Content

• To step
• Method 1 of 3: Set goals
• Method 2 of 3: Stick to your task
• Method 3 of 3: Make lifestyle changes
• Tips

Willpower is necessary to complete many difficult tasks. If you want to lose weight, quit smoking or achieve certain goals in your career, willpower is vital. There are ways to improve your willpower over time. Set goals, stick with it, and make changes in your way of life to make yourself more resilient.

To step

Method 1 of 3: Set goals

1. Break things up into manageable pieces. When you are overwhelmed by the enormity of a task, it is more difficult to succeed. You will not be able to maintain your willpower if you feel like you are setting impossibly high demands on yourself. You can strengthen your willpower by breaking difficult tasks into smaller, manageable chunks.
   • In her autobiography Bird By Bird, writer Anne Lamott describes how her brother worked on a report for school cataloging different types of birds. Because he had postponed the project to the last minute, her brother was overwhelmed by the task, until their father came over, put an arm around his shoulder and said, "One bird at a time, just one bird at a time." This of course means that enormous tasks can be broken down into manageable chunks.
   • If you want to get something done and are overwhelmed by the task, treat one bird at a time. If you have a 20 page thesis to go, promise yourself that you will write two pages a day in the weeks leading up to the deadline. If you want to lose 20 kilos, set yourself a goal to lose 4 kilos per month. If you want to be able to run the 5 miles, use the application like "Couch to 5K" to gradually build up your speed and strength. When we divide large tasks into smaller components, they suddenly start to look feasible.
2. Set reasonable deadlines for yourself. If you want to build more willpower, you will have to set deadlines for yourself. No one can function without planning. Set and stick to deadlines that you should reasonably be able to meet.
   • Suppose you want to train 5 days a week but you do not exercise at all, then after a week you will be burned out if you want to meet your goal immediately. Instead, make a schedule. Decide to train 2 days a week first, then increase this to 3 days, then 4 days and finally 5 days.
   • Track your successes. Invest in a large calendar that you can hang on a wall or the refrigerator. Every day, write a small note about your success for that day on the calendar. For example, on October 3, write something like, "Walked 5 km today." Being able to read your success in such a concrete way can give you a sense of pride that will motivate you to keep going.
3. Make a plan. One technique that can help you when your willpower is tested is to use an "implementation intent" (or an "if ... then" statement) to account for situations you may encounter. with temptation.
   • For example, you may not want to eat sugar anymore, but you are going to a birthday party and you know there will be cake. For example, make this plan for the party: "If someone offers me a piece of cake, I'll eat some of the fruit salad I brought instead."
   • Having a ready-made plan can help reduce the burden on your willpower, because essentially you've already made the decision and don't have to battle your sugar cravings at the time. This can work even when your self-control is exhausted.

Method 2 of 3: Stick to your task

1. Hold yourself accountable. An essential step in increasing your overall willpower is to hold yourself accountable to some extent. Do this for both your successes and the obstacles you face as you work toward your goals.
   • Speaking out loud or writing down what your actions are can help. Explain what you did and how it made you feel. For example, “I felt stressed about having to finish my thesis, so I decided to distract myself by watching TV. feeling negative about myself. " The opposite could be something like, "I wrote two pages of my thesis today because I wanted to progress with this task, and because it makes me feel productive and positive about myself."
   • Placing all responsibility on yourself requires tremendous honesty. It also increases your ability to direct your impulses and "think first and then act," and your sense of responsibility, because you can stop blaming external factors for your circumstances. This can support your will power as you realize that it is in your power to change things.
2. Control negative thoughts. Negative thoughts will arise at some point in your journey towards your goal. You may consider a setback as proof that you will never be able to change, or you may just have a voice in your head that keeps rattling on that you will not succeed, making you depressed. If you want to develop more willpower, negativity will certainly not help you, because it will leave you feeling defeated and hopeless. While it's impossible to stop negative thoughts completely, you can change how you respond to and handle them.
   • Keep notes of your negative thoughts. Taking notes is helpful in many ways, and one thing you can do is write down the negative thoughts that arise throughout the day. You will soon start to recognize a pattern in the negative messages, after which you can investigate its origin.
   • When you recognize a negative thought, such as, "I am unable to achieve my goals," ask yourself if this is really true. Do this by looking for actual evidence, not just what your negative voice is telling you. Create two columns in your log, one with evidence "for" the belief and one "against it." In the "Before" column, you can write, "I tried to go without sugar for a month, but it didn't work. I feel like I'm not strong enough to change my habit." In the "Against" column you can write something like, "When I set smaller, more achievable goals, then I can achieve them. When I look at it by day or by week, I have great success. In the past I have achieved goals for graduating, getting a raise and quitting work It was probably unreasonable to expect myself to be able to quit sugar just like that when I love it so much I'll have to do it again try, maybe using a different method. "
   • For a more in-depth look at negative thoughts and how to control them, read the article on How to Deal With Negative Thoughts on wikiHow.
3. Be yourself. This means that you know what your limits are and that you set appropriate goals. For example, if you're trying to quit smoking, it would of course be great if you could just stop immediately and you're done. But maybe that doesn't suit you - maybe you still enjoy smoking and have been doing this for years. Rather than mirroring yourself to an ideal, like someone who can quit an addictive habit just like that, you may want to cut it off gradually. In this case, you are true to yourself while at the same time increasing your chances of success by setting goals based on your self-knowledge.
4. Reward yourself. It is important to keep up with a task and take responsibility for what you do. However, it is also important to know how to reward yourself for doing well. No one's willpower is strong enough to keep going without being rewarded every now and then.
   • Work on a reward system for yourself. For example, if you're trying to lose weight, promise yourself that you can buy one item of clothing for each week that you stick to the diet and exercise schedule.
   • Everyone has their own system that works for him or her. Find something that you enjoy and how you can treat yourself to it from time to time. Scheduling a reward now and then means that you will be able to sustain a chosen path for much longer on the way to your goal, further supporting your willpower.

Method 3 of 3: Make lifestyle changes

1. Create good habits. Stress is a great destroyer of willpower. When we are overworked and frustrated, we succumb to behaviors we would rather avoid. By developing good habits, we are more likely to stay on track when we are tense.
   • Include certain activities, such as exercising and studying, in your daily routine. This can help you fight stress. If activities that require willpower are seen as a necessary part of everyday life, such as brushing your teeth before going to bed, then you are less likely to try to get out of such tasks when you are tense.
   • People with good habits also suffer less from the stress. Regular exercise, a healthy diet, and a solid sleep schedule can all help make stressful events less of an impact on you.
2. Don't procrastinate. Procrastination can kill your willpower. Postponing tasks that you see as a burden increases the chance that we will not do them at all. Avoid procrastination as much as possible if you want to develop more willpower.
   • Procrastination is often rooted in perfectionism. People often tend to procrastinate when they fear not being able to do it perfectly. Understand that postponing work does not really reduce this stress and can actually make it worse. You are better off just going to work despite your doubts than worrying about the task at hand.
3. Keep a log. Keeping a log can help you strengthen your willpower because you can track your progress in it.A relapse will feel less severe when you compare it to your performance. Suppose you gained 2.5 kilos during the Christmas holidays. Then go through your log from the beginning of your diet to remind yourself how far you've come.
4. Seek support. No one can do everything alone. If you want to maintain your willpower, enlist the help of others.
   • For certain specific challenges, such as quitting drinking or smoking, there are support groups in hospitals and community centers that may help you.
   • Talk to your friends and family about what you want to achieve. Ask them to help you along the way to your goal. For example, if you are trying to cut down on your drinking, ask your family members not to use any drinks in front of you.

Tips

• Don't be afraid to pick up something valuable again after taking a break or experiencing a setback. Rome wasn't built in a day, so take breaks when you need them.