Persuasion Tool #14 – Science of Will Power
I want to give you a critical mindset tool under self-persuasion. Nothing else matters until you’ve mastered this. If you can’t influence yourself, it’s very difficult to influence other people. A big aspect of self-persuasion is willpower, your inner strength, your character, and realizing that discipline is a choice. It’s been said that you’re either going to have discipline or you’re going to have disappointment. So those are your only two options and I love what John C. Maxwell says. He says, “Discipline is doing what you really don’t want to do, so that you can do what you really want to do.”
Will power is your bridge between the goals and your achievements. When do most people fail? It’s not in the morning time. It’s either late afternoon or in the evening. This is because your self-discipline or your will power is drained. Your will power in many ways is like a battery. Let’s say you want to lose some weight. Right? You wake up in the morning, no to the bagels, no to the donuts, but what happens every time you say no, every time you resist, your will power battery gets weaker and weaker. Then you get to the point where you don’t care anymore, nobody loves you, and you eat the whole thing of ice cream in the refrigerator.
So you have to understand that you’re draining your will power battery and every time it gets drained, it’s harder for you to exercise your will power. You have to understand that negative emotions, negative people, failure, criticism can also drain your battery. You need to be aware that your battery is draining and your will power is getting weaker. In fact, let’s look at the studies. The first one, talent is not a major cause of success with top athletes, artists, and scholars. It was their extraordinary drive and determination.
In another study college students came to this study after fasting for four hours. They entered this room and they had a choice between warm chocolate chip cookies or radishes. I don’t know about you, but that’s a really easy decision for me. Half of the students were told they can only eat radishes and the other half were told to eat the cookies. They watched the students wanting the cookies exercise their will power. The researchers sent the students to the next room and practice these puzzles. Now that was the real test. These puzzles were unsolvable. They just wanted to see how fast they’d give up. What do you know? The students that ate the radishes, that exercised their will power, gave up two and a half times faster than the chocolate chip cookie eaters.
Every time you exercise will power, you resist, you use that determination – it drains your will power battery. That’s human nature. True success is going to be understanding that your will power battery is drained. What can you do to charge it up? Everyone’s different. Maybe it’s taking a nap, maybe it’s talking to a positive person, reading a good book, looking at your vision board, thinking about your goals, talking to a loved one. First of all, you need to be aware that it’s drained and second of all, you have to have a game plan, something that you can do to recharge that battery. Then you won’t fail at the end of the day.
Application
There are two things you can do to develop self-discipline. First, be aware of what’s draining your battery. Number two, have a game plan to charge it up. Mentally prepare yourself for a few setbacks and have a game plan when you feel weak, you don’t feel motivated and your willpower’s down. What can you do to recharge your battery, to get back on track, to make sure you have will power. When you have this will power, it makes a huge difference in your success, what you’re able to accomplish and you become unstoppable.