How to Have Willpower

How many times have we said: “I’ll do it later”, “yes, tomorrow”, “I’ll start on Monday” or “I’ll start in September”. Excuses to postpone tasks that do not motivate us enough or that we do not have the necessary will to do them. How many times have we set a goal that has not been achieved, how many things we would like to achieve but have not achieved due to lack of willpower, or rather, because of not knowing how to work on willpower. Therefore, in this PsychologyFor article, how to have willpower, you will find what willpower is, its definition, what it consists of and what factors it depends on. You will also find how you can have willpower and 15 tips to increase it.

What is willpower

The will is the power to decide one’s own behavior, that is, making decisions freely and consciously to choose what action to take. The will is the main driving force of action, to set objectives and direct them. The will is relatively stable and durable. The will is made up of:

• Innate energy or motivation
• The perception of one’s own resources
• The values
• Interests or preferences regarding the satisfaction of pleasure

Willpower is based on interpersonal skills:

• He self-knowledge: know one’s own states and resources.
• The self-regulation: regulate one’s own states and resources.
• He self control: adaptation and cognitive flexibility.
• The self motivation: the ability to provoke motivation regardless of the circumstance.
• The executive attention: the ability to focus attention, the power of focusing and resistance to distractions to stay focused on a future goal.

Are motivation and will the same thing?

The concept of willpower is closely linked to the concept of motivation, but they don’t mean the same. Motivation is an impulse that leads to action due to a stimulus or reward, it is unstable and unpredictable. There are different types of motivation. Motivation and will differ in that motivation is an emotional state that can be affected by a multitude of factors and vary, while will is the ability to decide, which tends to be more stable. Therefore, motivation will be effective with short tasks or objectives or at specific moments, above all, with short-term rewards. While in the perseverance of a long-term goal, will will be more important.

What does willpower depend on?

Willpower is more constant than motivation and depends more on oneself than on external factors. However, there are many causes that can affect willpower, since willpower depends on:

• The traits of personality
• The way to face the decision making
• The way to manage the motivation
• The security in oneself
• He fear to possible risks
• The difficulty of the task
• He effort what the task requires
• The reason or reward that has the objective

How to have willpower

Willpower is very important, since it affects all areas of our lives. It depends on it that we make the right decisions that translate into perseverance and perseverance to achieve the objectives we have set for ourselves or what we want so much.

To have willpower it is necessary to learn to organize behavior, that is, make the decisions appropriate actions that lead to actions that bring us closer to the objective. It’s about staying focused on the goal despite impulses. It is also necessary to learn to manage motivation, knowing ourselves, knowing what stimuli help to provoke the effect of motivation in us and using them to our advantage to motivate ourselves. You are not always motivated to do something, sometimes it is necessary to make the decision to start an action out of the desire to achieve a goal. It may be that, once immersed in the task, motivation appears.

Another fundamental aspect is the perception of self-efficacy, or in other words: believe in yourself. It is essential to exhaustively assess the difficulties and possible risks of the task or actions to be carried out, as well as the reward to which we aspire, to determine if we are willing to do so. make the effort which requires. In short, having willpower consists of enhancing the I responsible before him I irresponsible. Being able to choose the option that best suits us in the long term is having willpower.

Can we have willpower at all times?

Although willpower depends on us to a large extent, it is not infinite either. Therefore, the answer is no, we cannot have willpower absolutely always. Have you ever wondered why you don’t have willpower? As we have seen, willpower depends on many factors that we can improve, but not everything is in our hands. In the pursuit of a goal, and in life in general, it is essential understand and accept that we are human imperfect by nature.

At one extreme, there is the emotional part. If we acted according to this, we would allow ourselves to be carried away by impulses. At the other extreme is the rational part. The reality is that neither extreme is appropriate, but rather we must find the middle point between both parts. Wise behavior is one that listens to emotion and processes it with reason to find the best action.

It is not always appropriate to force ourselves to complete all pending tasks. What’s more, there are complicated situations, such as going through an illness or some painful circumstance that justify this lack of motivation. In the following section, the content is aimed at the general population, that is, people who do not have a significant impediment to taking action.

15 Tips to increase willpower

As we have seen, having willpower depends on many factors, some of which we can improve and increase, strengthening some capabilities and learning some skills. Here are some tips to increase willpower:

1. Focus on one thing

To choose the right goal, prioritize. It is well known that he who covers a lot, squeezes little. Choose the most important goal for you at this moment and also the one that is easiest or takes you the least time to achieve, thus increasing your motivation to face the next objective.

2. Be realistic

The right goal must be realistic. It’s very important set goals that are possible to achieve, because if we propose unrealistic things, the probability of not achieving them is very high. The consequence will be frustration and discouragement, as well as a worse perception of self-efficacy, which can even affect our security and self-esteem. These emotions totally interfere with motivation. From this state, it is more difficult to act, therefore, we are making the situation worse. For example:

• Bad: “Lose 20 kilos” = many chances of not achieving it = frustration, thoughts like “I’m a disaster, I’ll never achieve it” = demotivation = not taking action = not having willpower = not achieving the goal.
• Well: “Start losing weight” = the moment you lose some weight your confidence and self-esteem will increase = motivation = take action = have willpower = achieve the goal.

3. Determine and value the reward/effort relationship

For example:

A. Effort required to lose weight:

• Economical: pay for the services of a nutrition doctor. It will mean giving up spending that money on other things.
• Time: dedicate one hour a day to exercising and another hour to cooking healthy food. It will mean giving up spending that time on other things.
• Adaptation: process of changing habits. It will mean giving up things like drinking beer with friends or having pizza for dinner on Fridays.

B. Reward of losing weight:

• Be healthier.
• Have a higher quality of life.

After making a list with both sides of the same coin, you must assess if the reward is greater or not.

4. Follow a model

Find people you admire and who inspire you to learn and use as an example. Of course, without falling into comparison, each person is unique and each process is unique.

5. Add rewards

It will surely be easier to stop eating at fast food restaurants if you donate the money you save to a good cause or save it to give your mother a gift. If the reward is long-term, we can determine small rewards each month. A reward can be of many types, look for the one that fits your interests

6. Step by step

This tip to increase willpower consists of dividing the goal into smaller, clear and concrete parts. For example:

• General objective: save to go on vacation.
• Small and concrete goals: if to go on vacation I need 1,000 euros and I have 10 months, I need to save 100 each month.

7. Make a plan

It is very important to decide how we will do it: leave very clear and defined strategy to follow, taking into account our lifestyle, to incorporate new habits or routines. For example:

• Objective: read more.
• Strategy: the first book I am going to read will be this one. I am going to dedicate an hour a day to reading. The time will be from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays to Thursdays and from 11 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. When I have read half of the first book, I will decide, obtain and prepare the next book to read.

8. Keep the strategy in mind

Write the objective with the broken down strategy to achieve it, place it in a visible place. Explain it to your environment. Internalize it and integrate it into your life.

9. Keep a record

Being aware of the steps we have taken and the goals we have achieved will help us have a more realistic view of progress. This way, you will be able to see if your strategies are working properly or need modification, you will be able to adjust your expectations and savor the achievements, something that will increase your motivation.

10. Surround yourself with good company

The environment can help or hinder, so try to surround yourself with people by whom you feel accepted, supported and encouraged to achieve your goals.

11. Use avoidance and distraction

Avoid environments that pose risk situations for you. For example: if your goal is to save, try to avoid shopping centers. If you need to buy something specific, make a list and when you are in the store don’t go off the list. If you are hungry and you see a fast food restaurant, don’t stay there looking at photos of the food and imagining its taste: distract yourself, change location, think about something else or call on the phone.

12. Don’t beat yourself up

Keep in mind that things are not black and white, if one day you can’t read a whole hour, you can read half an hour, and nothing happens. Find the best way to achieve your goals by being kind to yourself and enjoying the process.

• Make it easy, help yourself and be your own friend.
• Do not fall into perfectionism, because perfection does not exist and pursuing it will lead to a lot of frustration.
• Accept and forgive your mistakes then learn from them.

13. Don’t make excuses

Be honest with yourself, if you had set an action to do and you can do it: Do it now! Don’t think about it, don’t give it any more thought. Note that It will never be the perfect time and, if you want, you will always find an excuse not to do what you have proposed. It’s about doing it even if the situation is not ideal.

14. Trust yourself

Think about other achievements. When thoughts like “I won’t be able to”, “I’m not capable” come to your mind, think about others. moments when you have had willpower and this has allowed you to achieve your goals. It is essential to have confidence in yourself.

15. Above all, take care of yourself

Maintaining healthy habits, such as resting the necessary time and eating a balanced diet, as well as having a positive and adaptive style of thinking and behavior, will provide you with a state of balance and well-being that is key to working on willpower.

ummary of tips for having willpower

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to How to have willpower we recommend that you enter our Personal Growth and Self-Help category.

Bibliography

• López, MF (2016). How to train willpower: This is how the mint muscle worksl. B OF BOOKS.
• Duhigg, C. (2015). The power of habits. Books4pocket.
• Muñoz, G. (2014). Willpower: the greatest human strength and strategies to increase it.