Lack of persistence leads to not the most pleasant consequences. A person simply ceases to control his own destiny. He easily follows the lead of stronger personalities, forgetting about his own interests and desires. Naturally, in such cases it is difficult to show leadership qualities and achieve your goals. But there is no reason for disappointment. Developing willpower, although difficult, is possible.
What is willpower?
Before you understand how to strengthen willpower, it is worth understanding what it is. We are talking about a character trait that helps to maintain control over one’s own psyche, make decisions independently and manage one’s own actions. To put it even more simply, this is a “magic kick-off”, thanks to which a person will restore order in the apartment even in the dead of night, instead of postponing this task for a week.
How to understand whether willpower is developed or not? To do this, just answer a few simple questions. But this must be done honestly.
- Are you accompanied by procrastination in all your affairs, due to which even the most important tasks are postponed to the last moment?
- When solving important problems, do you rely on chance or fate?
- Do you constantly postpone the solution of important tasks because of some trifles?
- Are you unable to carry through any volitional decision to its logical conclusion (do the splits, quit smoking, start running)?
- Constantly find stupid excuses to explain why you don't have enough time for anything?
If the answer to all of the above questions is positive, then you urgently need to figure out how to develop willpower. What is it for? Thanks to her, you won’t have to constantly look for motivation to solve even not the most pleasant, but important tasks. In other words, willpower is something without which it is impossible to achieve success in all areas of life.
Ways to strengthen willpower
Willpower can be compared to muscles. In order to strengthen it, regular training is necessary. Otherwise, it will completely atrophy. How to develop willpower?
- An action plan is required. Preferably in writing. It’s worth taking a pen and notepad and writing down your goals. When all your desires are recorded, write down ways to achieve them. This also needs to be done on paper, and not mentally. Thanks to this, there will be a clear understanding of what is important to do right away, and what should be abandoned and put off for the future.
- It is necessary to create auto-training. With the help of self-hypnosis you can achieve significant results. It is recommended to regularly praise yourself, talk about all your qualities in a positive way, constantly smile and mentally set yourself up for success. The main thing is that there are no negative thoughts at all.
- Give up feeling of guilt. Every person is familiar with the concept of self-flagellation. Constant reproaches against yourself due to failures and minor troubles will not help you achieve your goals. You need to understand that you are not a robot who gets everything right the first time. There is no escape from breakdowns - and that's normal.
- Need incentive. To develop willpower, you need to find motivation. It is necessary to clearly understand what results certain actions will lead to.
- You need to start with simple actions. When you come to the gym for the first time, you are unlikely to start bench pressing 100 kg. You will have to start getting acquainted with the sport with an empty bar. It's the same with willpower. You need to develop and strengthen it by setting small goals for yourself. Don't want to put things in the closet? Stop being lazy and finally fold your own T-shirts. Or do some cleaning instead of watching a TV series. Give up excuses and laziness. Just take action.
- Start playing sports because... it helps develop self-discipline. At first, you will have to constantly force yourself to go to the gym. But over time, training will become firmly established in your life, and you will look forward to it.
- Give up activities that are not beneficial. Watching videos on YouTube, constantly surfing other people's pages and scrolling through your feed in search of interesting news - all these actions will not bring anything good into your life. They simply steal time and are emotionally and intellectually draining. It is not recommended to waste energy on something that will not bring any benefit.
- There should be order not only in the home, but also in the workplace. Want to strengthen your willpower? Start with this simple action, like keeping your own home or desk in order. Over time, you will quietly accustom yourself not only to external, but also to internal self-organization.
- Try to stick proper nutrition. Fast food, alcoholic drinks, regular eating of sweets - all this does not bring any benefit to the body. And if you want to strengthen your willpower, try to give up junk food. It will be difficult at first. But then you yourself will begin to be surprised that once upon a time you couldn’t imagine life without pizza or a burger.
- Don't put things off until tomorrow or start new life from Monday. Take action now. Procrastination is chosen only by those people who have weak willpower. Do you want to develop iron character, perseverance and perseverance? Stop constantly putting off important tasks until tomorrow.
Take action
Society at the present stage is doing everything possible to simplify life. Almost everyone has computers, home delivery, service personnel and personal transport. Because of all this, people have practically stopped doing many things on their own. As a result, each new action is performed with great difficulty, and willpower gradually disappears.
Have you felt weak in your body and have a desire to put off everything? Just get up and take action. Stop thinking it's too hard. Set yourself a task and complete it. And then you won’t have to constantly look for the answer to the question of how to develop willpower.
Why don't most people live the way they would like? Because they lack the spirit. You can call it differently: inner core, character, spirit. The essence is the same.
Spirit is essential for a successful life. And in general for life, because this is really not a hundred meters, but a marathon. What is needed here is not a heroic impulse, but endurance and perseverance. Including in the face of danger, death. Good example fortitude- tunnel from prison. Composure before execution. Almost everyone has something that seems unbearable - a wife, a country, a job. And the spirit is what helps you walk even when there are red spots in front of your eyes. Reach the end and win. Because you won't achieve anything by being in your comfort zone. This is a household matter - you can lie on the sofa all your life for your pleasure. The main thing is to understand what will lead to what, to what finish.
How strengthen the spirit? Spirit is a derivative of willpower, its manifestation and expression. What is willpower? This is the ability to overcome oneself, the ability to concentrate on one subject, to gather in a strong-willed bundle. How to train willpower? Read carefully - the main thing here is to understand the principle, and the specific method can be anything: physical or mental.
For example, worldwide famous actor Will Smith said that as a child, his father instructed him and his brother to dismantle a brick wall and move the bricks to another place. It took them 2 years. After this, the father said: “Now you won’t be able to say that you can’t do anything.” That is, it takes constant effort over quite a long time. Although, a year will be enough.
You can engage in internal development - for example, meditate for 1 year every day for 1 hour. Even just looking at a black dot on a white wall just develops the ability to concentrate and be collected. It sounds easy, but for a modern person it is very difficult, since he is sorely short of time. Plus, some thoughts arise like: “Why do you need all this? How can? There is still no result.” Well, we need to take into account distracting factors such as relatives. A modern person may only have enough time at school, and even that is not a fact. And already at university, many begin to earn extra money. So this is also a test.
Can strengthen the spirit training. Martial arts and martial arts are especially suitable - always with sparring or full contact fights. At the beginning, everyone has a certain jitters before sparring - will I embarrass myself, will I be scared? The anxiety can be so strong that you will want to quit everything. And here you just have to take it and go, no matter what. The ability to force yourself not to miss training is also an important part of martial art. Because this is precisely what develops the will. Set a goal for yourself to retire for at least 1 year and do it. Or better yet, 2 or 3 years.
But, again, the method can be any. A psychologist I know strengthens the spirit at the expense of push-ups - partly because he can’t stand them. You can train your willpower by jogging in the morning when you want to sleep. You can also douse it with ice water. In general, everything that is difficult and unpleasant, that forces you to overcome yourself. Asceticism won’t hurt here either, but more on that another time. But you can also study music, foreign languages - anything!
Keep in mind that rationality is needed everywhere - if you are overtired, then overcoming yourself will not lead to anything good. You will only become even more tired, and sooner or later you will quit your studies, which will lead to a decrease in self-esteem. Healthy sleep and normal food are simply necessary.
But when you gain some experience, and quantity turns into quality, you will understand this from the looks of others. The Spirit will change your posture, your voice and your look. Those around you will make way, and the girls, on the contrary, will cling to you. The spirit is your real backbone.
There are people for whom the concept of willpower is one of the key ones in life. Only thanks to her were they able to achieve significant results and become someone, stand out from the crowd. For others, this same concept is something unrealistic, since it seems to a person that it is impossible to develop in himself the qualities and principles of life that are inherent to him. What is willpower needed for and is it worth the struggle to create it?
Do you need to complicate your life?
If you think that willpower is just a way to complicate your existence, then you can safely close this article. In fact, it is much easier not to complicate life. But the right approach to this moment allows you to look at existing situations from new angles and find interesting and innovative ways to solve problems. The fact is that a person’s willpower can give him the opportunity to achieve results that he never even dreamed of. What benefits do those people who have it get?
- A person can easily control the principles of his life, existing desires and emerging opportunities. Even if the temptation is great, a person will not succumb to it.
- People who have willpower can quite easily achieve significant results and goals. This may concern training, career, personal life, personal growth.
- People with willpower do not complain that life passes them by and time flies very quickly. They always manage to do what they wanted, and do not worry about the quality of their work, since it is at its best.
- This indicator gives a person the opportunity to understand everything that he has, he achieved through his own efforts. Here there is a direct connection between a person’s faith in his own strength and the achievement of goals that initially seemed impossible for him.
Strong-willed people can easily influence completely different aspects of their lives. This concerns health, developing personal relationships, gaining some advantages in a career, creating a personal business. How realistic is it to develop willpower, and is it difficult to do? This interests many, especially since it is always easier to reason theoretically than to apply advice in practice. There are several basic meanings that will play big role in the question of how to develop willpower.
What should you not forget?
- The right motivation. Only if a person is motivated and interested in getting a result, will he fight for it to the last. If the motivation was not set out thoughtfully, then a maximum of a week will come and the person will retreat from his goal.
- Support. Not only you, but also your loved ones and friends must believe in your victory in the task. If there is no support, then the temptation to give up and continue with the flow is very great.
- Reminder. It is best to make some reminders or stickers on your phone, computer or workplace about what you will get as a result of defeating yourself. Then each step will be easier, and if you want to retreat, your eyes will come across the slogan you came up with.
These are the simplest moments that will help you avoid losing in the game that you yourself started. And in order for the result to be noticeable, it is necessary to consider the basic steps for developing willpower.
We begin to improve within
- Once you decide to make yourself and your life better, do not put off starting work until tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or Monday. The longer it takes to make a decision, the less likely you will be to win in your endeavor. If you have decided to lose weight, although you have an incredible sweet tooth, forget about a delicious bun or cake today. It is necessary to bring your goal to life from the moment when it first appeared.
- It is necessary to create short-term and long-term goals at the same time. The former will help you see results even with the slightest effort, and most often they will be a prerequisite for achieving long-term goals. For example, your goal is to lose 20 kg. Plus you want to make your body beautiful. This goal is quite difficult, but in the short term you can do the simplest thing: give up sweets for 2 weeks. It’s not that difficult, and the result will already be noticeable, for which you can praise yourself (just not with a portion of sweets).
- Do not try to set yourself a goal that does not interest you or is not bright enough for you. It is for her sake that a person will develop willpower and do what is unusual for him. If the goal is not a motivator, then in the first two or three steps a person will give up. He will think that what is achievable is not worth giving up his usual way of life.
- Give yourself small rewards. If you know that you were able to take another step towards excellence, praise yourself. This could be spending an hour reading a book, listening to your favorite music, or communicating with a person you care about.
- Talk about your desire to develop willpower not only for yourself, but also for those around you. Very often, at the moment when a person is ready to give up, someone he knows can cheer him up. It also happens that thoughts about the white flag come to you during a conversation with loved ones. They will definitely be able to influence you, show that he believes in you.
- If you are tempted to avoid following the plan, remember that abandoning it will not make your life easier. For example, you don’t have much time left to reach your goal, but you want to get away from the distance, understand that better life will only be after a certain point. And if you give up now, all your previous efforts will go down the drain. In most cases, a person feels sorry for his efforts, and he stays on the right path.
- Watch motivational films. This is a great option to achieve what you want because there is a large number of films showing the difficulties of achieving a goal, but saying that such efforts are worth the end. Usually, after it, a person gets a second wind and understands that he can accomplish almost all the planned tasks.
Small nuances that are important
Don't change your bottom line goals. This is one of the rules that must be followed. If you set new goals for yourself every day without achieving the previous one, then there’s no point in even trying to develop willpower. You have the right to adjust your goal a little, but the essence should remain the same. In this case, you will have a desire to move forward, and there will be no sharp jumps from one side to the other, which can negatively affect your self-development.
Practice shows that to simplify obtaining results, you need to adhere to the most common rules that are important to use every day. You need to eat well and get enough sleep. An irritable person who wants to sleep will not think about the fact that it is not today that he needs to take certain steps that affect his self-development. When a person is full of strength and energy, he has a desire to move forward and do things that have not been done before. An excellent option would be to start playing sports, because exercise helps you move forward and distracts you from constant thinking.
Try to do the most difficult things first, even if they can be put off. Subsequently, you will only have to solve the small issues that remain, because the main layer of work will be completed.
The main point in developing willpower is faith!
If you don’t believe yourself, then what kind of goal achievement can we even talk about? If you want to develop willpower, you must unquestioningly believe in your victory and that all goals are achievable.
If you think that willpower is a quality that is inherent only to a select few, then you are mistaken. “Strength is just a muscle that can be trained with the help of special techniques and exercises,” I am sure of this Ph.D., psychologist, lecturer at Stanford University Kelly McGonigal, author of Willpower.
AiF.ru publishes an excerpt from the book.
Three forces within us
So, inside each of us there are three forces: “I will”, “I will not” and “I want”. Willpower is precisely the ability to control these three forces and turn on each of them in time.
“I will” is a force within us that makes promises of this kind: “Starting Monday I will run,” “I will eat less sweets.”
“I will” is the ability to do what you don’t want to do. “I will” are our intentions, which are usually much weaker than ours bad habits.
The power of “I will not” is the sister of the power of “I will.” This is the ability to say “No” to your temptations.
And “I want” is what you really want.
As Kelly writes: “I get it, you feel like you really want a shortcake, a third martini, or a day off. But when faced with temptation or flirting with procrastination, you have to remember that what you really want is to fit into skinny jeans, get a promotion, pay off your credit card debt, save your marriage, or stay out of jail.”
That is, the power of “I want” is what we want, if you get to the bottom of it. After all, if you look deeper, the donut helps us eat away our problems, and with the help of alcohol we simply want to become more attractive to the opposite sex (yes, yes, if you have problems with alcohol, then subconsciously you just want love).
So, willpower is the ability to control and launch these three forces.
Where do we get willpower from?
Imagine we are transported back 100,000 years. What was a person like then? He didn't care about new watches, cars or loan payments. All our ancient ancestors cared about was reproducing, avoiding danger, and finding something to eat.
All processes were balanced. Ancient people didn't stand at fast food counters ordering a few hamburgers. And then they didn’t get into their cars and go home.
In order to eat, a person had to do a bunch of actions. Ancient people did not suffer from obesity or hypertension. They didn't need to control themselves because their instincts controlled them. They knew: if you see danger, run. If you want to eat, you have to try.
Gradually, man developed, more and more temptations appeared in him, and with each new round of development he had to learn to control himself. Our brain has transformed, and relatively recently a special department has appeared in it, which was created to control itself. This new growth is called the prefrontal cortex. It is she who helps us make strong-willed decisions. It is this small part of the brain that is responsible for the fact that we can control ourselves and our actions. If a person did not have a prefrontal cortex, then from the outside he would look a little primitive.
How to develop and strengthen willpower?
In order to develop and strengthen willpower, it is enough to remember just a few ways that will guarantee that your self-control will work like clockwork. Here are the five ways:
1. Breathe to self-control.
Proper breathing can generally help avoid many, many problems. Many doctors say that if they were asked about the simplest skill that would help a person stay in shape, they would choose the ability to breathe correctly.
So, here's what you need to do to fill the cells of your prefrontal cortex with air. Take a stopwatch and take a deep breath for 7 seconds. Then exhale for 7 seconds. Ideally, you should take 4-6 breaths per minute, that is, each inhalation and exhalation should take 10-15 seconds. If you do this exercise before a volitional “breakdown,” it will help you restrain yourself.
2. Five-minute meditation
Our brain works constantly, and sometimes there are too many parallel processes running in it. All this greatly interferes with the “volitional” processes. Remember how our body reacts when we have a lot of things to do and don’t have time to do anything. He is constantly drawn to “calm down” himself with something - for example, to eat.
That is why one of the best ways To regain volitional control is to do a little meditation. At the same time, even focusing on your breathing can be considered meditation. You can simply say “inhale” and “exhale” to yourself. Even five minutes of meditation will help you keep yourself from relapse.
3. Take a walk!
“There is no problem that a walk cannot solve,” says an old Chinese proverb. And this is the absolute truth! Walking literally charges your body with endorphins, which automatically makes you feel happier.
Even a 15-minute walk will give you a dose of endorphins and saturate your cells with oxygen so that you will not want to reach for forbidden pleasures at all. Ideally, walk every day for at least 15-30 minutes. This will strengthen not only your body, but also your spirit.
4. Take a nap or just relax
Adequate sleep is an essential component of our fulfilling life. Remember how you feel when you don't sleep enough? You constantly want to yell at someone, lash out, or just eat a lot of junk. Lack of sleep should not be underestimated. This is a truly terrible thing, not only for ourselves, but also for those around us.
So, your prefrontal cortex will only be on guard after your body has had a good night's sleep. Do not expect full protection from volitional crimes if the body wants to sleep.
5. Eat on time
Any disorder for the body is a big stress. What is the body used to doing with stress? That's right - eat it! Do you know that even a messy room can lead to weight gain? That is why, in order not to create additional stressful situations for the body, you need to eat on time.
Kelly McGonigal's book "Willpower" is provided by Mann, Ivanov and Ferber.
How to develop willpower? This is a question of interest to people who do not know how to restrain their impulses and want to cultivate strong-willed abilities. Many people are interested in whether it is possible to develop willpower, since they consider it an innate character trait. Then everyone would be around successful people, protected from vices. There are special specific methods by which it is possible to learn how to develop willpower even for a completely weak-willed person. To develop the desired quality of character requires time for stable training. It is also important that a person trying to develop willpower is aware of all the steps that he has to take for the sake of it. Because there are individuals who do not understand why they need this, and when they get what they want, they do not know how to take advantage of it. When a person is clearly aware of his behavior, it helps to train hard. For example, before you develop willpower, that is, begin to train it, you should set a goal for what it is needed in order to withstand negative factors, the pressure of others, and resist passion and drive.
Many people often do not know whether it is possible to develop willpower and what needs to be done to achieve this. Consciously controlling your own actions, but not forcing them to act, allows you to achieve more. A person who finds it difficult to develop his own willpower becomes dependent on his own. He follows the instincts of his body, so he becomes their slave, often then tormented by doubts because he cannot control himself. An individual who does not have willpower also does not have his right to choose. For example, he sleeps through work because he wanted to sleep longer, or eats a third ice cream because it is an “eyesore.” A person who is unable to develop his own willpower will never stop drinking. Most people are aware of these problems. Therefore, many often want to free themselves from them, rid themselves of passions and want to become strong-willed individuals. It is difficult for them to say no to personal desires, so these people suffer if their plans are never realized.
How to develop willpower in yourself
Human actions are always accompanied by a struggle between the physical body and mind. The brain (mind) offers a rational solution to the problem. The biological system seeks compromise in order to obtain the desired pleasure.
Is it possible to develop willpower? Yes, it is possible to develop this quality on your own by stepping over desires and personal desires. When a person suppresses the desire to abandon what he started, his willpower will become stronger. You need to do this consciously, be aware of your actions, so as not to provoke.
Willpower is associated with human laziness. Only you can create the desired quality. You can also try to develop willpower by overcoming fear. But fear is harder to overcome than laziness. Each individual at the right time faces the moment of choice. In these moments willpower is expressed. Anyone who has managed to develop it will be able to quickly make decisions independent of all kinds of risks.
Striving to build willpower will help with self-discipline. The ability to make smart decisions helps you achieve big goals. For these reasons, it is worth developing the desired quality.
Trying to develop your willpower will help you gain victory over the desires, instincts and habits of the body. Developing strong-willed abilities is difficult and time-consuming, but it is really doable for everyone. The process aimed at developing willpower should begin with simple tasks.
There is a lot of advice from psychologists on how to develop willpower and self-discipline. You don't have to implement them all at once. To begin with, it is advisable to streamline the regime. You need to teach yourself to get up at the same time every day. The regimen is useful to develop self-discipline and become a healthy person. The habit of planning things will help develop self-discipline. When all the tasks are scheduled, there is no time left for unnecessary things. Strict execution of affairs will contribute to the implementation of actions, despite the most different conditions. The ability not to delay things, not to put them off, despite fatigue and laziness, the ability to carry out your plans will help you develop the desired quality.
How to develop willpower and self-discipline? Playing sports will help with this. Exercise will help you fight laziness, fatigue, and discomfort. Even if it is not possible to engage in serious sports, you can do simple exercises, the main thing is daily.
How to develop willpower? Advice from psychologists says: through proper prioritization. Time spent on unnecessary things, such as watching TV for a long time, can be spent more effectively: reading, self-improvement, learning new things, walking in nature, developing skills.
In the desire to achieve the desired quality, it is important, first of all, to fulfill the promises that were given to others and to oneself. If a person lacks this quality necessary to fulfill his plans, then it is worth promising to carry out the task. The ability to keep promises will help develop discipline and willpower.
Following order will help to form the desired ability. If there is order around a person, then there will also be order within him. Being organized and maintaining order will help develop willpower. Having organized order everywhere, washed the dishes, put away things and everything unnecessary, you can start organizing your home.
For better work the brain needs healthy food. Foods that are too tasty and sweet, have a lot of calories, and often contain a lot of chemicals that enhance the taste, are not beneficial. You need to be aware of every meal you eat, read information about products, find out which ones contain useful elements. Healthy, tasty, self-prepared food should always be present in the refrigerator. You need to take snacks with you and the habit of eating fast food will disappear by itself. Bad habits (alcohol, smoking) lead to degradation of willpower, but meditation can develop willpower. Practice helps you control your bodily reactions and organize all your thoughts.
How to develop willpower and self-discipline? Daily meditation can help with this. Many successful, disciplined people practice meditation. A strict training schedule helps to get results. The main thing is to sit in a stable position all the time, put everything aside, and concentrate on your feelings. If attention wanders, it is worth collecting it again. This will train.
If willpower is absent, you need to develop it by acting immediately. You cannot put off work until an indefinite time. The habit of acting will immediately help a person. Along with following the advice, you should do exercises that will help develop personal willpower.
There are exercises to control the strength of emotions. You need a piece of paper to write down all the negative consequences that result from weakness and lack of will. Among them: a feeling of guilt that appears as a result of missed opportunities, grief and disappointment. Emotions will act as an incentive for further actions, strengthen willpower, and give strength. Next, you need to describe in detail the planned changes that will be implemented as soon as you manage to develop willpower. Positive emotions help strengthen the individual’s desire for change.
The technique for developing self-control is based on the desire for self-control. According to this technique, you should not run from desires, you need to cope with them. It doesn’t matter what temptation a person faces, the main thing is to resist it. If, when confronted with passion, a person is able to resist it, then he has managed to cultivate self-discipline, develop and gain willpower.
How to develop willpower and vital core
A person’s inner core is a special personal component that makes him strong. This “core” allows a person to withstand the pressure of life’s difficulties, helps to solve life situations, develop, grow as a person. It is often said about a person with a fairly stable psyche that he has an inner core.
To develop willpower and vital core, you need to be decisive and independent, not shift responsibility, and not take into account the opinions of others. Only the person himself knows his capabilities and desires, so he should not allow prejudices to stop him.
The basis of one’s own faith and confidence can be moral qualities. Passions and instincts capture a person entirely, but they cannot be the reason for renunciation of personal values. A person who knows how to endure difficulties will not sacrifice his own dignity in order to satisfy himself with instant joy. This means that for this he needs to designate moral principles.
Developing your inner core means gaining a winning mindset. A person whose main thing is what is in his soul will be able to survive the loss, because he is confident that he will be able to cope. The individual views the next difficulty as an experience and a lesson. A person who knows that he can overcome anything is determined to achieve a specific goal, does not look for compromises, and therefore never doubts. When he creates a dream, he calculates the necessary actions to implement it, makes it real, not illusory. To achieve his dream, he needs to give up attractions and distractions; for this he needs to develop willpower.
The inner core of a person is the willingness to conquer oneself. Giving up unhealthy habits builds willpower and can develop an inner core. A confident, strong individual is never unreasonable. Such people are ready to take other people's opinions into account. They often seek new opportunities to understand themselves and others. Because in order to gain a spiritual core and develop willpower, you need to try every day to become better.
How to develop and strengthen willpower
An individual under prolonged nervous tension uses energy resources irrationally, so his reactions are somewhat inhibited. Under stress, a person is guided by instincts and makes instant decisions, while self-control requires in-depth consideration and analysis of the situation.
How to develop willpower and strengthen it? To do this, there are some methods and techniques. The biological basis of self-control and stress are completely different, they are incompatible. Therefore, it is advisable to find a way to bring these processes into harmony, and therefore learn to manage your body under stress. There is a method that helps you instantly gain control of yourself during a stressful situation. When you feel tired or tense, you need to take a couple of deep breaths and try to immediately distract yourself from obsessive or negative thoughts.
A person’s self-affirmation plays an important role in the question of how to develop willpower. An individual is able to change himself by changing his own thoughts. For example, two outwardly similar phrases, but meaning opposite actions, have a different effect on a person: “I don’t...”, “I can’t.” The personality, thus, forces himself to do things that are not at all to his liking. But the formulation “I am not” helps to abandon the unwanted and not remember about it.
Healthy sleep helps strengthen your will. Regular lack of sleep negatively affects the efficiency of brain function. When a person sleeps less than six hours, he puts stress on his body. The brain and body deplete the energy resources available in reserve. Thus, nervous system cannot protect a person from stress. But after a very good sleep, it will become significantly more functional. People who sleep seven hours are more efficient, happier and more productive.
How to develop willpower and strengthen it? Experts advise starting to practice meditation, this should last for at least eight weeks. There are studies that show that eight weeks of daily meditation practice leads to improved self-awareness in everyday life, increased attention and better concentration. It turns out that to improve your condition, you don’t need to meditate your whole life; improvements are noticeable after the end of the eighth week of practice.
To develop and strengthen willpower, you need self-control, which comes with exercise and healthy eating habits. This method will help not only develop your psychological qualities, but also develop your physical parameters. It doesn’t really matter what the physical activity will be, how strong, the main thing is that it is carried out: walking at a fast pace, dancing, yoga, swimming, athletics, team sports or regular training on exercise equipment. In fact, it makes no difference to the brain what type of physical activity a person will engage in, since any of these types goes beyond the boundaries of the usual sedentary lifestyle and increases the resources of volitional abilities.
Along with playing sports, a person must learn to eat properly. He should give preference only to healthy foods, ones that will provide him with energy for a long time. Changing your eating habits will require strong will and self-control, but putting in the effort will improve brain function.
Sports together with healthy eating Not only will they help develop a person’s willpower, but they will also have a positive effect on well-being. When physical activity occurs, the body produces the hormone endorphin. These endorphins, produced from exercise, minimize the feeling of discomfort, they are able to block pain, and cause a feeling.
There is such a psychological concept as procrastination. Procrastination is a person's tendency to put things off indefinitely. In general, this phenomenon is considered negative, but now we are talking about healthy, positive procrastination. For example, when it comes to efforts to eliminate bad habits, such as taking a lot of food to watch a movie or going out to smoke with a cup of coffee.
How to develop willpower in a child
The process of formation of volitional actions occurs during the period early age when the baby masters voluntary movements, which he does in manipulating all available objects that he wants to get acquainted with, most often with toys.
Is it possible to develop willpower in a child? A similar question is asked by many parents who want to make their child disciplined. Volitional behavior begins to form when the child becomes able to perform the most basic actions necessary to overcome difficulties, as well as actions associated with necessity, when the child needs to do something that was proposed to be done, but not what he himself wants.
The systematic requirements and attitudes of adults are important here. These adults can skillfully present the child with the urgent need to cope with various but feasible obstacles, while showing willpower along with endurance.
The willpower of a preschooler can be developed by performing simple but difficult tasks, which encourage the child to do something, not only for himself, but also for others, while overcoming certain obstacles.
The willpower of a preschooler can be developed using collective games, in which it is necessary to take into account the considerations of the entire group, the game rules, and suppress one’s natural impulses. The process of subordinating one’s own behavior to general external discipline is an important lesson in teaching the development of a child’s volitional behavior.
Immediately upon entering school, the next stage in the process of developing willpower begins. A student’s volitional abilities can be developed by influencing him through educational activities that present new and varied serious demands and responsibilities. Educational activities The child is expected to develop the ability to manage his own mental activity, for example, to make the mental efforts necessary to master the necessary knowledge, to remember uninteresting and difficult material, to complete all work on time and bring it to completion. Educational activities stimulate the student to consciously manage behavior. He must understand everything that is required and do it, even if it does not coincide with his personal desires. This will be able to develop the child’s willpower and then he will be able, for example, to refuse to play, watch TV or walk in order to fulfill his educational duties.
The main aspect of developing the will of a child is the guidance of adults over him. The closest ones are parents, teachers, and surrounding adult acquaintances. They use certain means and methods to instill discipline in the student and develop willpower.
Willpower can only be developed by overcoming difficulties, therefore those parents who try in every possible way to eliminate any problems that appear in their child’s path are doing great stupidity, since they interfere with the manifestation of their strong-willed qualities and the ability to overcome obstacles. Forming a sense of duty and understanding of responsibility is a very important condition for developing willpower.
How to develop willpower in a child? The basic condition is not to do anything that could break it. There is no point in destroying something that has not even fully formed. Children need to be raised and raised in natural conditions, to live in reality, taught to experience happiness and pain, loss and victory, to face betrayal and fidelity.
Keeping a child from all sorts of troubles and difficulties that may happen to him means weakening his will, preventing the opportunity for it to manifest itself. This does not say what a child will do from childhood own life adult, full of difficulties and turning points. He'll just be able to survive personal experience errors. But also this child, when he stumbles over another stone, will wait for someone to support him close person. He needs to know that he will have someone to rely on when he has to face obstacles that will require a lot of his strength.
To develop willpower in a child, parents should be consistent in own actions. If parents cannot make a common decision, if one allows something, then the other should not prohibit it, otherwise the child will not understand how to act. It also makes the child very insecure, inconsistent and indecisive. Such relationships have a very negative impact on him. The child will be very lazy, rebel, and take one side of his parents, often the stronger one. The demands put forward by parents must be fair conditions that would help develop the child’s willpower.
When strict conditions are established over a child, he will be able to develop and harden a strong character, which will become very noticeable outwardly, although inside all his feelings will be squeezed. This child in the future can be a toy for manipulators. Some prohibitions that parents set must be absolutely precise. Many people use such formulations of prohibitions as “it is possible only if...”, “it is not possible until...”.
Many parents make the mistake of being too gentle with their child and allowing too much. Children who grew up in permissive conditions shift their own responsibility to their parents. This can create interpersonal conflicts, accusations and mutual resentment. If the parent says yes, then it must be this way, not otherwise, have no other meaning.
Thanks to the daily routine, the child can distribute resources, set, develop and achieve his goals. This must begin with basic household rules, gradually increasing them, striving for a significant and more important result. So, it is necessary to immediately teach the child to brush his teeth, then teach him to do morning exercises and develop self-discipline with these habits.
Volitional qualities can be perfectly formed through sports. Any physical effort is a step towards overcoming oneself. A child who learns to challenge himself and his body will develop a strong spirit and will be able to develop willpower and abilities. Each achievement testifies to the capabilities of the human body and spirit. This includes not only big sports, but also other various physical exercise, systematic activities that can discipline a child. It will also bring him pleasure, positivity and confidence. The child should feel supported and should not have the fear of not completing planned tasks or achievements. It is important to remember that from the beginning of the journey, in order to develop willpower and discipline in a child, you should not perform great feats, it is better to start with small victories.
If a child violates the regime, discipline, does not do what was promised, or is guilty, he must understand that this will not go away for him just like that. Following the commission of a deed that goes beyond the boundaries of what is permitted, there should be a punishment that would not humiliate the child himself, and would allow him to remember that this should not be done.
Willpower must be developed from early childhood, this will help make life easier for the child and also for the parents in the future. The process of developing a child’s willpower is quite energy-intensive; it requires the patience of parents and their time. But you can sacrifice a lot for the sake of raising a child. Willpower will help a child make his dreams come true.
