Willpower.We all want more. We all want to be 'that person', the person who has pushed themselves physically and mentally to a level we feel is unattainable. If only we had the will...
What got me thinking about the topic was not an evening watching the Green Lantern film (title reference), nor was it my constant battle to get out of my warm bed to face another day. It was the annual glut of articles talking about how everyone had succumbed to temptation and abandoned those life-changing New Year resolutions. Roy Baumeister, generally recognised as the world-leading expert on willpower must love this time of year. Journalists the world round pull his papers from the archives and churn out another article on why we were all doomed to fail from the start.
Here are a few of the articles I came across that got me thinking:
Basically they all say that willpower is like a muscle. Exercise it and it will become stronger. Overwork it and it will become weak. Glucose gives it a boost.
Do you believe it? I certainly do. Since I started making myself resist the little temptations like a caramel waffle with my coffee, I've improved my control when it comes to things like putting off chores or putting off my run to later in the day. It's amazing what little things like making yourself sit up straight when you catch yourself slouching (I'm certainly doing this a lot more seeing as incorrect posture in the gym has much more immediate negative effects than in the office) or leaving the half-price luxury biscuits on the supermarket shelf can do for willpower in the long term. It certainly gives me the (possibly false) belief that I'm not as weak-willed as past me.
What the articles do cover quite nicely is that there is no perfect solution. You have to work on it slowly, over time, and be aware that the willpower will weaken when overused. This is not an excuse to guzzle a packet of biscuits to get the helping hand from the glucose. Just a reminder that, as with so many things in life, willpower ebbs and flows. Be wary of the lows - temptation'll get you!
This talk of willpower is all very well, but I think proper motivation is more important. You might not need to sap those reserves of willpower if you've got motivation spurring you on. But that's a topic for another day...
