Think You Don’t Have Enough Will-Power? (No One Does… )
It’s not your fault though. There are two reasons why it can be (very) hard to change, start or not do something:
- will-power is a finite resource and scarce within each day
- in-the-moment awareness is required to exert will-power
Once your will-power is gone on any given day, it’s hard to do something hard (or to not do something… ). And, even if you could resist something, you have to be sufficiently aware to make the choice to do (or start) something difficult (or to refrain from doing something).
It is vitally important to be careful in how one allocates will-power. It’s a precious, and only semi-renewable resource. That is to say, you can build your will-power “muscle” (to a degree),but it makes more – much more – sense to create the outcomes you desire otherwise.
The better alternatives to will-power are: habits (fundamentally important), awareness (a critical enabler) and intentional practice (a combination of the two).
I recently watched a excellent interview with Charles Duhigg and there’s hope. The key is understanding and leveraging the power of habit and things like “small wins.”
Put aside ~38 minutes and watch this video.