Extending the life of your willpower battery

Will power is a very useful thing (statement of the obvious there). However, willpower works like a battery. When we use some there is less left until we recharge.

Think of a flashlight. When the battery is weak, very little light is produced. When the battery is dead, no light is produced. The same is true with will power.

So if we want to do better, it would serve us well to be strategic about how we use this precious resource of will power.

Here are three ways that we can do that.

1) Say out loud “I have to” and really pay attention what happens in your body. I feel a sort of tightening and tension, almost like a fight or flight response or a surge of adrenaline. Just saying “have to” (whether we do it or not) drains our will power battery. Should, need to, and must do the same thing.

Many people start their day with a willpower drain ~ “I have to get up now”. And it goes on from there until the battery is soon dead.

I choose to, I want to, I get to, I love ~ these ways of talking to ourselves do not drain the will power battery.

2) Whenever there is resistance, we need to use will power to push through that resistance and do it anyway. So any personal growth work that lowers our resistance ultimately extends the life of our will power battery.

For example: if my story is that phone calls are not fun, then I will have to use will power in order to make calls. If I upgrade that story to something like ~ making calls is an opportunity to connect and to live my purpose, then will power isn’t needed (or just a brief burst to get me started).

3) Do important stuff early in the day when your battery is full. Get the important stuff done first. Save the trivial and mundane for later (or for never).

A dead battery is useless so let’s treat will power like the precious resource it is ~ conserve it, allocate it effectively and wisely, and do the things that recharge, renew, and rejuvenate so that our batteries are full.

Much Love,

Jonathan