Willpower; How to Overcome Bad Habits and Distractions

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I came home from work

Stepped in the door

Greeted my mother

Walked into the kitchen

Spotted a jar full of gummy bears

I know I shouldn’t eat them

1 can’t hurt, right?

I put my hand into the jar and eat a couple.

Just to feel bad moments after.

Does this sound familiar to you?

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How environment influences willpower

Willpower to me feels like a last resort if your motivation is consumed you need the discipline to keep going, but when your discipline also falls short you need the willpower to minimize destruction.

As so often environment plays a big role in the topic of willpower, a good environment is one you don’t need much willpower.

However, that’s no reason to ignore willpower as a skill at all, because environments change. It’s easy to not eat a cookie at home when you don’t have cookies at home.

But what do you do if you get it offered at a party?

Environment change equals action to change.

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How Positive Feedback Affects Willpower

We all know that positive feedback is better than negative feedback, but how does this affect willpower, some may ask?

Let’s put it that way:

If you get a compliment, you are much more likely to resist instant gratification. However, If you are criticized, you are much more likely to indulge in instant gratification.

How long we can delay gratification is defined by our willpower

This means compliments — positive feedback can improve our willpower, while critic — negative feedback decreases our ability to accumulate willpower.

With this knowledge in mind, you can start to positively reinforce yourself

You can start to give yourself compliments in your head whenever you have achieved something you can say:

I have achieved everything for today, great job

This alone will help you increase your willpower

I touched on this topic in an earlier newsletter, you can read it here: https://theniklasmaier.ck.page/posts/becoming-who-you-want-to-be-the-role-of-identity-in-your-life-2

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Actionable steps:

• Don’t rely on external positive feedback start to positively reinforce yourself

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The Impact of Focus on Willpower

If you want to accumulate willpower, it is important to focus your attention on the result you want.

I think we all know the feeling of resisting candy, resisting gets way easier if we focus on our goal — the dream body

Instead

Of the short-term pressure — delicious candy

We need to keep our focus aligned with our goals so that our actions feel reasonable.

Don’t think of the hard workout, think of the body you want to have.

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High-Level Distractions

Distractions can have many different forms

We can all agree that scrolling on TikTok for 3 hours straight is a distraction, but what about hard work, chasing money, or that one relationship?

All of them could be distractions

We need to be true to ourselves, is the desire we are currently trying to achieve something we wanted ourselves, or was this desire put on?

• Was it our own decision to start that very business model, or did we get influenced by social media?
• Do we want to bulk up 10kg or did we see someone bigger than us and think to ourselves “man I need to bulk as well”

We have to look back and ask ourselves: was this something I chose to do or did someone or something influence me that way, if it wasn’t your own decision it might be possible it isn’t really the thing you want to do and therefore could be a distraction.

The less you desire, the stronger you become

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Actionable step:

• Focus on your dream result so that you need less willpower

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Willpower is a crucial skill for overcoming bad habits, distractions, and environmental change, especially when motivation and discipline fall short.

With that in mind, let’s keep improving our ability to use willpower and our journey to a fulfilled life.

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Thanks for reading

Cheers,

Niklas