We would love to tell you that willpower can be found on the way to work, bought in a store, or learned about its location from a wise elder. But none of this will work, because each of us already has it.
Willpower was initially attributed to
Philosophical reasoning and was not perceived as something serious. According to philosophers, it either existed or it did not. That is how the concept of a strong-willed person appeared. With the development of psychology, scientists began to pay more and more attention to willpower as a character trait and behavioral feature.
Many researchers combine the concepts of willpower and self-control. In this article, we will also use them as synonyms.
During the research and testing
Scientists managed to find out that willpower depends on the child’s upbringing style. Scientists at Duke University observed children from the moment they were born until they reached the age of 32 and concluded that the more collected children were in childhood, the stronger their physical and psychological health will be in the future, they will have no problems with alcohol and drugs, and they will manage money better.
How to develop willpower
Stress and daily difficult decisions drain your willpower. You can replenish your resources with the following exercises:
Learn to cope with stress
How does stress affect our lives? Reduced attention, buy telemarketing data concentration, ability to analyze and assimilate new information, deterioration of short-term memory, and depression is also possible. This is all because we often cannot cope with the pressure of life circumstances.
Kelly McGonigal advises breathing. Taking a few deep breaths when we feel overwhelmed can help us deal with stress at an early level.
Encourage yourself
A tired body will come up with ways to cheer itself up, even if it hurts its ultimate goals. The way to fight it is to remember why you are doing it. Why do you need English? To get a promotion at work or to get a job abroad. Why do you need to dealing with agile challenges in a remote landscape quit smoking? To become healthier.
Neurolinguistic trick: replace the phrase “I can’t” with “I don’t” in moments of crisis. This will subconsciously leave you with the belief that you can do anything.
Reminding yourself of your end goal will keep you motivated to achieve it.
Healthy sleep
Getting enough sleep is incredibly important dating data for proper brain function. Sleeping less than six hours a day leads to chronic stress and deterioration of metabolic processes in the body.
We should also add that Daniel Kripke, a renowned sleep researcher, concluded in a recent study that “people who sleep 6.5 to 7.5 hours a night live longer, happier, and more productive lives.”
Meditation
Meditation is a kind of rest for the brain, and this is exactly what it needs when it comes to replenishing willpower. Many people note other positive results of meditation, such as improved attention and concentration.
Sports and nutrition
McGonigal noted in her book that regular exercise and a balanced diet have a positive effect on brain function. No direct link was found with willpower, but anything that is good for the brain is good for self-control.
Separate the important from the unimportant
According to Roy Baumeister, author of the book “Willpower: Take Control of Your Life,” you need to understand what needs to be done now and what needs to be put off until later. People who live by the principle “not now, but later” are less likely to succumb to temptation, the psychologist notes.
How does willpower affect success?
We have already discussed earlier that the inability to control ourselves affects our desire to develop ourselves, play sports or work more efficiently. Moreover, weak willpower has a strong impact on the quality of life. For example, people with weak self-control spend more money on something insignificant and have a worse attitude towards their nutrition.
Research by scientists shows that willpower is influenced by many factors: the more difficult the life situation is initially, the lower the self-control. Poor people need to make many volitional decisions, while wealthy people can “save energy” on solving these issues and devote it to something else.
Despite this, psychologists are sure that it is necessary and possible to develop willpower. Techniques and methods have been developed for this.
Before we get into these exercises, however, we should note that the problem may be far from a lack of willpower. Researcher Roy Baumeister, a psychologist at Florida State University, breaks down goal achievement into three important components:
- motivation and having a clear goal
- actions taken to achieve this goal
- strength loves
Whether you want to lose weight, quit smoking, study more, or spend less time on the Internet, willpower is an important step in achieving that result, but it is not essential.
What to pay attention to: as we said earlier, willpower requires a lot of glucose, so you need to adjust your diet: eat more fruits and honey.
