Behind every achievement and great people is the strong presence of willpower in their mindset.
No matter what you seek – be it for material gain, financial stability, a healthy relationship, career growth, or spiritual success, willpower is an indispensable key that acts as a fuel to harness your motivation and self-discipline to see things through.
Many people find it difficult to grasp as they believe that willpower is a natural yet abstract force, but every person has this source of energy. Depending on the person, it can deplete, strengthen, and conserve according to the situation.
With more willpower comes self-discipline to control how we eat, exercise, avoid detrimental habits such as alcohol or drug abuse, stop procrastination, save up for your goals, and strive for your dreams. To that end, an individual that learns how to tap into their willpower can gain the most crucial knowledge of all: the ability to live life the way they want to.
How Willpower is Present in Your Goals and Vision in Life
Goals are what give direction and focus to your life, and without it, the likelihood of success and apparent change may be slim. With your goals acting as a point of reference, your willpower will come into play and act as a vital source of energy that pushes you to make sacrifices, apply changes in your lifestyle, and adjust your life towards your end goal.
You can apply willpower in many ways – be it through reducing your entertainment to give more time to studies or work, increase your savings, change your diet, or have the self-discipline to practice for a sport or particular hobby such as music.
How Sleep Affects Your Willpower
Having a quality sleep should be a priority if you want to make healthy changes, achieve self-control, and have better decisions in your life. Sleep may affect self-control in many ways as studies found that sleep-deprived individuals are more likely to give in to temptations, unhealthy impulses, lose focus, and have the tendency to make risky choices.
This is because the quality of your sleep has a direct impact on your capacity to exercise willpower. Brain scans done in sleep deprivation research found that willpower is seen as a heightened activity in the area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, and when you lose sleep, there is a decrease of activity in the same area as the ability to exert self-control is impaired.
How Motivation Can Increase Your Willpower
Motivation is the presence of purpose and the desire to achieve daily life, career, or relationship goals. It’s the root of your inspiration and is deeply linked with your willpower as both are necessary to help you get up early in the morning and fulfill productive tasks as you work towards your vision. For instance, an alcoholic father may use his son as his motivation to stop drinking. With that in mind, the stronger your motivation behind your actions, the higher your willpower be to overcome any demanding challenges in your journey towards your goal.
Humans are not machines that can fulfill tasks without any sense of motivation. The human nature of relying on willpower as fuel is essential as it helps people commit to their goals and discard the rest, depending on their priorities.
While willpower can act as a double-edged sword, it also measures the greatest strength a person can possess. With the right amount of it, anyone can turn the impossible to possible.
