Building up Your Willpower
Willpower is the ability to control impulses and motivation to reach goals, and it is finite. However, there are strategies to expand its reserves and make them last longer.
Reducing Decision Fatigue
Making many choices throughout the day reduces the will. Indeed, to minimize this, you can create routines and minimize decisions about trivial matters. For example, wear the same clothes to work each day and pre-make your lunch instead of deciding each morning. This frees up will strength for more important choices.
Avoiding Temptation
Resisting temptation also requires willpower. To conserve it, remove tempting items from view and avoid situations that activate cravings. For instance, keep unhealthy snacks out of the kitchen or mute social media notifications that may distract you.
Practicing Self-Control
Exercising will strengthening practices builds “willpower muscles” over time. Try taking the stairs instead of the elevator or waiting an extra few minutes before checking emails. Every time you resist a temptation or delay gratification, you strengthen it for the next time.
Strengthening Habits
Forming beneficial habits minimizes willpower usage. However, it takes willpower to create new habits initially. Once automatic, habits function without conscious effort, freeing up willpower. For example, scheduling workouts in your calendar can form an exercise habit that no longer requires constant self-motivation.
Seeking Support
Accountability helps develop habits and reach goals. Enlist the encouragement of friends, family or coworkers to keep yourself motivated when willpower runs low. Their reminders and check-ins can recharge your own reserves.
Visualizing Success
Imagining yourself achieving your goals utilizes your will in a positive manner. Mental rehearsal activates the same regions of the brain involved in actually performing an action. Use visualization to motivate yourself on days when self-control feels depleted.
In summary, willpower is closely tied to habit formation. By reducing decisions, avoiding temptations, practicing restraint, developing beneficial habits and utilizing support systems, you can transform finite will into lasting self-control and motivation. With effort and consistency over time, strong habits strengthened by high willpower can become second nature.
