Submitted by Tyke Crowley on
Do you have unlimited willpower? If not, do you want it?
Well, if you’re like the rest of us, you can always use more willpower, and luckily, here's how to get it.
Willpower is not an natural gift; it’s earned. Remember the rider, the logical, conscious part of our brain, and the elephant, which is our out-of-conscious, emotional part of our mind. The rider is lazy since it accesses a limited supply of energy, whether we are processing new information or trying to curb our natural reaction or change a habit (i.e. steer our elephant.) Bad news, we have a finite amount of energy in our battery to devote to exerting our willpower. Good news, the battery is rechargeable and can grow.
Growing your willpower is like going to yoga. At first, you can only stretch so far, but as you continually practice, you can stretch further, which allows you to push yourself more. You grow your willpower by exerting it and stretching it further by keeping track of something new like keeping track when you lose your willpower; by starting a new routine like deep breathing exercises, which actually grow the part of the brain used for willpower; and by doing physical exercise like yoga, which takes willpower to keep up a focused action.
Want more willpower? Then do some willpower yoga because it stretches, expands and builds our capacity to exert more willpower when we need it. You need to know your willpower limit before you exhaust it, which requires a detour sign: our topic next time.
As always, I wish you the best to make each day countTM!
~Tyke Crowley