How to make your will strong. How to develop willpower: effective tips. What can interfere with the process of character training

Throughout his life, a person constantly encounters various obstacles that prevent him from reaching his goals, and one of the most important obstacles is banal laziness. How to learn to deal with the reluctance to do anything at the moment - how to develop willpower that will help you realize all your plans and dreams?

What is willpower?

If you understand that you lack the ability to control your behavior, you are often distracted by extraneous matters when you need to focus, then you really do not have enough willpower. This is a fairly broad concept, which includes:

Analysis of your behavior

Before proceeding with the implementation of general recommendations that will help you understand how to develop willpower, you will need to carefully analyze exactly what points make you doubt your strength of character.

Let's take the most common situation that requires willpower from us - the achievement of a goal. There may be several problems along the way:

laziness (postponing things “for later”);
inability to plan their actions;
inattention (reaction to distractions);
lack of motivation.

Think about what exactly you lack in order to cultivate willpower in yourself to achieve your long-term goal. And move on to the next section.

To get rid of the habit of procrastinating forever, try these simple recommendations.

Get in the habit of writing down a to-do list for tomorrow before bed, and the next day, cross off everything that you have accomplished. This technique will not only make you a more organized person, but also teach you to rejoice at the sight of the result.
Reward yourself for every job you do. It can be a cup of aromatic coffee, a call to your beloved friend, a 15-minute book reading or surfing the Internet. The main thing is not to get carried away, set a timer and return to work after 15 minutes.
Share your plans for the day with your household - a sense of responsibility will increase, you will be ashamed not to do what you promised to do.

Failure to plan

This shortcoming is the scourge of many modern people, because in the modern rhythm of life it is very difficult to stay up to date without time management and planning skills.

Eat the elephant bit by bit. This metaphor means that global goals should be divided into smaller, but important steps. These sub-goals must also be planned: recorded in a diary and completed in turn.
Leave time for rest. Working without breaks is not only unproductive, but also unhealthy. Take a 5-10 minute break every hour: walk around the office, drink tea, call a friend.

inattention

To successfully and quickly complete current affairs, you need to be able to focus on them.

Motivation

This is the main condition for success in business. In order not to leave everything halfway, you need to do this:

Visualize the goal every day (imagine a positive result);
Hang on the walls of your office or apartment motivating photos and sayings of great people;
Promise yourself a reward for your hard work.

Aliyana, Podolsk

How to develop willpower and why it is so important to do it - you will find answers to all these questions in this article. There are many definitions for willpower. My definition is the following. Willpower is a measure of a person's ability to translate their intentions into reality, dictated by considerations of reasonable planning, despite momentary impulses (desires, habits, weaknesses, emotions, fears, etc.).

For a task development of willpower ideally suited, those methods that in their main purpose serve completely different purposes, but sideways contribute to the development of the above-mentioned quality.

This may seem like a complicated, cumbersome definition, but, in fact, if we turn to specific examples, it becomes clear what I'm talking about.

Theory

What is willpower for?

But I used to eat meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner and could not imagine a different order of things.

I am not a passionate animal advocate or a fanatical preacher of a healthy lifestyle. I do not eat meat, because it is easy for me to do it, it is not difficult for me to deny myself this pleasure, for the sake of healthy eating principles and just for the sake of experiment. Because I have trained myself to say “no” to my body and to say “yes” to my mind.

The pleasure of eating meat is not a significant criterion for me in favor of eating it if I pursue any long-term goals. It is easy for me to refuse the pleasure that alcohol brings, I can get up early and exercise, no matter how much I like it. For me, this is not a big problem, my body obeys me.

Are the desires of our body so important?

To some of you reading this article right now, it may seem incredibly difficult to deny yourself some pleasure every day. This is not true. In order to refute this belief, I described my experience.

Now, for many of you, the little pleasures of the body may seem big and big. You may think that you cannot live without your habits. I assure you, this is an illusion.
As a child, I thought that it was very difficult to drive a car and, at the same time, navigate the city. Now I can easily drive a car and know where to go and where to turn.

As soon as you educate your body, all its desires will no longer be so significant and important. Do not think that I am preaching some kind of monastic lifestyle, calling to get rid of attachment to the body and become a pure spirit. It's impossible. I just want you to become masters of your body, not its slaves.

This is great happiness and freedom, I assure you.

Practice

Willpower is like a muscle, in order to develop it, it is necessary to subject it to regular loads. Every time you act contrary to your momentary desires, this muscle grows and becomes stronger. Once you stop doing this, the muscle becomes flabby and weak.

Start Small

This is the motto of my site - "start small." If this is your first time going to the gym, then you will not lift a heavy barbell, because in this case you will overstrain and abandon this sport.

It is better to start with light exercises. The muscles should slowly get used to the load, if you have not particularly loaded them before. No need to strive to achieve everything at once. Start with something easy.

The following tips will help you move in the right direction.

Do not try to immediately implement all the recommendations that you will see below! It is very difficult for an unprepared person to do this. Therefore, adequately evaluate your own capabilities.

Implement these principles in your life gradually, start with one thing. For example, include morning exercises in your daily routine, for starters. Try to meditate every day for at least 10 minutes. Then move on to doing the other tips when you're ready.

Organize your daily routine

Start getting up early

You don't have to sleep all the way. Try to get up at the same time every day. Your day begins with awakening, if you go on about your body and sleep further, then the will muscle is not set in motion, it is not warmed up.

If upon awakening you start to be lazy, then later, throughout the day, it is much more difficult to force yourself to do something.

But if you make an effort on yourself and force yourself to rise, even if your body is desperately resisting, you will use your will, knead this “muscle” at the very beginning of the day. In this, any of your activities on this day will become easier and more productive. Physical activity is much easier if you have stretched all your muscles in the morning. The same thing happens with willpower. You need to tone this muscle.

The mode of sleep and wakefulness is not only an element of discipline, it is very beneficial for health.

Plan your affairs and follow the plan

Train yourself to stick to your plan. Set yourself daily, weekly, monthly, or perpetual goals and stick to them. For example: write a 3,000 word article on self-development today, read this book to the end, read one book a month, wash the dishes after every meal, clean up your hard drive every month, etc.

So that you are not tempted to come up with a reason for not doing something, then make it a rule that the thing must be done anyway and the plan must not be violated.
For example, if you have planned to go jogging three times a week, you can distribute classes by day as you like, the only requirement is that the plan must be completed by the end of the week.

If you have never run today, and today is Sunday, then you will have to run three times that day.

Don't put it off for "later"

If you have no objective reason not to do what you promised yourself to do, do it. Even if you are lazy and don’t feel like it, keep your promise anyway, learn to step over your “I don’t want to”. Develop your willpower muscle.

It is better to do something while there is an opportunity now. Who knows what will happen next? We cannot see into the future. Suddenly there will be a lot of things, and then we will not have time for anything at all? If you do everything on time, life becomes much more comfortable and the load of unfinished business does not put pressure on the psyche. This I know for myself.

go in for sports

Sport perfectly disciplines and develops the will, because physical exercise is a constant overcoming of laziness and body resistance. During each session, you have to step over yourself, through muscle fatigue and discomfort.

Many people do not go in for sports: because they lack willpower. But this is a self-contained process. It takes physical strength to lift the barbell 100 times in a row, but if you lift this barbell every day, then your strength will increase and sooner or later you will do 100 lifts.

If you are not yet involved in sports, then start doing simple exercises in the morning. These exercises should follow a routine, such as exercising 5 times a week.

Exercise in the morning is able to charge the “muscle of will” with a tone. If you do exercises, then later, all day, it will be easier for you to fight temptations and do what you have planned.

Do less bullshit

Limit the amount of time you spend on mindless, mind-numbing activities like watching TV series or working in . Read more fiction and educational literature, spend time outdoors. Develop, improve your skills, learn new things from books and from other sources.

Make promises to yourself and keep them

Turn "should" into "I give you my word." For example, you think, "I need to clean the house." Has it often happened to you that things did not go beyond this thought? All day long you suffered from nonsense, and you didn’t put the house in order, despite the fact that you thought it would be nice to do it. Therefore, turn "must" into "I give my word" or "I promise." “I promise to clean up the apartment by the end of the day!” Let the fulfillment of the promise be a matter of honor for you. Promises help maintain self-discipline.

Turn any of your intentions into a promise. Have you decided that you spend a lot of time in front of the computer? Stop beating yourself up about it! Better promise yourself not to surf the Internet in the evening at home after work!

Maintain hygiene and keep order around you

Hygiene is also an element of discipline, which is subject to a strict routine. Brush your teeth twice a day, wash your face, bathe and shave regularly. (I hope everyone does this, I wrote this just in case)

Keep order at home and at work. Get out, wash the dishes, clean the furniture. Organize your desk drawers and your computer hard drive. Delete unnecessary files from folders, get rid of inactive contacts in the QIP or Skype list, clean your email from spam. Create a logical directory structure on your computer.

Restrain your gastronomic weaknesses

Eat less fast food. Learn to cook. Eat more healthy food. Try to prepare a nutritious and tasty meal for dinner without the use of meat, at least once a week. This experience may be new and interesting for you.

Eliminate, at least partially, from the diet of sausages and other muck. Read articles about healthy eating and try to follow the recommendations given there.

If you eat a lot and have problems with being overweight, eat less. Learn to tolerate mild hunger. In this case, organize a diet and follow it. Eat three meals a day and don't eat anything in between.

Work on breaking bad habits

Smoke less, or better yet, quit altogether. Every cigarette, every bottle of beer is a little weakness. These weaknesses lead to the degradation of the will and the triumph of lower needs over our mind.

Practice meditation

With meditation, you can begin the development of willpower. Incorporate this practice into your daily routine. Meditation helps to relax, put your thoughts in order. With practice, you can learn to control your emotions and your body.

It was meditation that gave a significant impetus to my personal development. When I first started meditating, I drank, I smoked, I didn't exercise, I couldn't plan my affairs and see things through. All this came later, but it all started with meditation.

This practice is very disciplined, as the classes imply a strict schedule: you must meditate twice a day to achieve the desired effect. You should put aside all your affairs and sit in one position until the end of the session and try to keep your attention with one thing. If attention wanders to the side, you return it to the starting point. This is a great workout for willpower.

In Kelly McGonigal's book, it is written that scientific studies have revealed that meditation increases the content of gray matter in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. It is this area of the brain that is responsible for willpower, while impulsive decisions are led by its central part.

“Over time, their [those who meditate] the brain begins to work like a well-oiled volitional machine,” says the author of the book. And indeed it is. It was regular meditation that helped me strengthen my willpower when I lacked it so much. For me, it all started with this practice, and only then everything else followed: sports, avoiding cigarettes and alcohol, and discipline. Meditation has made me, a lazy and disorganized person, a more collected and disciplined person.

Even one single meditation session can charge you with a “reserve of willpower” for the rest of the day. I noticed that if I didn’t meditate in the morning, my “willpower muscle” would not be in good shape. Then things will go hard and with resistance, it will be difficult for me to overcome temptations and temptations. But when I meditate and do exercises in the morning, I transfer my willpower into tone and full readiness. Things are going smoothly, and plans are being fulfilled!

This is not the most difficult exercise, but it is extremely effective. In my opinion, meditation is the best and most effective way to develop willpower. I recommend starting with it. You can learn about that from the article at the link.

Don't delay, start acting tomorrow!

Start working on the development of willpower right tomorrow: get up half an hour early and do exercises! After that, tell yourself that from now on you will get up half an hour earlier every morning and do the exercises. After that, go to the bookstore and buy yourself a good, informative book, start reading it.

Let this be your first step towards developing willpower.

I read somewhere that walking on two legs is a very difficult task for the brain. When you walk you are in a permanently controlled fall state, your brain sends a huge amount of signals to keep your body in balance.

That is why it is so difficult to teach a robot to move on two legs, while, as far as I know, this is an impossible task for science. This problem has long been solved by nature.

Also, willpower protects you from falling into the abyss of depravity and laziness. While you are awake, thousands of small desires attack your brain, and you run the risk of deviating from the intended course, falling halfway: “sleep more”, “do it later”, “you can’t, it’s very hard”, “stop and rest, work is not will leave”, etc.

Moving towards the goal is a constant controlled fall. The less you fall, the sooner you achieve what you want. But as soon as you start to constantly fall off your feet, your fragile balance will turn into an eternal fall to no one knows where ...

Kelly McGonigal, PhD, 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 response to internal conflict. For example, you are overwhelmed by the desire to smoke another cigarette or eat a larger portion for lunch, but you understand that you can’t do this, and with the last strength you resist momentary weakness. Or you know you need to go to the gym and pay your utility bills that are dusty on the coffee table, but you'd rather sit back."

It took millions of years for evolution to form the prefrontal cortex (a region of the brain located just behind the frontal bone of the skull), which controls absolutely all the processes that distinguish a person from an animal. Assuming that initially the human brain is 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 is unchanged. However, the results of research conducted by neuroscientists over the past decade have shown that the brain, like a student thirsty for knowledge, is very sensitive to any experience gained: force yourself to solve daily tasks for calculation - and your brain will become stronger in mathematics; learn and recite long poems - and you will significantly speed up the process of memorizing and reproducing information.

For example, adults, learning to juggle, accumulate gray matter in the parietal lobe of the brain responsible for the coordination of movements, while children playing musical instruments have much better 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 now probably thinking about temptation traps, like chocolate bars in the dressing room or the minibar next to the exercise bike. Obviously, by resorting to such methods, one can not only develop the ability to self-control, but also temper 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 each successful manifestation of endurance and self-control depletes a person’s energy reserves:

“By trying to control our tough temper or ignore annoying 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 make an intriguing hypothesis that self-control is like a muscle: if you don't rest it, you will in time, completely lose 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 brought up with the help of special training, which will be discussed later.

How to learn self-control and strengthen willpower?

The first step towards self-control is stress management, as their biological bases are completely incompatible. Being under the influence of prolonged nervous tension, a person irrationally uses his energy resources, which negatively affects the work of the prefrontal cortex and aggravates the “fight-or-flight” state. In stressful situations, we act instinctively and make decisions based on momentary 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 overwhelmed 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 do not"

According to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, one of the ways to improve self-control and strengthen willpower is self-affirmation. A great example is the difference between the impact on a person of using the phrases "I can't" and "I can't."

In the course of the mentioned experiment, 120 students were divided into 2 groups, while one of them had to refuse the proposal using the phrase “I can’t”, while the second had to say “no”, starting the sentence with the words “I can’t”. For example, "I can't eat ice cream" or "I don't eat ice cream." At the end of 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 muesli bar, while students who answered "I can't" chose a cereal bar 64% of the time.

“Every time you tell yourself 'I can't', you are creating a feedback loop as a reminder of your limitations. This phrase once again emphasizes that you are forcing yourself to do what you do not like.

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

3. Healthy sleep

McGonigal notes that constant sleep deprivation has a strong impact on the efficient functioning of the prefrontal cortex of the brain:

“Lack of sleep - even if you sleep less than 6 hours a day - is a kind of stress for the body, affecting how your body and brain deplete the 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:

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

How to improve 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 a day are much more productive, feel happier and live longer. :)

4. Meditation (at least 8 weeks)

How to keep self-control? According to a study 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 all your life – positive changes in brain function are observed 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 degree of exercise we are talking about - whether it’s a walk in the fresh air or a full-fledged workout in the gym. It doesn’t matter to the brain which activity you prefer: gardening, yoga, dancing, team sports, swimming or weightlifting – in this case, anything that goes beyond a typical sedentary lifestyle increases willpower reserve.

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

“It is best to eat food that can provide you with energy for a long time. 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 the functioning of the brain.

Sports and a healthy diet not only strengthen willpower, but also have a positive effect on the well-being of a person as a whole. 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, being lazy? :) In the already mentioned book “Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength”, Roy Baumeister explains that a person, repeating to himself “not now - later”, is freed 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

In conclusion, I would like to tell you 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 brought into a room with a hidden camera and sits at a table on which lies one marshmallow. The researcher tells the child that he can eat it now or wait a while without touching the treat and get another marshmallow as a reward.

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

How it happens - see the video. :)

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

Instruction

Every day we are faced with many situations in which it is possible to train our willpower. For example, in the morning, when you get up like that on an alarm clock. Instead of lying down for an extra half an hour, and then, without having breakfast and gathering in a hurry, run, get up clearly on call.
In this half hour, defeat your second lazy self and do exercises, take a shower and cook a light breakfast. You will overcome yourself and force you to do what you didn’t want to, but when you go to work, you will definitely feel satisfaction. It is? That means everything, and this is a plus for your willpower.

Don't compromise with yourself. Often you have to make decisions and a way, but often the easy way is chosen. Stop like that. There should be no compromises with yourself, you are not at a meeting. The easy way not only does not add experience and worsens the result, but also your willpower. In a word, you become weak-willed. Always choose the path that is objectively better for the result, and not for your well-being.

Clarify for yourself what you need willpower for, what you lose because of its lack, and what you gain if you finally develop it in yourself. Write it down on a piece of paper and hang it above your desk or in a prominent place. Every time you want to postpone something for another day, look at your note and do it.

The next exercise builds on the previous point. When you have a clear feeling that this is what you don’t want to do today, the thought “Any other time, but not today” flashes by, that your willpower is failing. Fix these thoughts and desires as a sign that right now you need to perform or complete a certain action. This should be a bold pointer to the fact that there is no way to postpone.

Sports most qualitatively develop willpower in. This is not about active recreation or physical exercises for the sake of appearances, but about sports where the result is important. By systematically overcoming yourself, you will educate.
For example, you set a goal for yourself - an hour of active cycling. But after 40 minutes, it’s hard for you to move the pedals, and the treacherous thought of stopping training appears in your head again. Take a minute break and spend the next 20 minutes riding a bike, and then fix your feelings. Are you happy again? Great, your willpower is also thanking you.

note

It is believed that it is best to develop willpower by playing sports (any, the main thing is to systematically and not for show). The first step in educating the will is to loosen the grip on "conditioned reflexes" such as sitting in front of the TV. The mistake that most people make when they want to develop willpower is that people put too much pressure on their psyche.

Helpful advice

Willpower is one of the main character traits of a person. Often they even say "character" instead of "willpower." The development of willpower in oneself is a very difficult process. Indeed, in essence, this is violence against oneself, forcing one to do what one does not want to do, or vice versa, the rejection of what one really wants. In my opinion, it is best to develop willpower by playing sports (any, the main thing is to systematically and not for show).

Sources:

how to build willpower to lose weight

Willpower is the main weapon of a person in front of others. A person with such strength can easily cope with all the difficulties of life. Willpower must not only be constantly developed, but also stimulated. There are several tips to help you deal with this.

Instruction

A good way to develop willpower is to start with sports. Moreover, it is systematic. Your hobby should not be "for show". Get results. Set yourself a goal and try to achieve it. Start with gradual loads, you should not perform excessive volumes from the very beginning, this will only aggravate the situation. You will be disappointed in your abilities and will not be able to develop willpower. For example, set a goal to run 10 laps around the stadium, but increase the number of laps over time.

Everyone has a second inner self, which prevents him from giving all his best. For example, in the morning, when the alarm rings, this very “I” tells you that you can still sleep, or buy a pack of cigarettes when you are going to quit smoking. You need to get rid of this. A good way is to do what you don’t want to, for example, get up in the same way, or take on some troublesome business.

Do what you love. That is, find yourself an occupation that you liked. In this way, you will feel responsible and gradually develop willpower. This method is good because you will spend a minimum of effort, and get the maximum pleasure, because you will be busy doing what you love.

what is willpower?

Surely, many people use the well-known comic statement about themselves that there is strength and will, but there is no willpower. So what is this most notorious willpower that everyone so dreams of possessing?

Willpower is called a character trait, due to the presence of which a person controls his psyche and controls his actions. It is the ability to resist fleeting pleasure for the sake of a long-term goal. In simple terms, this is the driving factor that makes a person, instead of leaving dirty dishes in the sink, go and wash them even late at night.

To check if you are a strong-willed person, try to honestly answer whether such situations have happened to you:

You constantly procrastinate, do all the important things at the very last moment.
You constantly have no time for anything, and you argue its absence with the help of ridiculous excuses. For example, mothers on maternity leave, who answer all comments: “I have children, how can I do something!”
You relied on chance to solve important problems, preferring to go with the flow
Are you constantly distracted by the little things?
Almost none of your strong-willed decisions - to go on a diet, quit smoking, start running in the morning - was not carried out.

If all of the above is about you, then information on how to develop and strengthen willpower will be extremely useful to you, since your level of willpower is clearly lame.

Thanks to the developed willpower, a person motivates himself to perform important urgent (albeit not always pleasant) tasks. In other words, willpower is one of the many methods for achieving success in life.

“When there is a grain of perseverance or self-will in the character, minor obstacles will rather spur action than discourage it.”
Charlotte Bronte

The development of willpower - is it necessary?

People who are used to succumbing to their weaknesses consider willpower a quality that is difficult to achieve. In weak-willed individuals, "willpower" is subconsciously associated with something unpleasant, because in order to resist temptations, it will be necessary to break oneself, to go against one's desires.

Strong-willed, strong-willed people, on the contrary, very often train their willpower, testing it for strength, increasing its level.

Do you really need willpower? Maybe there is nothing wrong with her absence? As we ate cakes at night, we continue to eat - and nothing terrible happens? This is a typical mental attitude of a weak-willed person who does not want to fight his momentary weaknesses. Lack of willpower turns a person into a slave of his habits, driven by blind instincts and momentary impulses.

Such people may even have a great desire to change the status quo, develop and strengthen willpower, but they lack the mental strength for this, they are not able to say a firm “No!” habits that bring fleeting pleasure.

A weak-willed person may become depressed from the realization of his inability to control his feelings and actions. The subject turns out to be a hostage of a situation in which his true desires and plans to improve his life do not coincide with his own actions.

Just think what would have happened if, for example, Yuri Gagarin on the day of his flight would have preferred to lie longer in a warm bed and not go anywhere (except on the occasion of his lack of will). Or the well-known freight forwarder Thor Heyerdahl, instead of deciding to sail on a raft across the Pacific Ocean, succumbed to his weaknesses and decided not to embark on such risky expeditions, cut himself a huge piece of cake and sit down in a cozy sagging chair to watch TV. Willpower to some extent implies getting out of your comfort zone. Do not be afraid of this, because it is beyond the boundaries of this zone that all the most interesting begins, this is where the real real life goes.

So what if there is no willpower? Roll up your sleeves, pull yourself together and start hard work on yourself, adjusting your character and personal qualities.

“Willpower is the first and most important quality of a skilled researcher. Only by knowing how to control his will, he can hope to overcome the difficulties that nature raises in his path.
Roald Amundsen

Willpower: how to develop and strengthen. Is it possible to develop willpower

It is possible to develop and strengthen willpower. Absolutely anyone has the opportunity to take the reins of government and control over their desires and actions. Stop being disorganized, lazy, distracted and weak-willed! Chaos within us implies chaos in our lives. In weak-willed people, health problems can also be observed: both mental and physical. Against the background of constant indulgence of one's desires, there is a risk of panic attacks, depression, apathy, attention deficit disorder may develop. Often there are problems with alcohol and drugs, overweight, which in turn leads to other diseases.

The development of willpower will lead to the fact that the highest human values, such as ethics, spirituality, morality, will begin to prevail over the lower, dictated by physiological desires (for example, sleep until dinner and ignore sports). And this is the main goal of self-development - it becomes better, to cultivate new useful qualities in oneself.

Even if you are the most weak-willed and weak-willed person in the world, then with the right psychological attitudes, even you can change. Willpower can be cultivated in oneself from scratch, for this you only need to have a great desire and willingness to work on yourself.

How to develop and strengthen willpower: 10 effective ways

If you have firmly decided to take care of yourself, hardening your character, then the first thing to start with is to familiarize yourself with the methods that will tell you how to develop and strengthen willpower.

10 effective ways to develop willpower:

Make a plan. Preferably in writing. Take a pencil and a diary, formulate all your goals and transfer them to paper. Also plan all the necessary things recorded on paper, they will give a clearer picture of how much you manage to do and what you put off for later.
Develop your individual auto-training. Self-hypnosis is a great thing. Remember how the heroine of Irina Muravyova in the film “The Most Charming and Attractive” constantly repeated psychological affirmations to increase her self-esteem and confirm female attractiveness? This is a prime example of mental programming aimed at achieving success by changing the personality for the better. Praise yourself all the time for your successes, say out loud your positive qualities, after a job well done, say how proud you are of yourself. Adjust your thinking in a positive way, let your thoughts flow exclusively in a positive direction.
Andlet go of guilt. Succumbing to temptation, a person is inclined to succumb to self-flagellation after. It is not worth reproaching and reproaching yourself for the fact that you again could not restrain yourself and slammed the refrigerator door at night. Not everything will turn out right away, disruptions are possible - and this is absolutely normal. Man is not a robot, he cannot be programmed for 100% success in any endeavor.
Find an inspiring stimulus, find the motivation for your actions in order to develop and strengthen willpower. With a clear understanding of why to take any steps, there are practically no questions how to do it.
Start low. Do not set yourself too difficult tasks and high goals at once. Train your willpower with small tasks for yourself - too lazy to put things in the closet? Make an effort on yourself and fold your pants after all. Do you want to meet a friend instead of starting a long-planned cleaning? Grab your mop and get to work. Away with laziness and excuses, you just need to take it and do it, not looking for a temporary replacement for unpleasant deeds.
Implement sports into your life. This is a great way to self-discipline. After all, at first you will need to make efforts on yourself to go to the gym or go for a morning jog. But every day you will notice that it comes to you easier and easier. And there will come a time when you will look forward to the next workout.
Eliminate empty activities. Watching TV shows, virtual endless travels through social media feeds - what kind of information load does this bring to you? Absolutely right, none. Such activities steal your time and also drain you intellectually. Don't waste your energy on things that don't do you any good.
Maintain order in your home and workplace. Organizing life around you, you strive for internal self-organization.
Refrain from gastronomic whims. No, sometimes, of course, you can treat yourself to a trip to McDonald's, but don't make it a daily ritual, let it be the exception rather than the pattern. In the transition to proper nutrition, the same principle applies as during sports - first you will need to convince and persuade yourself. But over time, you will be surprised to realize that broccoli is tastier than pizza, and milk is more pleasant to drink than beer.
Don't delay for tomorrow, start now! Procrastination is the choice of weak people. If you want to develop and strengthen willpower, then constantly postponing important things for later is not for you.

Conclusion

Do not be afraid to take the first steps in order to develop and strengthen willpower. It is constantly necessary to think that a high level of will will certainly lead to success, and the path to positive changes in life cannot be easy. In any case, you will have to make your way through the thorns to the stars, but each new step will make your willpower stronger and stronger.

How to make your will strong. How to develop willpower: effective tips. What can interfere with the process of character training

What is willpower?