Strengthening fortitude: useful tips. How to develop willpower: effective recommendations from psychologists How to demonstrate willpower in yourself

Anastasia Slobodina

For many, a weak character is a real problem, a misfortune that they cannot cope with either on their own, or after talking with a friend, or in consultation with a psychologist, or in a group training. So we have debunked the most popular methods, and frankly speaking, visiting offices and endless complaining conversations do not at all look like the path to getting rid of lack of will.

What remains to be done?

Let's not go into philosophy and talk about the purpose of Man to do his will and develop spiritually. We all understand the more earthly examples much better. What's good about willpower?

This kind of character helps its owner to live better in all respects: you can quit a bad habit, get yourself a better body, finish renovations, get a coveted position at work - it’s decided - it’s done!

Even if you are a fragile girl, you need strength of character as much as education and a means of subsistence. Maybe even more.

After all, it is lack of will that leads to all these difficulties about which so much has been written: excess weight, terrible skin from smoking, depression from an unfulfilled dream, a sore stomach from poor nutrition... the list is long. So how can we develop willpower so that we don’t have to later clear away all these rubble from the consequences of our weakness?

Let's try to figure out what the secret of a strong character is.

Start with motivation

Let's make up a story. For example, you need to lose weight because of shortness of breath - it’s hard for you to climb stairs, and you can’t jog at all, but you’d like to, because a healthy and athletic lifestyle is now in fashion.

In addition, it seems to you that you somehow snack on chocolate bars too often, and this is expensive; you could save money and buy a good thing for the house (floor lamp, painting). And you were embarrassed to go to the beach, because your ambitions are high (you want to show off your slender body in a crimson swimsuit), but your data is not a fountain. And you didn’t take the crimson swimsuit from the shelf in the store because you were embarrassed by the look of the seller, who said, “Where does such a fat woman need this color?”

In short, in our story you have plenty of motives to start losing weight. But the saboteur ruins everything: this plaintive voice will probably remind you how unfairly you were treated at work today, how you laugh at the local joggers in the park (and they will laugh at you!), remind you that you are very hungry, and probably your Being tired in the evening is a sign that you have burned too many calories - now you can make up for them with chocolate.

And the saboteur will certainly hurt you, repeating that your life is so far from ideal that there is no point in trying to pose as a beauty - you will still be like everyone else, an inconspicuous gray mouse in the crowd, so what difference does it make whether you are fat or slim?

This is how we lose our internal motivation in a split second. Please note that the inner voice that undermines your faith in yourself and the correctness of your decisions is yourself. How to defeat the harmful saboteur in yourself?

A way to defeat internal sabotage

First of all, you must get rid of self-pity. Think about it, if you are not touched by your own failure at work, you don’t care that a boor yelled at you on the bus, you don’t cry over your bitter fate, that your hunger is not completely satisfied today - you are free from the obligation to console yourself! There is a magic formula that is difficult to overestimate.

We use it so rarely, because we live in a time when our wishes should be fulfilled with lightning speed (as they say in chocolate advertising). This is a simple hackneyed phrase - "It happens to everyone?".

Indeed, a step towards developing willpower is a full recognition that your difficulties are not unique and are not worth ruining such wonderful plans for!

You want to lose weight - this is your real desire, based on objective needs for good health and good mood, approval of yourself and your lifestyle.

So why all these complaints?

Are you really that unhappy - without a chocolate bar, wearing funny sneakers in the park, knowing that your life does not flow on the Californian coast, as in your favorite TV series, but in a residential area of a cold northern city?

This should never stop you from pursuing your plans! Are you discouraged? – "It happens to everyone!". Keep going towards your goal, despite the desire to give yourself some slack for “suffering.”

Practice for strong-willed character

When you have managed to strengthen your inner determination through reflection, you can take on techniques for developing your will.

Man is given willpower to be active. And therefore, the best way to develop willpower is action. Don't believe those who say that the key is auto-training, for example, or repeating positive formulas, or making a list of your past victories to boost your morale. This is all just a warm-up before the real fight.

There are two ways to train character: small and large. The small path means that you have completely lost faith in yourself and are afraid to start big things, don’t want to make important decisions and are afraid to even want something, knowing that you still won’t be able to achieve it due to weakness of will, because you like to give in to yourself .

The big journey begins when you start making big decisions in your life: changes at work, in relationships, in your own body, travel, savings, a new lifestyle. When training character on a grand scale, you balance on the brink of being able to achieve success in a serious matter or of giving in to circumstances (no longer to yourself).

They say that you can develop willpower gradually, this is true, but it cannot be developed in a day. The paradox is that for the constant development of willpower, you also need willpower, but of a slightly different plan - you need to constantly keep in mind the phrase that briefly formulates your main motive for you. In our example at the beginning of the article this will not be the phrase “I want to lose weight?!”, but a reminder that besides your desires and whims there are objective things in the world - “Slimness is important!”. Keep the importance of your decisions in mind at all times, and your willpower training will be successful.

How to train willpower?

To start, give yourself a task that is low priority for you, but you will still perform a certain action every day, simply because you decide to do so. And no one can disappoint you in your goal, because in fact this action you have chosen has no special purpose.

Do something relentlessly simply because you decide to. For example, do 3 push-ups every evening or morning - you are not going to build biceps, you are going to make a decision and stick to it no matter what. Or start a plant and water it every three days, without forgetting or failing, at the same time. This makes little sense to you, so your inner saboteur will remain silent.

And when time passes, you will look back and realize that you have been doing the same action for a month or six months, even when you didn’t want to, even when you didn’t believe that you needed these push-ups!

You have minimal willpower! This is a very effective exercise, and anyone interested in human energy will understand what inner strength lies in fulfilling simple vows to oneself.

A person performs a huge number of actions every day, many of them require willpower, which allows not just to live, but to achieve success. Psychologists have developed various recommendations that allow you to become more purposeful, active, train your character and get what you need from life through your own efforts. If you want to know how to develop willpower, pay attention to the following recommendations.

Definition

Have you ever had to force yourself to do something? How often do you quit something you started without finishing it? What emotions and sensations accompany the process of giving up a goal? Willpower is a person’s ability to realize his ideas and intentions, despite internal laziness, physical disabilities and interference from the environment and environmental factors.

The ability to overcome temptations and your own shortcomings allows you to move forward, achieve success, solve even the most difficult problems and make choices. Willpower is the ability to do what you don’t want or like, what is necessary at the moment.

Why do you need the ability to overcome yourself?

Every day we have to solve many problems: from getting up in the morning to vital problems. A person with poorly developed willpower cannot bring himself to do even the simplest things, such as taking out the trash or washing the dishes.

In a global sense, a lack of will can interfere with the proper construction of personal relationships and career growth. Thus, the development of willpower is important for us, and it should begin in childhood, however, even in adulthood it is never too late to change everything and strengthen your ability to act and overcome obstacles.

Knowing how to strengthen willpower also helps in work. In work, the ability to clearly and timely complete assigned tasks, resolve conflict issues, as well as the desire to achieve heights in your career is of great importance.

How to develop

If you go to a bookstore, you will see a lot of literature on the topic of how to develop willpower, but you can do without it. The first thing that is important is motivation, that is, the presence of a desire to do something and focus on the goal. Having motivation helps us overcome difficulties and tune in to solve the most difficult problems. However, it can quickly disappear.

Let's say you decide to lose weight. To do this, you do exercises every day, reduce the amount of food you eat, plan to go to the gym, but after a while your enthusiasm disappears. Fry a fatty piece of meat again, get up later and don’t have time to warm up, put off visiting the fitness club for another time. Naturally, you will not achieve results. In order to continue exercising and achieve success, that is, to lose weight, you need willpower. A few recommendations for people who want to learn how to achieve what they started.

Do what you don't like no matter what. Put such tasks first, stop putting them off for another time.
Repeat to yourself daily: “I can do this.” I do. I'm achieving."
Know how to deny yourself. Build your character. Craving some ice cream? Pass by. Are you used to picking up a pack of cookies every time you go to the store? Change your habit.
Enjoy whatever you do. Sing, smile. You will strengthen your spirit, be charged with optimism, and therefore with the desire to do and achieve your goals.
See the target ahead. A task that has motivation is easier, and training willpower is more successful.

Exercises to develop willpower

Meditations. During meditation, we are forced not only to focus on our inner world, but also to learn patience, because we have to sit still for some time, which is especially difficult for people with excess energy. With the help of meditation, character and spirit are strengthened, thoughts and emotions are put in order. One of the difficult meditations is the ability to completely turn off brain activity, stop thinking, reproducing images or words. This helps you find peace and learn to be gradual in your actions.
Learn to perform actions sequentially and break them down into small steps. If you decide to lose weight, then set yourself the task of giving up sweets this week and starting preparing healthier foods the next. You also need to gradually increase physical activity.
We challenge ourselves to fight. We take our consciousness “weakly”. Why can others do it, but I can’t? I can and will prove it too.
We take care of our appearance. Always, even at home. You need to train yourself to be neat, even if you don’t want to, even if it seems like it doesn’t matter now, this will help build your character and at the same time become more attractive.
Making a schedule physical activity, draw it up in the form of a picture or table, put your signature and do everything that is prescribed there, without exception. Physical exercise trains not only the muscles, but also the spirit; in addition, it increases the level of overall energy.
If you are looking, how to develop willpower, then one of the pieces of advice is to make a promise to someone, it is customary to keep it, otherwise they begin to consider you irresponsible and weak-willed. The evaluation of other people greatly influences our ability to act.

When performing exercises to develop willpower, we remember about reinforcement. Praise yourself, give small gifts for success, write down what you have achieved. Record any positive successes so that you know you are making progress towards your goal and are able to overcome yourself.

Stop using negative words: I can’t, I won’t, I can’t. Replace them with positive ones: I do, I achieve, I can, I can, I’m interested.

Keep track of your usual activities: how much you ate, how long it took you to get to work, how much time you spent watching TV or the computer. Daily activities will tell you a lot about what unnecessary activities you do and what can be reduced and eliminated from your daily life. Let's say you spend a lot of time watching useless programs. Turn off the TV, go wash the dishes or go for a walk. Replacing one action with another allows you to train character.

Sport is a great way to overcome yourself

Starting to play even the easiest sport is not easy. This requires willpower. Meanwhile, sport helps you overcome yourself, your laziness, increase self-esteem, strengthen your spirit and change your character for the better. Daily training requires persistence, adherence to a daily routine, food intake and physical activity. The more often you play sports, the stronger your spirit becomes, and the faster you will develop willpower, which helps you overcome yourself and achieve incredible success.

Beginners are recommended to master simple workouts. Choose which sport is most suitable for you to enjoy attending classes. We increase the load gradually, the body must adapt to new conditions. Developing willpower is a daily effort to improve yourself. A strong character does not happen on its own; it is built and developed by overcoming pain, emotions, fears and laziness. In this regard, sport helps to train not only the body, but also the spirit.

What can get in the way of character training?

Something always bothers us. Sometimes circumstances, sometimes other people. The environment and its relationship to our success is of great importance to us. Close people may repeat: you are lazy, you can’t do anything. As a result, motivation drops, willpower decreases, and the desire to train it disappears. You have to overcome not only yourself, but also not to notice the criticism of others and their assessment of the individual.

When thinking about how to cultivate willpower, you should pay attention to the innate properties of temperament. It is most difficult for melancholic and phlegmatic people. The former are often unsure of themselves, the latter prefer to do everything measuredly and slowly. Cholerics have great willpower; they prefer to move forward, no matter what or no one. Sanguine and choleric people are less likely to be interested in how to develop willpower; their energy allows them to act actively in various life situations.

Low self-esteem also prevents you from changing your character. We need to strengthen ourselves, our spirit, learn to be persistent and independent. Increasing self-esteem is an important link in strengthening the will.

A comfortable and calm state often leads to the fact that willpower disappears as unnecessary. If you are thinking about how to develop willpower, then get out of your comfort zone to feel the difference between a calm state and a mode of searching and solving complex problems. Change your environment, change your job, start renovations, set yourself challenging tasks that will help train your character and strengthen your spirit.

Take action no matter what

The consumer society strives to make its life as simple as possible. Computers, home food delivery, personal transport, and service personnel lead to the fact that we stop doing many things on our own. As a result, each new action is given with increasing difficulty, and as a result, willpower completely disappears.

As soon as you feel weakness in your body, a desire to sit longer, put off the task you started or communicate with unpleasant people, take it and do it. Turn off your brain’s thoughts about how hard it is, just get up and do it, and then the question of how to strengthen willpower will disappear by itself, because your character will become persistent and your spirit resilient.

Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., psychologist, professor at Stanford University, author of Willpower. How to develop and strengthen? (The Willpower Instinct), says that the ability to self-control is the response of the human brain and body to sudden impulses and desires:

“Willpower is a person’s reaction to internal conflict. For example, you are overcome by the desire to smoke another cigarette or eat a larger portion for lunch, but you understand that this cannot be done, and with all your might you resist momentary weakness. Or you know you need to go to the gym and pay the utility bills that are collecting dust on the coffee table, but you’d rather be lazy.”

It took evolution millions of years to form the prefrontal cortex (the area of the brain located just behind the frontal bone of the skull), which controls absolutely all the processes that distinguish humans from animals. If we assume that the human brain is inherently strong in decision-making and self-control, then how to train self-control and what can be done to improve its “standard equipment”?

For many years it was believed that the structure of the brain was unchanged. However, the results of research conducted by neuroscientists over the past decade have shown that the brain, like a student thirsting for knowledge, is very sensitive to any experience gained: force yourself to solve calculation problems every day - and your brain will become stronger in mathematics; Learn and recite long poems - and you will significantly speed up the processes of memorizing and reproducing information.

For example, adults, learning to juggle, accumulate gray matter in the parietal lobe of the brain, which is responsible for coordinating movements, and children playing musical instruments have much better developed fine and gross motor skills than their peers.

Self-control is no exception to the rule. Today, scientists know a huge number of ways to strengthen willpower. Some of you, dear readers, are probably now thinking about temptation traps, such as chocolate bars in the dressing room or the minibar near the exercise bike. It is obvious that by resorting to such methods, you can not only develop the ability to self-control, but also strengthen the nervous system. :)

Today we invite you to familiarize yourself with simpler, but no less effective ways to develop willpower, proposed by Kelly McGonigal and other psychologists.

Willpower depletes throughout the day

A characteristic quality of willpower, according to McGonigal, is its limitation, because every successful manifestation of endurance and self-control depletes a person’s energy reserves:

“When we try to control our bad temper or ignore irritating factors, we draw strength from the same resource.”

A series of experiments described by psychologist Roy Baumeister in his book Willpower: Rediscovering Man's Greatest Strength led him to come up with the intriguing hypothesis that self-control is like a muscle: if you don't give it rest, you'll lose control. Over time, you will completely lose your strength, like an athlete who has brought himself to exhaustion. Some researchers, including Kelly McGonigal, believe that willpower, just like the human body, can be developed through special training, which will be discussed below.

How to learn self-control and strengthen willpower?

The first step towards self-control is stress management, since their biological basis is completely incompatible. Being under the influence of prolonged nervous tension, a person uses his energy resources irrationally, which negatively affects the functioning of the prefrontal cortex and aggravates the fight-or-flight state. In stressful situations, we act instinctively and make decisions based on immediate conclusions, while self-control requires in-depth consideration and analysis of the current situation.

In this case, how to achieve self-control in a stressful situation? When you feel stressed and tired, take a couple of deep breaths and try to distract yourself from your thoughts - this practice, according to McGonigal, will be a great start in the fight against chronic stress.

2. “I can’t” vs. "I don't"

According to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, one way to gain self-control and strengthen willpower is through self-affirmation. A great example is the difference between the impact on a person of using the phrases “I can’t” and “I don’t.”

In the above-mentioned experiment, 120 students were divided into 2 groups, one of which had to refuse a sentence using the phrase “I can’t”, while the second had to say “no” by starting a sentence with the words “I don’t”. For example, “I can’t eat ice cream” or “I don’t eat ice cream.” After completing the study, participants were offered a free treat: a chocolate bar or a muesli and walnut bar. The students, unaware that the experiment had not yet reached its logical conclusion, made a choice and received the desired snack. As a result, 61% of students who answered “I can’t” chose a chocolate bar over a granola bar, while students who answered “I don’t” chose a cereal bar 64% of the time.

“Every time you tell yourself, ‘I can’t,’ you create a feedback loop as a reminder of your limitations. This phrase once again emphasizes that you are forcing yourself to do something that you don’t like.”

How to gain self-control? The next time you have to give up something, use the wording “I don’t” so as not to remember once again that you can’t do something. :)

3. Healthy sleep

McGonigal notes that chronic sleep deprivation has a profound effect on the efficient functioning of the prefrontal cortex:

“Lack of sleep—even if you sleep less than 6 hours a day—is a stressor on the body, affecting how your body and brain deplete available energy resources. As a result, the prefrontal cortex loses control over other areas of the nervous system and cannot protect you from stress.”

Fortunately, the psychologist also says that all this is reversible:

“Once a person gets enough sleep, repeat brain scans will no longer show any damage to the prefrontal cortex.”

How to increase self-control through healthy sleep? Professor of psychiatry Dr. Daniel Kripke, who has devoted a number of scientific papers to sleep problems, writes that people who sleep about 7 hours daily work much more productively, feel happier and live longer. :)

4. Meditation (at least 8 weeks)

How to maintain self-control? According to a study conducted by Kelly McGonigal, eight weeks of daily meditation practice led to increased self-awareness in everyday life, improved attention and increased gray matter in the corresponding areas of the brain.

“You don’t have to meditate your whole life—you can see positive changes in brain function after just 8 weeks of practice.”

5. Sports and healthy eating

How to improve self-control and your physical fitness? Another great way to develop willpower is sports, and it doesn’t matter what level of exercise we are talking about - be it a walk in the fresh air or a full-fledged workout in the gym. For the brain, it makes no difference what kind of activity you choose: gardening, yoga, dancing, team sports, swimming or weightlifting - in this case, anything that goes beyond the typical sedentary lifestyle increases your willpower reserve.

The second independent measure that also needs to be taken is a healthy diet:

“It’s best to eat foods that can provide you with long-term energy. Most psychologists and nutritionists advise giving preference to foods that help maintain blood sugar levels at the same level. It will likely take some self-control to start moving in this direction, but any effort you make will improve your brain function.”

Sports and healthy eating not only strengthen willpower, but also have a positive impact on a person’s overall well-being. In particular, during physical activity, the hormone endorphin is released in our body:

“Endorphins minimize discomfort during exercise, block pain and promote feelings of euphoria.”

6. Healthy procrastination

How to train self-control while being lazy? :) In the previously mentioned book “Willpower: Rediscovering Man's Greatest Strength,” Roy Baumeister explains that repeating to yourself “not now, later” frees you from internal torment, especially when it comes to trying to get rid of bad habits (to for example, eating sweets while watching movies).

Marshmallow Test

Finally, I would like to talk about one fascinating experiment conducted for the first time in 1970 by Stanford University professor, author of the cognitive-affective theory of personality Walter Mischel.

The test is carried out to measure the willpower of children aged 4 to 6 years. The essence of the experiment is as follows: a child is taken into a room with a hidden camera and seated at a table on which lies one marshmallow. The examiner tells the child that he can eat it now or wait a while without touching the treat and receive another marshmallow as a reward.

In the original version of the experiment, out of 653 participants, more than half succumbed to temptation and did not put off the opportunity to eat marshmallows.

Watch the video to see how this happens. :)

The experiment was last conducted in 2012 by psychologists at the University of Rochester.

If you want to be successful, start by upgrading yourself. First of all, develop willpower. After reading this, many will be saddened, because they tend to believe that willpower is a tough discipline. In fact, everything is different. Don’t panic and give up now on developing yourself and making your life better. Training willpower is quite easy! We declare this to you responsibly. The main thing is to clearly understand at the very beginning of your journey what willpower is and what its essence is.

Willpower: definition and content

There are several definitions of this term in psychology. If you combine some of them, it will look like this.

Willpower is the conscious subordination of the individual to the designated rules, the creation of conditions for managing one’s internal and external actions in moments of overcoming obstacles.

This is one of many options that we cannot stop at if we really want to understand something. Such a definition indeed indicates that we will have to try to do the impossible. And it is so difficult that, most likely, we will fail. Many will give up trying to change something without even trying. It is better to enjoy something small, but bringing pleasure and joy, than to go out of your way for the unrealistic. That is the problem. Almost everyone sees willpower from this perspective.

Today we want to invite you to change your views. Forget the usual definition of willpower. From now on, you will be able to take a different look at seemingly understandable and boring things. Willpower is nothing more than desire. Learn to see the desired result. Motivate yourself correctly and problems with developing and strengthening willpower will not arise. It will help you decide whether you can achieve real heights in life.

Will is, first of all, a psychological component.

Now that it’s no longer so scary to talk about willpower, let’s take a closer look at this concept. Will is, first of all, a psychological component. It is involved in all aspects of human life. How does it work and affect a person? Usually there are only three main signs:

organizes and guides human activity in the right direction. Will helps the individual to achieve given goals. It controls and changes all impulses in accordance with the original plan. Simply put, the will does not allow you to retreat from your plans. For example, let's say you decide to quit smoking. A developed will will not allow you to even get a cigarette;
gives activity in all activities. With will you gain freedom. With it you are protected from external influences and make all decisions yourself;
develops the ability to overcome difficulties on the way to what is planned and desired. Faced with even minor obstacles, many give up and stop fighting. And people with developed will begin to make great efforts to fulfill their desires.

What benefits will developed willpower bring to a person’s life?

We figured out what willpower is and how it works. But the question of why we need it is still open. So, willpower helps self-development and success. A trained person will have the following qualities:

determination. You will not be afraid of any obstacles. With strong willpower, you simply will not let them influence you and your goals;
independence. You will be confident in your capabilities and will be able to make all difficult decisions yourself only on the basis of your own skills, abilities and knowledge;
decisiveness. First of all, it will be expressed in the timeliness of decision-making. You won't need a lot of time or help from others for this. A decisive person acts thoughtfully, quickly, riskily, boldly and confidently;
self-control and endurance. You will be able to keep all your feelings and desires under control. Even in the most difficult situations;
persistence. You will achieve everything you planned. Now, if there is a goal, then there will definitely be ways to achieve it;
discipline. There can be no success in an atmosphere of chaos and lack of discipline. Only by strengthening your will will you be able to restore order not only in your behavior, but also in your thinking;
courage and courage. Having strengthened your willpower, you will always be ready to fight, overcome dangerous moments and difficulties. You will be able to defend your principles and life position.

All these characteristics will be characteristic only of individuals with a developed sense of will. Weak-willed people have a set of opposite qualities. Now there is only one question left, but this is ours for you: do you want to be a successful person with strong willpower?

Let's talk about the main thing or how to develop willpower?

Every person must be strong not only physically, but also have strong willpower. We have already found out that this is a person’s ability to independently manage his actions and the desire to strive for his goals. With strong willpower:

self-esteem increases;
the highest results are achieved;
gaining control over all aspects of life;
bad habits lose their meaning;
self-organization, stress resistance and competitiveness increase;
positive thinking develops;
communication skills are acquired.

This is an approximate list of motives for starting willpower training. Everyone may have a different, personal reason for this. Remember! No matter who and what they claim, everyone can develop willpower. This is a kind of psychological muscle that can be pumped up. How to do this?

There are a lot of ways. Many scientists around the world have created and continue to improve a huge number of techniques. There are even courses, master classes and seminars on willpower training. We will give below some effective exercises. We cannot guarantee you 100% success from them. Everything is very individual. However, we affirm that with a serious and responsible attitude, your life will definitely become better. Yes, it will not be easy, but very exciting. Let's get started.

Exercise 1. Giving up bad habits

Let's start with the drastic changes. Analyze your habits and hobbies. Identify those that are not beneficial: smoking, frequent alcohol consumption, junk food, regularly losing keys, etc. And start working on getting rid of them.

Exercise 2. Test by temptation

Not an easy exercise, but radical. What is its essence? When getting rid of bad habits, you should always have the object of your temptation at hand. For example, we decided to give up chocolate. You should always have a chocolate or candy at home or with you that you can eat at any time. No matter how much you want it, eating it is strictly prohibited. The exercise is difficult, perceive it as a game and then it will turn into an interesting struggle with yourself.

Exercise 3. Switching attention

This exercise is the opposite of the previous one. It lies in the fact that as soon as you feel a craving for something forbidden. For example, you want to eat a hamburger or play a mindless time-killing game, etc. At this moment, you must suddenly shift your attention to something completely different. By being distracted, you will quickly forget about forbidden desires.

Exercise 4: Creating New Habits

When getting rid of bad habits, it is good to form new, but correct and useful ones. What could they be? For example, running in the morning, exercising, eating fish at least once a week, putting things away in a certain place and anything else that comes to mind. Please note that a habit does not appear on its own. To form it, systematic repetition is necessary. It doesn't matter what exactly you want to do, the important thing is to do it regularly.

Exercise 5. Good deeds

An interesting and not entirely common technique. It is proposed by American scientists. They are of the opinion that willpower is trained through charitable activities. The point is that by selflessly helping someone, we deprive ourselves of something: we donate part of the money we earn, give away things or food, waste energy, etc. It hardens. In addition, charity is a huge incentive not to commit actions that you may later regret.

Exercise 6. Tighten your muscles

Proven fact: by tensing our muscles, we activate our willpower. Start using this technique when fighting bad habits. If you want to smoke or feel some other temptation, quickly tense your muscles, you can even just clench your fists. It will be much easier to cope with desires this way. Develop a useful habit in this way and subsequently you will be able to activate your willpower as quickly as possible.

Today we will talk about willpower - that part inside everyone that is responsible for the decisions we make: to be or not to be, to do or not. Whenever there is a need for action, which is not part of our habits or contradicts internal desires and beliefs, we use willpower.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato was the first to offer a description for man's internal struggle with himself, around 400 BC, by comparing the soul to a chariot. In the place of the charioteer, according to Plato, there was a rational principle endowed with a certain willpower. The chariot itself is harnessed by a pair of horses, symbolizing the noble and sensual principles. Obeying the hand of the driver, they carry the chariot forward, but if he is tired or drives the horses too much, he immediately loses control over them, going against his conscious desires.

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

Willpower is your main ace in the hole

Willpower at its core is the ability to successfully cope with tasks. It is this that determines how quickly you can get back to work, give up unhealthy food, and start going to the gym. Willpower applies to absolutely all aspects of life.

Consider willpower to be 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.

Scientists Mark Muravin and Roy Baumeister share the same opinion. (Muraven and Baumeister).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 could only eat chocolate chip cookies. After some time, participants were asked to solve a complex geometry problem. However, 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 radishes gave up a good 20 minutes faster than those who got the cookies? Why? The point is that the last didn't have to make any effort and eat less palatable food, which means using willpower. The experiment clearly showed that the will also has achievable limits.

You may now be thinking, “Hmm, what kind of willpower is there... I couldn’t stand it and attacked the cookies.” I hasten to reassure you: meticulous servants of science have found 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 perform much more complex tricks. For example, going completely without food for five days, which, you see, is a very serious test.

Two ways to strengthen willpower

Cultivate your will. To strengthen muscles, we put stress on them, and they become tired, and when they recover, they become stronger. Willpower is trained according to the same principle: take charge of your health, try to organize your thoughts and become more collected.
Use power wisely. Willpower - especially. Sometimes it is better to go around the mountain than to climb it. Likewise, most everyday tasks actually require less effort than it seems at first glance.

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

How to develop willpower

Let's face it - we are mostly weak-willed. Many people actually have a talent for vegetation and vice: we sit on social networks all day long, indulge in hamburgers, smoke, and do something else harmful. Try going to lunch after postponing mobile phone to the side,- it's not as simple as it might seem to you at first. Being in constant tension, you do not feel the need to train your will. But as soon as the thought of losing excess weight or opening your own business or finding a better job comes into your head, then you will have to learn about the disadvantages of its absence on the thorny path to success.

And yet there are chances to win in this unequal struggle with oneself. It's simple: pay attention to your health physical as well as mental. Try to follow a few simple recommendations that we offer you below.

1. Eat healthy

The human brain is a mystery to this day. The structure of this organ is very complicated, and its significance is not subject to the slightest doubt. The weakening of a person’s mental abilities leads to a disorder of habits and desires. 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 “sway for a long time”.

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

Deficiency of vitamins and microelements in the body, such as vitamin D, may lead to cognitive impairment. That is why healthy nutrition plays a decisive role: a person’s weight is in order, the necessary vitamins and microelements, and willpower is also present in the proper amount.

2. Exercise

Many have probably heard the saying “In A healthy body means a healthy mind." This is true. 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.

That's why it's so easy to doze off on a long-distance bus or at a lecture. Partly for the same reason, standing desks 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 fully participate in blood circulation, supplying the brain with oxygen. If working while standing is not possible, take time to stand up and stretch a little. You don't have to be a marathon runner or a heavyweight in oats - just be more active. To do this, include warm-up in the list of mandatory activities for every day. After all, we are ourselves, right?

Try to follow the “Japanese” norm, which prescribes 10 thousand steps daily to maintain good health. It will also be useful to climb the stairs a couple of times. Do whatever you want, the main thing is to be in motion.

Sometimes we feel like our strength is 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 within five minutes.

3. Sleep

To achieve the highest degree of concentrated willpower, combine healthy eating and exercise with quality sleep at night.

By sleep deprivation we mean sleeping less than seven to eight hours at night. A sleep-deprived brain works at half capacity, as if you “took it on the chest,” which can already be compared to a complete lack of willpower. Imagine, just an hour or two that you need to “get” to the eight-hour norm will make your willpower an order of magnitude stronger. But for someone who doesn’t get enough sleep, even if only infrequently, willpower will not be so easy.

4. Drink more water

This is the last point related to healthcare. Honestly.

Every living thing needs water - an indisputable fact. It turns out that the ability to concentrate efforts is largely determined by the water content in our body. Even minor dehydration can have serious consequences on human mental activity.

It is believed that to maintain normal functioning you need to drink two liters or eight glasses of water daily. We recommend increasing this norm by one and a half to two times: beautiful skin and a healthy, moderate appetite will be advantages to good health.

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

5. Practice meditation

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

The concept of “willpower” is associated with a person’s ability to focus on the task at hand, controlling distracted consciousness. Many of us have a problem with this, which is aggravated by the continuous flow of a wide variety of information pouring at us from our mobile phones, laptops and social networks.

With the help of meditation, you can train self-awareness, the ability to abstract or concentrate your attention on some internal process - the goals may be different. If you have mastered the basic techniques of breathing control, then concentrating on your work will not be much of an effort, even if the environment is not conducive to work.

Moreover, meditation teaches us to “control ourselves among the crowd of confused people,” instead of losing our temper or getting upset over any reason - you must admit, the latter is unlikely to make you employee of the month.

By 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, the application. which will help you master the science of relaxation.

6. More practice

Whatever you want to succeed at, practice. When starting willpower training, start by checking yourself for lice. Let's do without wisdom, because with willpower, as in war or in love, all methods will be good.

Willpower itself is not enough to achieve your goals. Imagine that you have a Ferrari in your garage, under the hood of which there is a whole herd of horsepower hidden - the car is, without a doubt, very fast. However, if the fuel tank is dry, you won't get anywhere.

This is why it is important to use good and proven control methods. Why run to where you can get there without haste? In the following paragraphs, we will learn about ways to use willpower sparingly so that there is something left “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 work out. The same goes for personal motivation. For example, if you say to yourself: “I have to lose 20 kilos,” then you need to understand that achieving this goal may take more than one month.

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

The more difficult the task, the more effort you will have to make on your will. Understanding this, tackle the clearly feasible items first. This way you will “warm up” before doing everything else.

2. Form habits

Lifehacker has already talked about Charles Duhigg(Charles Duhigg) and his book "", in which he states: habits make up approximately 40% of our daily actions.

Overall this is good news. Imagine if every time you got into a car, you started a thought chain: “So, I take the handbrake off, press the clutch pedal, turn the key, look in the rearview mirror, look around, put the reverse gear in motion.” Do you understand? If these actions did not become habits, 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 snooze the alarm several times a morning, twirl the keys in our hands and (oh, horror!) melancholy pick our nose. As soon as self-discipline weakens, they are right there.

On the contrary, good and healthy habits help maintain willpower in maximum tone and in a state of combat readiness. For example, if your regular schedule includes jogging every morning, jumping out of bed and running to 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 simple technique to gain truly valuable skills.

When starting work, try spending half an hour of your time planning the most important tasks - after a few days this will become quite common for you.

Think about what actions in everyday life require special moral effort from you. Make a list of them and identify those that could become a habit. Service can be an additional source of motivation , which will display the progress of your achievements graphically, identify lazy people and “punish” with a ruble for weakness of spirit. This is Sparta, brother.

3. Avoid bad news

Someone who feels like a millionaire thinks clearly and is usually a strong-willed person. The absence of stress and all kinds of sadness will have the best impact on the development 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 ideal, and not every event can bring a smile to your face. Traffic accidents, wars, financial market collapses - 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 vacation photos that your friend posted on his social network page can become a serious threat to willpower and bring your passion to naught. As you know, an ax is the same as chopping. It’s the same with our consciousness, which processes signals coming from outside in autopilot mode.

To avoid being overly “informed,” try to limit your 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 thoughts from the series “What will happen tomorrow if...” will not bring practical benefit.

4. Create a positive work environment

With willpower it’s like with 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 you can calmly focus on the most important thing.

For example, you have a box of expensive chocolates on your table. From time to time, a desire arises in your head to open it and treat yourself, but you fight it with the help of willpower. Next to the box is a mobile phone, on the screen of which notification icons appear from time to time. Trying not to be distracted, you continue working. Know: willpower works with you.

The same applies to delicious food photographs in glossy magazines.

To make sure you don't fall into the list of spineless losers that Jonathan talks about, try the service : it will not only allow you to take into account your working time, but will also help classify activities according to their degree of importance.

5. Prepare in advance

Psychologically, decisions are easier if we know about the need to make them 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 mandatory rule. For example, “When I get to work, I will immediately answer all emails” or “As soon as I wake up, I will get dressed and go to the gym.”

Such rules greatly simplify a person’s struggle with himself, saving his internal resources. They also help keep promises. Sometimes doing and forgetting is better than not doing and being tormented by internal contradictions and remorse. Believe me, generated by cognitive dissonance, they will inevitably appear to ruin your mood. If you know that there is a lot of hard work ahead of you, prepare yourself for it in advance and complete a few simpler tasks to “warm up”.

6. Listen to yourself

Many people know their natural “clock”. There may be a feeling that you are about to lose your strength, or, conversely, when productivity is at the highest level, it seems that there is no problem that cannot be dealt with.

This occurs due to circadian rhythms -cyclical fluctuations in the intensity of various biological processes associated with change of day and night. That's why most people feel tired around two in the morning and energized after two in the afternoon. If you're one of them, plan to get everything important done before your activity level drops.

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

In fact, every hour and a half, our brain goes through a cycle in which high levels of activity are replaced by low levels. If at the moment of peak activity you are busy with work, then the work progresses and brings satisfaction.

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

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

Even more will

So, if you already feel that the knowledge you have acquired is just dying to be put into practice, here are some tips for you to get started immediately:

Think about what aspects of health you should pay attention to: excess weight, quality of sleep, exercise. Don't take on everything at once, start with one thing.
Evaluate the benefits of currently known assistant services, such as And . They work, we checked.
Alternate between simple and complex tasks throughout the workday to stay on your toes.
Critically analyze the organization of your workspace for things that steal your attention and time. And try the service .
Identify your activity peaks and lows during the day or evening. Remember these time periods and start planning with them in mind.
Think about what good habits you could adopt and what must-have items on your list you can plan ahead for.

We hope you are finally convinced of the inevitable success of all your planned events. It’s even better if an action plan has already begun to emerge in your head. We will be glad to learn about other effective methods of self-control and read your “winner story”!