How to Increase Willpower; Although every person at some point in his life wanted to have self-control on a certain subject, he could not succeed. For example, if your willpower was stronger, maybe you could lose the last five pounds. Or, with a stronger will, you could exercise regularly and quit bad habits like alcohol and smoking.
Willpower is the ability to control one’s actions to achieve long-term goals. Willpower is also associated with concepts such as self-control, discipline, and determination. Since so many actions and behaviors depend on willpower, you may be wondering what you can do to strengthen your willpower.
In this article, you can read what willpower is, how it affects human behavior and how to increase willpower.
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What is Willpower?
According to neuroscience, the prefrontal cortex, the front part of the brain, is responsible for people’s behavior. The prefrontal cortex can direct what we pay attention to and think about, and even the emotions we experience. In other words, the reason why we delay doing our work and watch TV is our prefrontal cortex.
However, our brain is much more than the prefrontal cortex. The left side of the brain allows us to perform even boring tasks, while the right side helps prevent distractions. The middle part of the brain helps motivate us to achieve our goals.
This competition between different parts of our brain sometimes causes us to fail. For example, our willpower may sometimes not be enough for us to diet or go to the gym. Sometimes, despite distractions, we keep doing what we put our mind to because our willpower is stronger.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), willpower is the ability to resist short-term distractions to achieve long-term goals. Ignoring unwanted thoughts, feelings and impulses, being cool instead of being overly emotional, and arranging one’s life consciously and with effort are all about willpower.
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Why Will Willpower Weak?
There can be many reasons why willpower weakens or cannot increase. However, obstacles and difficulties are a part of life and will come up often to test your willpower.
Some of the obstacles that can cause your willpower to weaken and not increase are as follows:
- Your self-criticism may be too much. As you work to succeed, you may be subject to the harsh criticism of your inner critic. This may eventually cause you to give up.
- You may be sabotaging yourself. When everything is going great, all your plans may be turned upside down because of someone. Therefore, you may think that you cannot reach your goals. But if you are sufficiently motivated, you may not let them affect you.
- You may not have energy. Having goals and wanting to achieve them, and having the energy to achieve them are two different things. So review the balance between your work and private life and consider ways to make you have more energy.
- You may have unrealistic goals. Although achieving goals requires effort, some goals may be unattainable. So check your goals and see if they are realistic.
- There may be too many temptations around you. Even something as simple as hearing your phone ring can be a distraction. In this case, you can try to eliminate the temptations in the environment.
- You may lack motivation. You may have goals, but are you motivated enough to achieve them? Are you ready to achieve these? Lack of motivation may indicate that you do not have a clear plan of action. An action plan is a simple list of tasks you need to complete to achieve your goals. By preparing an action plan, you can plan the things you need to do to reach your goal and you can feel more motivated while doing them in order.
How to Increase Willpower?
Although many of us have difficulty with willpower and self-control, there are some ways to increase willpower. Some of the strategies you can use to strengthen your willpower and increase your self-control are as follows:
Realize that your willpower is open to improvement
Your willpower needs to develop like a muscle. Just like other muscles in the body, willpower can be strengthened over time and with effort. You can set simple but demanding tasks to improve your willpower. For example, use your left hand instead of your right hand to open the door, or turn off the light every time you leave the room. You can strengthen your willpower by performing these simple tasks for a few weeks.
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Get enough sleep
Bad sleep habits, such as sleeping too little or sleeping too much, can wear you out both physically and mentally. This affects your ability to resist distractions. Research shows that people who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to succumb to impulses, be less focused, and make risky decisions. Every person’s sleep needs are different. However, research shows that most adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep a day.
Meditate
Meditation is one of the best ways to increase willpower. According to research, doing mindfulness exercises regularly increases focus and self-control, even when not meditating. Meditation is something you can do anytime and anywhere. You can start meditating by taking five minutes first thing in the morning or during your lunch break. The more you try to resist your brain’s urge to think about other things, the easier it will be to resist other distractions and temptations in your life.
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Stay away from distractions and temptations
When you are exposed to temptations that make you want to eat, drink or spend money, remove them from your sight. If you cannot eliminate temptations, remove yourself from them. In American psychologist Walter Mischel’s famous marshmallow experiment, a group of children were asked to wait in a room with a plate full of marshmallows. Children who did not pay attention to the plate were able to hold out longer than children who did not take their eyes off the plate. For this reason, some children closed their eyes and some looked away. Children who kept their eyes on the plate had a shorter time to give up than others. Therefore, to strengthen your willpower, you can start by eliminating temptations.
Stick to your routines
Try to stick to your routines, whether in the morning or at night. Willpower can be increased with a certain routine. This is because having a regular schedule requires less willpower. For example, if you make it a habit to eat a healthy breakfast every morning, you may find that you don’t even need willpower to resist the pastries your co-workers offer. This way, you can save your willpower for when you really need it. Even remembering a behavior like washing your face every night before going to bed can help you overcome more difficult situations when you encounter them in your life.
