How To Build Willpower!
Introduction
Are there things you know you should be doing that you don’t do? If you could bring yourself to do some of those things, you could change your life for the better, right? But you don’t do them?
With each and every decision you make throughout the day, you burn your willpower. In order to be successful, you must understand how to use your willpower wisely. Otherwise, you will waste your willpower on unimportant tasks that do not bring you closer to your goal.
So, if you feel you are procrastinating or not motivated enough to accomplish certain tasks, it may be because you do not know how to manage your willpower.
Everyone has a limited supply of willpower; however, those with ADD/ADHD have a much more severe case of this. When you wake up each morning with a full tank of gas, if you suffer from ADD/ADHD, you may only wake up with a fraction of what someone without ADD/ADHD wakes up with, and you burn through your willpower much more quickly.
Therefore, you will need to conserve your energy by making wiser choices on how to spend your energy.
Do You Have A Performance Disability?
Dr. Russell Barkley, one of the most established experts on ADD/ADHD, asserts that ADD/ADHD is not a problem with attention but rather a performance disability.
Even if you do not struggle with ADD/ADHD, you may know what to do, but the brain does not allow you to put into action what you know because of the limited supply of willpower.
Build An Environment To Be More Productive
Because you are not productive at work, it can cause all sorts of problems in your life. Many of the points Dr. Russell Barkley addresses will be discussed in the context of work; however, many of these points can be applied to other areas where performance is an issue.
If you have a supportive family, or what I call a supportive team, whom you are accountable to for what you do and don’t do, working together as a team allows people to keep you accountable. When you do not do the things you should, do not let them go easy on you.
The more assertive and uncomfortable they make it for failing to follow through and act, the more likely you will be to implement what you need to do.
What happens if you sit around wasting time, like watching YouTube videos all day? Nothing much; perhaps you did not accomplish much, but it does not impact your life significantly. However, if you have ADHD, you may have been caught in this type of loop for some time, causing you to fail and your life to fall apart.
Your Virtual Boss
You need to find a virtual boss, which includes reminders, to-do lists, charts, calendars, and motivational quotes in your line of sight, reminding you of what needs to be done and helping you stay on tasks. This way, you will not be easily distracted.
Timer
To complement your reminders and charts, you need to set timers to keep track of your day. Individuals with ADD/ADHD, when focused on something, lose all concept of time. You need to set alarms not only to remind you of what needs to be done but also to wake you up, making you aware of your surroundings.
Especially for those with ADD/ADHD, you may become hyper-focused, where your intense concentration on a task makes you unaware of your surroundings, causing you to ignore other important projects you have for the day.
Chucking
The hardest business task for me to accomplish is calling customers on the phone. Grant Cardone, in the 10X rule, suggests making 300 phone calls a day. However, this may be too much for the typical person, especially someone with an ADD/ADHD brain to handle. So, I set small goals:
- I focus on 10 phone calls at a time.
- I will do a set of 10 phone calls, 5-6 times per hour, for a total of 50-60 calls.
- And 300 phone calls a day.
What are the projects that you need to get done? To make it not so overwhelming for your mind, you may need to break it up into smaller chunks.
Minimise Stress
We all experience stress; however, the problem is not the stress itself. Studies reveal that we are more stressed today than people were during some of the great catastrophes of the last 100 years. This is not due to the nature of the stress but rather the way we eat, our sleep patterns, and other factors that we will not address in this module but have covered in other modules. These factors make us less able to handle these stresses.
Minimise Distractions
I do not own a TV; however, the internet can still be a distraction. So, during my workday, I close down every browser on my computer that is not necessary.
Will Power Is Limited
Just like your time is limited, so is your willpower. Steve Jobs adopted one of Einstein’s practices by wearing the same outfit day after day. It’s not that these people wear the same stinky clothes every day, but rather they have a closet full of the same outfit. This way, they have one less decision to make that would otherwise deplete their willpower.
Refill Your Tank
A great way to refill your tank is to take a short nap. However, someone who has ADD/ADHD has fewer neurotransmitters than someone who does not have ADD/ADHD. So, you will burn through your willpower faster. But you can refill your tank.
Self Imposed Rewards
High performers put a lot of pressure on themselves. If you try something and fail, those in your life might have people who tell you that they love you anyway. They might tear you down because you failed so many times or because going after your dreams makes them look bad.
But these high performers do it for their own self-respect. As Dan Pena says, if love were enough to get the job done, we would not need money. But love is not enough because when you fail, people suffer. You need to set self-imposed rewards on yourself, preferably something that will give you a boost of dopamine in the brain, like sugar, adventure, or perhaps a romantic evening with your wife. Again, if you can get people involved, it will help you not give in until you accomplish the task. Because in order to get what you want, you have to deserve it. And you have to feel like you deserve it.
Self Talk
Most people fail at anything they try; however, BUDS training is one of the toughest schools in the US military. The purpose is to see how much suffering you can endure before you quit.
Only about 20% make it through BUDS; however, Seal Fit is a pre-school for BUDS that highly focuses on self-talk. Those who go through Seal Fit first, about 80%, complete BUDS.
Again, as we have talked about in other modules, the words you tell yourself are a great predictor of whether you will succeed in life or not.
Take Breaks
You need to give the action part of your brain, which is called the executive part of your brain, a break. So after every hour, give yourself a 10-15 minute break away from the executive part of the brain. Relax, meditate, or play a musical instrument.
How To Change Your Future
Dr. Jordan Peterson’s self-authoring program is built on Dr. James Pennebaker’s research, recommending spending time writing or talking about your past, present, and future. It helps avoid getting stuck in a downward spiral by only thinking about past traumas or living in a fantasy by focusing too much on the future. By addressing past trauma, envisioning a positive future, and reflecting on your current situation, the program aims to provide motivation to overcome any barriers holding you back.
Move
You should exercise to keep your body active. Personally, I run every morning to get my heart pumping and release endorphins. High-Intensity Training (HIIT) builds grey matter in the brain, enhancing learning abilities. If you feel exhausted, a quick boxing session helps me get my blood flowing and rejuvenates me, allowing me to get back to work.
How To Build Willpower
There’s a part of the brain that grows when people do things they don’t want to do. It’s smaller in obese individuals, increases in size during dieting, enlarges in athletes, and is notably large in those who see themselves overcoming challenges, as well as in long-lived individuals.
For instance, if you dislike going to the gym, but as you become more fit, your body releases chemicals into the brain that make it enjoyable, this part of the brain will start to shrink again. Therefore, it’s essential to keep pushing yourself.
Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist at Stanford, believes this isn’t just about willpower but also your will to live. [Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31128522/]
Conclusion
We can use past failures as motivation for future success. Kobe Bryant, despite initial success, reinvented himself after a loss to Shaq, changing from number 8 to 24 and transforming as a player. If you’ve faced years of setbacks, investing in knowledge for success, two personality traits strongly predict winning.
I want to invite you to take your performance-based personality test at win.alphalifestyleacademy.com to see if you possess these traits. Don’t worry if you don’t have them naturally; many self-made winners cultivated these traits over time.
