In children as well as adults, willpower is the basic ability to delay gratification.
Learn The Basics
Willpower Meaning!
Willpower is the key to success.
Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear.
Dan Millman
It’s hard to define willpower with a single definition. Some call it drive or determination others call it self-discipline or self-control.
We may call willpower the ability to hold/restrain ourselves from temptations and desires that will reward us immediately and aim to get the rewards in the near/far future.
WillPower Definition!
How researchers define willpower.
Researches and psychology researchers, according to APA (American psychological Association) define willpower as follows :
- The ability to delay gratification, resisting short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals.
- The ability to override an unwanted thought, feeling or impulse.
- Conscious, effortful regulation of the self by the self.
- A limited resource capable of being depleted.
So is Willpower Important.?
As seen in the Willpower Meaning and Definition, Definitely.!
We all want to have control over things in life and above all self-control. Willpower and self-control are linked and aligned.
Willpower goes back to our early years and goes on as we grow depending on how we actually behave.
Lets Dive More into Willpower Informations.
Marshmallow Test
There is an experiment the “marshmallow test” that showed that even children have willpower and it affects their current and later years. Children with more willpower is more likely to grow healthier and without any obesity signs, being better at School overall and be more able to accomplish tasks in every day life.
Combining the ability to delay gratification with self-control is the cornerstone of any grown human to achieve his/her goals, be a great leader and have healthier relationships.
Because we see ourselves being able to go through those little or big temptations and desires being victorious, without giving in! We get that feeling of being in charge of our lives, of accomplishing our goals , of being the ruler of ourselves.
Is willpower limited or not.
During our every day life we use or better we exert willpower, one way or the other. We may resist the desire of a juicy burger and get a salad instead, finish our project instead of playing video games, go for a walk instead of sink on the couch. All of these consume an amount of willpower and give us that feeling of being tired/exhausted.
Many great researchers have found and proven that we have a measurable amount of willpower each day.
Researchers, always testing in groups of 2, one with no use of willpower and the second made a task in which they exert willpower. Then they put them to a task that required some amount of willpower. That tasks were to complete a difficult puzzle, to watch a funny movie without laughter, to be in social interaction that demands self-control, deal with a hostile audience etc. The group with no use on willpower did way better than the other one.
Willpower Depletion
That feeling where we aren’t in a position to resist or it is very hard to resist temptations and desires is called willpower depletion or like many experts call it, ego depletion.
So after all this analysis is willpower limited or not??
As far as it goes, willpower is a limited source. We still tho can do things to strengthen our willpower during the day and avoid others that weaken it.!
What causes willpower depletion aka ego depletion.
We exert willpower during physical fatigue. Moving,walking, exercising, lifting, working on a job that requires mostly muscle use, we use willpower during those activities.
Ego depletion is not caused only of physical fatigue,but recent investigations have found a number of possible mechanisms, including some at biological level, for willpower depletion.
Human brain consumes a large amount of energy every day. That energy comes mostly of glucose. When the cells of the brain work hard to maintain self-control, it consumes glucose faster than it can be replenished. Lab researches have proven that individuals that exert willpower had lower glucose levels than those who didn’t exert willpower.
2 facts You must learn about willpower.
A very interesting fact, and useful, is that our willpower can be checked by our beliefs and attitude. And our beliefs about willpower itself can raise the amount of willpower we own. Also mood has a positive impact on willpower, as you may notice in your every day life.
My favorite one tho, and something that helped me a lost not only on willpower matters, is to be aware of yourself. This one I consider to be the most important of all, but the most difficult to master, because it takes more time than the others.
What strengthens willpower and what weakens willpower.
What Strengthens Willpower.
Willpower is like a muscle.
Researchers who study self-control often describe and define willpower like a muscle. A muscle that gets fatigue with heavy use. Like Body muscles, when we exercise, we exhaust them, but they are getting stronger over time. Similarly we improve our willpower strength when we regularly exert willpower and self-control.
Keep using your willpower muscle, building willpower, and you will have more willpower during the day.
Avoiding temptation
A great way to “trick” your self-control is to avoid temptations. For example if you keep things like candies and chocolates not in plain sight, will make the decision easier there you will not eat them regularly. There is a saying “out of sight, out of mind”! Minimizing the temptation and avoiding them will give you more willpower for more important things in life.
We gain the Strength of the temptation
we Resist!!
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Implementation intention technique
This technique is to implement an intention to counter something that may happen – “if” – “then” scenario. For example when we are on a diet and we want to avoid candies we should say to ourselves “if I crave for candies then i will have a glass of water”, that put the idea in your mind that when you encounter a desire/temptation you will act as you implemented.
Use this technique to counter some desires or temptations you have, but be careful to keep it simple using it for max 2-3 important things.! A great way to think of it simply is like a “plan B”.
Eating regularly
I mentioned above that our brain need glucose to make decisions. Eating regular small meals will keep your blood sugar in high levels and prevent you from running down of willpower. Just eating tho isn’t enough, eating healthy is way better than consuming junk food, refined sugar etc. Better have an apple than a candy bar.!
Exercise
Exercising in a regular basis will improve our willpower strength and capacity. Although exercising will exert our willpower in short-term , in long-term it will definitely improve it.
Exercise not only changes your body,
It changes your mind, your attitude, your mood!!
Regular exercise has the power to cause a chain reaction as many experts have found. Individuals that were put in two-weeks exercising program showed the willingness and took action to improve their lives in more areas.
Everything that strengthens our willpower may cause a chain reaction of improvement in other areas of our life too. But hands down exercising is among the top of them.
Try it yourself and let me know what the results are!
Reservoir of willpower. High motivation.
A common question is : “if i use my day’s willpower, am I gonna have none left?”.
Mindset is what separates
the Best from the Rest.
The answer is that actually we never run out of willpower. We always have some for backup.! We need tho a high motivation to “activate” or to get access to it. That could be : something that will help someone we care about. Generally something that touch our values!!
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.!!
Aristotle.
Self-awareness and Meditation!
You are the sky,
Everything else is just the weather!!
Pema Chodron.
My favorite one tho, and something that helped me a lot not only on willpower matters, is to be aware of yourself. This one I consider to be the most important of all, and the most difficult to master, because it takes more time and understanding than the others. Meditation is the best habit to increase our self-awareness and one of the habits you should definitely try..!
What Weakens Willpower.
Many goals at a time. (i. e. New Years resolutions)
New Years resolutions list is a good thing to motivate yourself during the year coming. Although when it comes to willpower it has the opposite result. We may be overwhelmed by too many goals and exert our willpower faster.
Instead it’s better to have one goal. Focus on one thing at a time. Once it is a habit the move to the next goal. This one is important, keep that in mind. You will no longer need to draw on your willpower to maintain the behavior.
Temptation
Ever tried to eat no sugar for a week or more??
Avoiding temptation strengthens our willpower so it’s natural temptation to weakens willpower. Isn’t exactly the temptation of the burger, candy that drains our willpower, it is also the stress that is applied to that temptation. The thoughts going through our minds at that time also drain our willpower. So avoid temptations is way better than putting ourselves into that situation. Sometimes tho a challenge to measure ourselves is ok, I believe.
Stress
It’s all about finding
The calm in the chaos!
Donna Karan.
Nowadays we all know, experience and will experience stress. Being stressed will drain our willpower because our mind would like to restore our state to normal. We exert more willpower for a stressed decision during the day than for a normal one.
We are all different, and we also differ in what stress us. So knowing ourselves will help us prevent that situation from happening or be able to act with a calm mind even in a stressful situation.
Meditation is the choice in order to “reduce” and maintain our stress.
Personal opinion and experience.
I believe that self-control is something we all know, understand and use every day consciously, most of the time. But I don’t believe the same about willpower. We lack knowledge and awareness of willpower. We may feel it but we don’t understand it, despite the fact that we are using it every day.
That said, when you understand a large portion of the above, you will be able to improve your self-control and therefore your willpower.
I was unaware of willpower for a long time until 5 years ago. I was feeling something and wanted to learn what it is. As I began my journey on self-improvement I chose 3 keystone habits and a possible diet/lifestyle thing.
I realized two key factors about willpower then:
2 facts You must learn about willpower.
A very interesting fact, and useful, is that our willpower can be checked by our beliefs and attitude. And our beliefs about willpower itself can raise the amount of willpower we own. Also mood has a positive impact on willpower, as you may notice in your every day life.
My favorite one tho, and something that helped me a lost not only on willpower matters, is to be aware of yourself. This one I consider to be the most important of all, but the most difficult to master, because it takes more time than the others.
Conclusion.
I mentioned that willpower is like a muscle, so the more we use willpower the bigger the bottle!! So will we have more willpower to refill during the night and use the next day. Building habits will make the use if the liquid less than before, giving us space to use our liquid for more things!!
Learn the basics of willpower and apply them in every day life. This way you will build your Willpower! We should not take willpower for granted or ignore it.
Watch yourself is the most important thing to do because we are all different. Something that worked for me may not even “touch” you.
Always chunk our actions to go to their core is also a key!
A willpower challenge involves a conflict between two systems: the cognitive system and the impulsive system. Keep that in mind.
My willpower definition :
The will to use your power to push out from your comfort zone.!!
A ship is always safe at the shore,
But that is Not what it is build For!
Albert Einstein.
Keep Improving!! Keep it simple!!