.
If you fall seven times, get up eight.
Kano Jigoro
In this sense, willpower must be relentlessly applied in order to overcome many obstacles. This is a question of success in life, a question of whether you can honestly the question “Am I doing enough?” It is necessary to honestly fulfill your duty entrusted to you by choosing your path, to follow it decisively and firmly, even if it is incredibly difficult, even if the blows are constantly crushing. A strong tree is not one that grew in ideal conditions, but one that survived all storms and disasters and thus became strong.
Why do we need self-control?
Psychologist Roy Baumeister, who studies willpower, says: “One of the main reasons for the difficulties that modern society is constantly forced to deal with - multiple addictions, domestic violence, lack of education, unwanted pregnancies and, of course, debt - is poorly developed self-control skills. in people. Psychologists have been able to identify two types of qualities that give a person undeniable advantages - the level of mental abilities and self-control skills. Many facts have been determined about the level of intelligence, but it is still unclear how it can be increased. But everyone can develop the ability to control themselves.”
Willpower as a result of adaptation.
Ancient people could withstand harsh natural conditions only if they united in communities. An individual could not survive in those days. It is believed that willpower as a quality inherent in a person arose precisely then - after all, in order to get along with others, our ancestors had to constantly restrain internal impulses. And the ability of a modern person to manage his condition is the result of adaptation to constantly changing and sometimes quite harsh environmental conditions.
What depletes volitional reserve?
One of the most surprising discoveries that has amazed scientists is that willpower is a lot like a muscle and can be trained just as well. Even if the muscle is flabby, with regular training it gradually grows. The situation is exactly the same with the ability to control oneself. In addition, the researchers were able to discover another interesting fact: our reserves can be depleted by factors that we could not even think about.
A dull morning meeting, a failed attempt to impress on a first date—such factors quickly consume our willpower. Whenever we have to make any decision - even the most banal one - we use part of the energy from our volitional “reservoir”, thereby depleting it. Researcher Kathleen Vaughns emphasizes that we are no different from our ancestors in having low levels of self-control. Not at all, the willpower of a modern person is the same as it was centuries ago. But the difference is that today we are surrounded by too many different temptations.
Fuel for the development of will: meditation.
Willpower can be developed by doing brain training on a regular basis. Scientists who have studied this phenomenon claim that after just three hours of meditation, the ability to concentrate attention on one subject increases significantly.
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Kelly McGonigal, a professor at Stanford University and one of the leading researchers in the phenomenon of will, claims that meditation can significantly improve blood circulation in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. And this allows you to increase self-control and maximize your brain potential.
Willpower is the tool of the master of fate
Strength of character does not manifest itself in success, since success can be granted both by deception and luck. Strength of character is manifested in constantly following your path. In a confident and firm decision not to deviate from it, despite both the difficulties and the benefits that deviation promises. Willpower is not the absence of a fall, but a rise; it is not the achievement of the goal itself - but the path to it. This is a tool that, using it, opens up the opportunity to overcome any obstacles on the path to the goal of your whole life. And the progress on the path to one’s destiny determines whether a person lived a happy, fulfilled and fulfilled life or whether he lived for the sake of empty toys and small things that promised him various benefits. The truth coming from the heart should indicate the path, and the question of overcoming it is the possibility or impossibility of using willpower for its intended purpose.
Willpower is the ability to act based on purposefulness of action and compliance with reasonable behavior, and not desires, mood or inability to act due to far-fetched reasons. Willpower is the degree of overcoming oneself, overcoming the boundaries of one’s consciousness and expanding one’s capabilities, which bring a person closer to both his most important goal and true happiness. Developing willpower is a matter of actual work and effort that must be applied over a sufficiently long period of time. But the freedom that is born from willpower is worth any effort and labor invested in its origin in one’s own heart. Happiness in exchange for work is a fair trade. Good luck.
Examples of situations
The will and its main features are best examined through specific examples.
Let's try to break down the process of drinking water into its components:
- a man approaches the refrigerator;
- opens the door;
- takes out a bottle of water;
- uncorks the cork;
- takes an empty glass with his hand;
- pours water from a bottle, tilting the neck;
- brings the glass to his mouth and tilts it so that the water comes to the edge;
- makes a sucking movement with his mouth;
- swallows water;
- puts the bottle back in the refrigerator.
At the same time, the characteristic of the will into voluntary (requiring control of consciousness) and involuntary (swallowing) manifests itself at the level of instinct; the body responds to the sight of a glass of water. The remaining actions occur automatically, without focusing on their implementation.
Involuntary manifestation of will
The will and its main features clearly manifest themselves when analyzing the character of a person:
- purposefulness, determination;
- perseverance, self-control;
- endurance, independence.
The intensity of willpower in life depends on the following personality characteristics:
- views on the structure of the surrounding world;
- moral character established by upbringing;
- the significance of the goal and its achievement;
- a person’s attitude to the upcoming activity;
- properties of personal controllability and organization.
The role of will in a critical situation is a psychological impulse supported by emotional components. At this moment, feelings are heightened, all the reserves of the human body are mobilized, and the maximum amount of energy is consumed. Sometimes this brings “magical results” that cannot be achieved under normal conditions.
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Cody Burgess – original weight 186 kg, lost 80 kg.
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Cody's journey to a normal weight began at the age of 13, when he gradually began to lose friends and interest in life, because he was kicked out of any sports team and was sometimes asked to buy two seats on transport. In the end, he simply could not find clothes that suited his taste and size. Then Cody started studying. He went on a special diet and started working out in the gym. At first, 2 times a week for 45 minutes, he gradually increased his training to daily visits to the gym and jogging in the morning. So the guy not only lost weight, leaving all the empty skin on his body, but he pumped up his muscles and gained strength.
John Henderson – original weight 204 kg, lost 82 kg.
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The same love for soda and fast food begins the story of John, whose main motivator for losing weight was his daughter. One fine day, the man realized that in 10 years his daughter would be 17, and he would not even be able to take her to the prom. John began gradually, like many of our other heroes, to get rid of bad eating habits and began to walk a lot. Then he met a great guy who worked at the gym, and he became his personal trainer. John achieved success very quickly. The main surprise for the man was the fact that his favorite food was once chips and burgers, but today he prefers spinach, zucchini, apples and oranges.
