How to Have Willpower and Self Discipline

Nothing gets done that is worth anything without the willpower to do it.  Those who quit smoking and feel great could not have done it without willpower.  Those who have lost weight could not have done it without willpower.  Those who have built a successful business could not have done it without willpower.

What is Willpower?

Willpower is the ability to resist temptations to reach a goal.  A person with strong willpower is going to push forward through many trials and temptations to reach their goals.  These are not people who will give in easily.  These are people who will most likely reach their goals. 

 For many people the lack of willpower is the major barrier to realizing a positive life change.  If you are reading this article the chances are good that you have some willpower because you are not letting the obstacle of not knowing how to develop your willpower stop you from reaching your goals. 

How to Have Better Willpower

Will power can be learned and practiced.  It is simply about the choices that you make in life.  The following is a list of ways to have better willpower that I found at http://www.wikihow.com/Have-Willpower.

1.        Take note of circumstances where you feel you have a lack of motivation to exercise your ability to make a conscious choice.  In other words circumstances where you feel you lack willpower.  You might even want to write these circumstances down.

2.       Bribe yourself into doing the things you dislike that are necessary to reach your goal.  Reward yourself for doing the tasks you hate.

3.       If you are someone who does not learn quickly, then start by deciding to do a small task that leads to a bigger goal.  For instance, if your goal is organize your office space, then start with organizing just one drawer in a file cabinet.  When you are finished with this task reflect on it and give yourself a pat on the back.

4.       Once you have tackled several small tasks move onto bigger decisions.  Always remember to reflect on your completed tasks and to feel good about them.

5.       Remind yourself that we are weaklings and lack gusto without willpower.

6.       Decide right this moment to make laziness a thing of the past.  Decide that you are a conscientious person and that you can absolutely do anything that you decide to do.

7.       Determine what the lasting advantages are of using willpower and having discipline.  Focus on those advantages.

8.       Give yourself a push towards doing the next thing in sequence needed to reach your goal.  You can form future habits by pushing forward and doing what’s difficult today.

9.       Don’t sit around waiting for something to happen to relieve you from doing a task.  Do each task as it comes up.

10.   If you want to strengthen your willpower you must practice self-discipline.  Start by presenting yourself with small goals that you can complete daily and don’t let anything stop you from getting those goals done.

11.   Put yourself on an exercise routine or start a healthy diet plan for a set period.

12.   Reward yourself for practicing willpower.  Set up your rewards ahead of time so you know what you are working so hard for.

If you learned anything new from this article then please leave a comment.