Willpower is the self-control you exert to either take a healthy action or restrain unhealthy impulses. If you are determined to succeed, have strong self-control, and take the appropriate action, you can redirect unhealthy thoughts and emotions. Developing your self-control, sometimes called willpower, enables you to change your bad habits into good habits, which help you achieve your goals.
Trying to use willpower to accomplish life without understanding that it’s not very effective. Instead of self-discipline, what you really need is a vision, a goal, and a realistic plan. For most people using only willpower is akin to being dehydrated and turning down fresh, clean, water halfway through your hike because you said you would.
It’s Not Willpower Alone
For most people, willpower alone isn’t effective. In fact, if you know people who are highly motivated to exercise, they likely do it because they enjoy the activity and the results they get. Even when you enjoy what you’re doing, you need your willpower or self-control to help you stick to your healthy routine, when you’re tempted to skip it, “just for today.”
Joy Can Be Trained
Many people who do things just out of joy, don’t necessarily like it at first. After all, 5th grade teachers don’t start teaching because they want to grade 100+ papers a night, right? However, to achieve their desire to help pre-teens learn in school, they must come to terms with the less attractive tasks involved. Many teachers find that most of their joy is found in different aspects of the job. Those joyful moments make everything else worth the effort of sticking with it.
Accept Yourself
Everyone does things differently and finds joy in different situations. If you feel shame for your lack of willpower, it’s time to reevaluate the expectations you have for yourself. Your difficulty in accepting yourself may be at the root of the problem. On the up side, there is always something you can do or another way to approach a problem that can help you accept yourself.
Learn from It
When you don’t succeed at something that doesn’t mean you are a failure. It means that you learned what didn’t work. Instead of thinking negative thoughts and putting yourself down, focus on what you learned and how you can apply that knowledge when you try again. You can come up with steps to add to your journey that leads to success.
Create Habits with Baby Steps
The real reason people succeed isn’t due to willpower alone. It’s because they create plans that include baby-steps that help them reach the desired result. Taking baby-steps to achieve your goals is very beneficial. You can learn a lot on the path to success, just by learning from your mistakes and the mistakes that others make.
You may never like going to the gym to work out to be healthy. However, you may discover that you love rowing a real boat outside, which will make exercise fun and exciting for you. When you know why you’re doing a task, it makes it easier to keep doing them. Plus, when you include tasks that you enjoy and like doing you don’t have to fight yourself to take action, maintain your progress, and achieve your realistic goals.