“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” -Mahatma Gandhi
Every human being is capable to achieve extraordinary things. All of us can go out without food for months, we can work for 16 hours a day and basically change our lifestyle or give up on smoking in one day. You can set up any goal and just stick to it. Then just set up another one and accomplish it as well. But so many people give up too early. Why? Because they didn’t develope sufficient will to persevere in their decision.
So why some people have it and can “easily” (that’s how others see it) stick to their decision and others seem to give up on everything too quick?
It’s worth mentioning that nothing is inherit here and everybody had to develop their own Willpower muscle.
Willpower muscle? What’s that?
There is a small part in our brains called anterior cingulate cortex, and you can think of it as a powerbank. So everytime you make any decision, (especially when you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone) some portion is being used. If you’ll get out of this “fuel” you’ll just start giving up on everything that requires any effort from you. The good news is that you can train yourself and build up your powerbank’s supply just like you train your muscles.
All you have to do to gain stronger will is constantly pushing your comfort zone.
It’s really simple. If you want to have better shape, you just go to the gym and start to train your muscles. There is no other way to train them except using them. Additionally you have to constantly push the effort in order to maintain muscle growth. Same goes with willpower - in order to develop stronger will you just have to do things that requires stepping out of your comfort zone and changing your decision from “I’m not doing it” to “Yes, I do it!”. Everytime you’ll do this, some portion of your willpower will be consumed but your powerbank will regenerate more of it and expand your total supply in order to adopt itself to higher demands - just like the muscles do!. So here comes the simple conclusion that people who have stronger will, had to step out of their comfort zone more often that those who cannot withstand in their decision.
So how to know when you’re stepping out of your comfort zone?
It’s really simple. If something doesn’t require your considerations if you want to do this or not and you just doing it without any resistance, that means that’s inside of your comfort zone. If you are about to do something but you don’t feel like it and have that reluctance or even start making excuses, that means you’re about to step out of your comfort zone.
So from now on you can train your willpower everyday just by stepping out of your comfort zone whenever it’s possible. It’s really worth the price because when you’ll acquire sufficient willpower you’ll be able to withstand with any decision you made.
Another great way to train your willpower is to pick up something that takes self-control and make it into a habit.
So now is a great time to set up just one simple goal and decide that you’ll be doing it for just a two weeks. You can start from something simple like getting up earlier or doing some morning exercises everyday. But the most important is to make it sustainable. Just pick up something that’ll be a little challenging but not too much. So don’t start from running 10 kilometers everyday if you haven’t been running at all before. Start from one kilometer or even just to take 1 or 2 bus stops by foot. You can also park your car a little bit further from your home.
When after few weeks or months it’ll become your habit just pick something new in addition to it or make the existing one a little more challenging.
So now when you know how to train your willpower you might also want to know how to save up your willpower for more challenging tasks?
Again - it all starts from a decision. So if you’ll manage to avoid making so many decision during the day you can save up some of your willpower for later use.
Get rid of some clothes
Many people spend so much time and effort because they cannot make their mind up on what to wear. Steve Jobs get rid of this problem just by wearing the same turtleneck, jeans and new balances everyday. Mark Zuckerberg also have 10 identical grey t-shirts in his wardrobe. If you don’t want to go 100% like them, then just prepare 3 to 4 everyday outfit configurations for yourself so that you’ll not have to spend so much time on picking up clothes.
Eat the same breakfast everyday
Some people like eggs, others like flakes. Why don’t just buy dozen of eggs and have them on breakfast everyday for a week. Another week you can have something else. Or you can make something else out of eggs. Eg. first week would be scrambled eggs, second - soft-boiled, third - omelet, forth - fried egg. Eggs are really easy and quick in preparations.
Eat the same delicious meals everyday
You can also get on well with just 5 to 7 really good recipes and make yourself one of your favourite meal everyday. If you’ll really get bored with some of it, you can replace them with ease. The point is that you won’t have to wonder what to buy for a meal, what should you do for a dinner today etc. Of course remember to put on something nutritious and healthy in there!
Schedule your day
When your day will be ordered and well organised you’ll find out that actually you have a lot of free time to do whatever you want. Just remember to stick to your day plan hour by hour and you won’t have to worry about “what should I do next?”
I hope that you’ll find this tips useful and will develop enough willpower to withstand in any decision you made or will make in the future!
Cheers up and have a nice day :)