I just want to share with you my little “trick” on how to boost your willpower in just a couple of days. Heck, you’ll even see progress already after a couple of minutes!
It’s a pretty simple idea and it goes like this:
Follow through on all the things you set out to do. And if you KNOW you can’t, don’t even try to.
I know, I know. It sounds rather strange and absurd at first. But let me explain!
Every time you don’t follow through on your tasks your willpower will decrease.
It just happens to be like that…
This has nothing to do with “losing face” or other people judging you poorly because you “failed”.
No.
The issue here is that you lied to yourself and you (yourself) know it and therefore you feel weakened.
Every time you are following through on the promises you made to yourself – on the other side – your willpower increases.
So if you are having troubles with low willpower, procrastination or getting rid of bad habits it’s oftentimes better to NOT tell yourself that you will now change this behaviour once and for all.
Don’t lie to yourself.
If you have – for example – troubles with giving up smoking and you know you failed several times already before, don’t tell yourself that you will NOW stop and never smoke again (even if this is your intention).
Just focus on the stuff you have control over at any given moment instead.
Instead of saying “I will never smoke ever again” (and then maybe failing to do so and diminishing your willpower) just tell yourself that you will not smoke for 6 hours.
After 6 hours you feel accomplished and maybe feel the urge to go for another 6 hours.
This strategy is WAY BETTER than going for 12 hours and failing. Failing just causes you to reduce your willpower and feel even weaker at your next attempt.
It doesn’t matter how big or small the things are you are focusing on.
Each accomplished task and promise to yourself will increase your willpower, each failed attempt will diminish it.
Every single one of them.
So be careful.
Just remember to work on small things that are beneficial (or at least neutral) to your current life situation and within your power, and you are good to go.
Soon you will have enough willpower to tackle bigger things with ease as well.