Willpower
With motivation, if I am working on a task, my motivation doesn’t seem to deplete until the job is done, especially if I have my entire day planned out. However, as soon as I plop down on my couch in the evening, after a long day of work, I do not want to move… I won’t move. I will only get up for one of three things: food, a beverage, or a visit to the bathroom. As long as I keep moving, my willpower remains high.
Willpower is not finite
We often come across the idea that willpower (at least, in a given day) is a finite resource. The idea is that, it gets depleted (by effort) through out the day. And towards the end of the day, we will not have any willpower.
But, that seems that’s only the case if you believe it.
The determining factor is how we answer the question:
Is willpower is a limited resource that is depleted by effort? Or, is it potentially unlimited and recharged by a challenge?
Studies were done for this. One set of participants were asked this question before they were given two taxing mental tasks in succession. An another set of participants were given the same tasks but they were not asked the question before the tasks were given to them.
The participants that believed that willpower is unlimited performed well on both the tasks. The participants that believed that it is limited performed poorly on the second task.
The takeaway is
Look at tasks as bigger challenges that you want to overcome and you’ll find the willpower you need.
Just do it
Will power! What nonsense. Do you think will power gives a man the strength to lift a burden the camel cannot carry, or to draw a load the oxen cannot budge?
Will power is but the unflinching purpose to carry a task you set for yourself to fulfillment.
If I set for myself a task, be it ever so trifling, I shall see it through.
How else shall I have confidence in myself to do important things?
Should I say to myself, ‘For a hundred days as I walk across the bridge into the city, I will pick from the road a pebble and cast it into the stream,’ I would do it. If on the seventh day I passed by without remembering, I would not say to myself, ‘Tomorrow I will cast two pebbles which will do as well.’ Instead, I would retrace my steps and cast the pebble. Nor on the twentieth day would I say to myself, ‘Arkad, this is useless. What does it avail you to cast a pebble every day? Throw in a handful and be done with it.’ No, I would not say that nor do it. When I set a task for myself, I complete it.
References
- A Stanford study found that it’s actually very easy to change mindsets and override what appears to be low willpower: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0038680
- https://lifehacker.com/your-willpower-is-only-a-finite-resource-if-you-believe-5967249