How to develop willpower and go to your goal without distraction

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Raise your hand those who are ready to get to work at any time, do not like fast food, follow diets, work out their abs in the morning and are not present in any social network. It's not you? And not me, alas. But I know one secret that can help you become one of those, whose hand will fly up, as soon as you hear a similar question.

Today we will talk about willpower - that part within everyone that is responsible for the decisions we make: to be or not to be, to do or not. Whenever the need arises for an action that is not part of our habits or is contrary to inner desires and beliefs, we use willpower.

The ancient Greek philosopher was the first to offer a description for the inner struggle of a person with himself, in about 400 BC, comparing the soul to a chariot. In the place of the driver, according to Plato, there was a reasonable beginning, endowed with a certain willpower. The chariot itself is pulled by a pair of horses, symbolizing a noble and sensual beginning. Obeying the hands of the driver, they carry the chariot forward, but if he is tired or too much chases the horses, he immediately loses control over them, speaking against his conscious desires.

Our minds are arranged in the same way. In a tense struggle with our inner "want", he inevitably gets tired, willpower weakens, and, as a result, we can no longer make some decisions that require certain efforts from us. By taking care of personal productivity and controlling our inner desires, we want to make the driver stronger so that the chariot always goes in the desired direction. Simply put, we always want to see the result of our efforts. This can be achieved by training willpower.

Willpower is your trump card up your sleeve

Willpower is at its core the ability to successfully cope with tasks. It is she who determines how quickly you can get involved in work, give up junk food, start going to the gym. Willpower applies to absolutely all aspects of life.

Think of willpower as one of your muscles that, like all other muscles, requires regular stretching and training. Otherwise, they will atrophy, like an astronaut returning from an orbital station.

The same opinion is shared by scientists Mark Muravin and Roy Baumeister (and). To confirm their hypothesis, they once conducted an experiment that went down in history as the experiment with radishes and cookies. Its essence was as follows: hungry subjects were asked to divide into two groups, one of which could only eat radishes, and the other only chocolate cookies. After some time, the participants were asked to solve a complex geometric problem. At the same time, not a single group of people knew that there was simply no solution.

During the experiment, it turned out that those who treated themselves to the radishes gave up a good 20 minutes faster than those who received the cookies. Why? The fact is that the latter did not have to make an effort and eat less tasty food, which means that they use willpower. The experiment has clearly shown that the will has attainable limits.

Perhaps you are now thinking: "Hmm, what willpower is there … I would not have resisted and pounced on the cookie." I hasten to reassure you: the meticulous servants of science have found out that willpower, like any muscle, can be successfully trained, like a tiger that fell into the hands of the Zapashny brothers. With proper training, willpower allows a person to do much more complex tricks. For example, completely go without food for five days, which, you see, is a very serious test.

Two ways to build willpower

1. Cultivate will. To strengthen muscles, we put them under stress, and they get tired, and when they recover, they become stronger. Willpower is trained on the same principle: take hold of your health, try to streamline your thoughts and become more focused.
2. Use power wisely. Willpower - especially. Sometimes it is better to go around the mountain than climb it. Likewise, most everyday tasks actually require less effort than meets the eye.

So, if you are the type of person who wants to take self-control to the next level, we will continue to introduce you to the tools designed to make your willpower stronger than diamond claws.

How to develop willpower

Let's face it - we're mostly weak-willed. Many have a downright talent for vegetation and vice: all day we sit on social networks, indulge in hamburgers, smoke, do something else harmful. Try going to lunch with your mobile phone aside - it's not as easy as you might think at first. Being in constant tension, you do not feel the need for will training. But as soon as you get the idea to lose weight, or open your own business or find a better job, then you have to learn about the cons of its absence on the thorny path to success.

And yet there is a chance of victory in this unequal struggle with oneself. It's simple: pay attention to health, both physical and mental. Try to follow a few simple recommendations that we offer you below.

1. Eat healthy foods

The human brain is a mystery to this day. The organization of this body is very difficult, and its significance is not subject to the slightest doubt. The weakening of the mental faculties of a person leads to a disorder of habits and impulses. The most obvious external sign of this is the so-called (BMI). If it is too high or tends to increase, then the blood sugar level begins to "jump", and you feel inhibited and "swing" for a long time.

However, body weight is not the only indicator of health status that affects a person's ability to self-control.

A deficiency of vitamins and minerals in the body, for example, can lead to impaired cognitive functions. That is why a healthy diet plays one of the decisive roles: a person's weight is in order, and the necessary vitamins and microelements are supplied in abundance, willpower is also present in the proper volume.

2. Get exercise

Many have probably heard the saying "A healthy mind is in a healthy body." This is indeed the case. The more active a person is physically, the better he, as they say, thinks.

If we are without movement for a long time, and especially if we sit, then all the muscles gradually "fall asleep", and with them our brain.

This is why it is so easy to doze off on a long-distance bus or in a lecture. Partly for the same reason, standing tables are gaining popularity today. The so-called desks can significantly increase productivity due to the fact that the muscles of the legs and back remain in motion, which means that the vessels are fully involved in blood circulation, supplying the brain with oxygen. If standing up isn't feasible, take the time to get up and stretch a little. You don't have to be a marathon runner or a heavyweight - just be active. To do this, include a warm-up in your list of must-have activities for each day. After all, we are ourselves, right?

Try to follow the "Japanese" norm of taking 10,000 steps daily to maintain your wellness. It will also be useful to climb the stairs a couple of times. Do whatever you want, the main thing is to be on the move.

Sometimes it seems to us that the forces seem to be leaving us and it is no longer possible to continue working. You shouldn't fight this feeling. Get up and go for a walk! You will be surprised when you feel better in just five minutes.

3. Sleep

To achieve the highest concentration of willpower, combine a healthy diet and exercise with quality sleep at night.

By sleep deprivation, we mean less than seven to eight hours of sleep in the dark. Sleepy brain works half-heartedly, as if you "took on the chest", which can already be compared with a complete lack of willpower. Imagine, just an hour or two, which you need to "get" to the eight-hour norm, will make willpower an order of magnitude stronger. But for a person who lacks sleep, albeit infrequently, volitional efforts will not be so easy.

4. Drink plenty of water

This is the last point related to health care. Honestly.

All living things need water - an indisputable fact. It turns out that the ability to concentrate efforts is largely due to the water content in our body. Even mild dehydration can seriously affect a person's mental performance.

It is believed that in order to maintain normal functioning, it is necessary to drink two liters or eight glasses of water daily. We recommend increasing this rate by one and a half to two times: the benefits to good health will be beautiful skin and healthy, moderate appetite.

And the water also contains potassium, sodium and chlorine - the most important electrolytes for the human body.

5. Practice Meditation

(Kelly McGonigal) - psychologist, professor at Stanford University and author of books on willpower - believes that meditation is one of the best methods of training it.

The concept of "willpower" is associated with the ability of a person to focus on a task at hand, controlling a distracted consciousness. Many of us have a problem with this, which is aggravated by the continuous flow of a variety of information pouring on us from a mobile phone, laptop and social networks.

With the help of meditation, you can train self-awareness, the ability to abstract or focus your attention on any internal process - the goals can be different. Once you have mastered the basic breathing control techniques, it will be easy to focus on work, even if the environment is not conducive to work.

Moreover, meditation teaches us to "control ourselves among the confused crowd", instead of losing our temper or being upset about any reason - you must admit, the latter is unlikely to make you the worker of the month.

Concentrating on different sensations, we learn to get rid of unnecessary emotions in a given situation and their external manifestations.

If you want to try the wonderful effects of meditation on yourself today, check out, for example, an app that will help you master the science of relaxation.

6. More practice

Whatever you want to excel at, practice. When starting to train willpower, start by testing yourself for "lice". We will do without wisdom, for with willpower, as in war or in love, all methods will be good.

Coping with the urge to eat ice cream before bed? Test. Refused to watch the True Detective episode in favor of reading? Plus karma. Professor McGonigal, already known to us, advises to do more things that are unusual for us: open doors or brush your teeth with the other hand, walk different routes, avoid words-parasites. All of this will also help build your willpower.

How to save willpower and find what you want

Willpower alone is not enough to achieve your goals. Imagine that you have a Ferrari in your garage with a herd of horsepower lurking under the hood - the car is undoubtedly very fast. However, if the fuel tank is dry, you won't go anywhere.

This is why it is important to use good and proven control methods. Why run where you can reach without haste? In the following paragraphs, we will learn about ways to economically use willpower, so that there will be “for later”.

1. Divide and Conquer

Sometimes, just looking at the front of the upcoming work, we already want to give up and admit: nothing will come of it. So it is with personal motivation. For example, if you say to yourself: “I have to lose 20 kilos,” then you need to understand that it may take more than one month to achieve this goal.

However, if you conditionally divide one large task into several smaller items, say “read one paragraph from a textbook on microbiology” or “lose two kilograms”, then the goal will no longer seem so unattainable to you.

The more difficult the task, the more efforts you have to make over your will. Understanding this, first tackle the clearly feasible points. So you will "stretch" before doing all the rest.

2. Form habits

The life hacker has already talked about (Charles Duhigg) and his book "", in which he states that habits make up about 40% of our daily activities.

All in all, this is good news. Imagine if every time you get into the car, you run a thought chain: “So, I take off the parking brake, press the clutch pedal, turn the key, look in the rear-view mirror, look around, turn on the reverse gear”. Do you understand? If these actions were not a habit, we simply would not have time to think about anything!

But, whether we like it or not, bad habits, alas, have not been canceled. It is because of them that we postpone the alarm signal several times in the morning, twirl the keys in our hands and (oh, horror!) Pick our nose melancholy. As soon as self-discipline weakens, they are already there.

On the contrary, good and healthy habits help to maintain willpower at maximum tone and alertness. For example, if your regular schedule includes daily jogging in the morning, then jumping out of bed and running into the park is unlikely to be a problem for you. If not, force yourself to start, and within a week your body will get used to the new morning "ritual". Use this straightforward trick to gain some truly valuable skills.

When you get started, try to devote half an hour of your time to planning the most important tasks - in a few days it will become quite common for you.

Think about what activities in your daily life require you to make a special moral effort. List them and identify those that might become a habit. An additional source of motivation can be a service that will display the progress of your achievements graphically, identify lazy people and "punish" with a ruble for weakness of mind. This is Sparta, brother.

3. Avoid bad news

The one who feels “worth a million” and thinks clearly, and the person, as a rule, is strong-willed. The absence of stress and all sorts of sorrows will have the best effect on the education of self-control. That is why the expression “You are what you eat” will also be true for “mental” food - the information we consume.

Of course, our world is not perfect, and not every event can bring a smile on our face. Traffic accidents, wars, financial market crashes - in a word, everything that is continuously broadcast on TV screens and mobile devices, along with all other information, affects our mood and … willpower. In fact, even the vacation photos your friend has posted on their social media page can be a serious threat to willpower and undermine your passion. As you know, an ax does not care what a chop. The same is with our consciousness, which processes signals coming from the outside in the autopilot mode.

To avoid being overly informed, try to limit the consumption of information that is not directly related to your field of activity. Of course, if you are a broker by profession, then being aware of stock market fluctuations is your direct responsibility. But reflections from the series "What will happen tomorrow if …" will not bring any practical benefit.

4. Create a supportive work environment

With willpower, just like money: the less you spend, the more you end up with. It would be logical to assume that you can make the environment work for you, that is, reduce the likelihood of situations where you may need willpower. This means that you can calmly focus on the most important thing.

For example, let's say you have a box of expensive chocolates on your table. Periodically, a desire arises in your head to open it and treat yourself to it, but you are fighting it with the help of willpower. Next to the box is a customary mobile phone, on the screen of which notification icons appear from time to time. Trying not to get distracted, you keep working. Know that willpower works with you.

The same goes for the mouth-watering photographs of food in glossy magazines.

In order not to be among the spineless losers that Jonathan talks about, try the service: it will not only allow you to track your working hours, but will also help you classify activities according to their degree of importance.

5. Prepare in advance

It is psychologically easier to make decisions, the need for which we know in advance. Knowing this, we can minimize the use of our volitional resources in achieving our goals.

Just think about what you need to do, and repeat to yourself, fixing the desired thought in your head, as if it were a must-follow rule. For example, “When I get to work, I’ll answer all emails immediately,” or “As soon as I wake up, I’ll get dressed and go to the gym.”

Such rules greatly simplify the struggle of a person with himself, saving his internal resources. They also help keep promises made. Sometimes doing and forgetting is better than not doing and suffering from internal contradictions and remorse. Believe, generated, they will inevitably appear to ruin your mood. If you know that there is a long and hard work on the result, tune in to it in advance and do some simpler tasks to "warm up".

6. Listen to yourself

Many people know their natural "clock". There is a feeling that the strength is about to leave, or, conversely, when productivity is at the highest level, it seems that there is no such problem that cannot be dealt with.

This is due to - cyclical fluctuations in the intensity of various biological processes associated with the change of day and night. This is why most people feel fatigued at about two in the morning and energized after two in the afternoon. If you are one of them, plan to do the most important things before your activity level drops.

Another type of biological rhythms is also known -. They are responsible for concentration of attention, changes in pain sensitivity and a number of other processes occurring during the day and night in the human body.

In fact, every hour and a half, our brain goes through a cycle in which a high level of activity is replaced by a low one. If at the time of peak activity you are busy with work, then the work is arguable and rewarding.

On the contrary, acting contrary to your natural rhythms, you mindlessly waste a limited supply of willpower and, as a result, quickly "burn out".

If the time of day is “not yours,” and there are still a lot of things to do, we recommend working in sets of an hour and a half, interrupting for 15–20 minutes of rest between each of these sets.

More will

So, if you already feel that what you have learned is eager to be put into practice, here are some tips to get you started immediately:

1. Think about what aspects of health you should pay attention to: being overweight, sleeping quality, exercising. Don't tackle everything at once, start with one thing.
2. Evaluate the benefits of currently known helper services, such as and. They work, we checked.
3. Alternate between simple and complex tasks throughout your work day to stay on top of your mood.
4. Take a critical look at the organization of your workplace for things that are stealing your attention and time. And try the service.
5. Determine the peaks in your activity and the periods of decline observed during the day or evening. Remember these time periods and start planning based on them.
6. Think about what good habits you might develop and what must-have items on your list you can plan ahead of time.

We hope you are finally convinced of the inevitable success of all the events you have planned. It's even better if a plan of action has already begun to take shape in your head. We will be glad to learn about other effective ways of self-control and read your "winner story"!