How to Improve Willpower With simple Tips

How to Improve Willpower With simple Tips

We’ve all seen people do things that we would like to achieve, yet when we try to do those things we find it hard to motivate ourselves. Excuses like “I’ll do it later” or “I don’t have enough time” or “It won’t take that long to do so I can do it in a bit” are all ways of getting out of doing what needs to be done. Often the reason why people don’t achieve what they want is simply down to a lack of willpower. 

Here are some ways in which you can improve your willpower. 

1. Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is a huge factor into how your willpower will perform. If you aren’t getting enough sleep then you’re body is going to be physically and mentally tired, not being able to perform at its optimal level. If you get enough sleep then your body is going to be alert and full of energy. Because sleep is needed to repair and rest the body, a lack of sleep will not enable it to be able to do so effectively.
If you are tired then your body won’t be as willing to cooperate with your demands and your willpower won’t have the staying power that it normally does, and if you do manage to get yourself to do what needs doing then it will feel like much more effort is needed than normal.  

When I haven’t had enough sleep I can definitely tell and will often drift off when I’m trying to concentrate. Normally it is when I am sat down – so for example when I am working on Smart Blog or when I am studying, also I find it hard to stay awake when I am travelling if I’m tired. 

If you are wondering how much sleep your body needs I’ll refer you to this article here: How Much Sleep do we Need?

2. Willpower Exercises

Willpower exercises are all about getting you to test your willpower as well as helping to boost it in the process. For example, say you were to do something for a couple of weeks, this would get you into the mindset of carrying it out and would at the same time allow you to see how much willpower you have to make sure that you do carry it out. Also by having something that you make sure that you do gets you used to making yourself do things even when your not feeling like it. 

Willpower exercises can be anything, as long as it gets you doing that something most days of the week and for an extended period of time over the course of a couple or more weeks (or even longer). Some examples of willpower exercises could be: using your opposite hand for two weeks, not swearing for a few weeks, giving something up, exercising everyday, etc. 

3. Set Yourself a Goal

Making sure that you have something to strive for is as important as having the determination to go for something. Having a goal means that you can firmly set your sights on something and have a clear purpose to put your willpower to use. Having a goal without any willpower is useless, but likewise – having a strong willpower without a goal is also useless. 

4. Look to Others

A great motivational thing that I do and not just me but others too, is to look to people who have achieved or are on their way to achieving what you are wanting to achieve. Sometimes when we are the only person going for a particular goal it can be disheartening when there is no-one else to inspire you. With the internet, nowadays you can find tips and advice from lots of different success stories – whether it be getting in shape or cooking professionally, their are so many people to inspire you. 

5. Keep a Track of how long you do it for

I find that when I am trying to stick at something, what I have done feels longer than reality. For example: When I went through a stage of jogging each morning I crossed off the days on a calendar so I could see how long I had been doing it for. After a certain amount of time I went to count up the days I had been doing it. I was shocked that I had only been doing it for just over a week when it felt like to me I had been doing it for two or three weeks. It made me realise that we can distort the time in our heads and so (if it is hard to motivate yourself to do) can make it feel like you have been doing it longer than in reality. 
Keeping track of what you do puts things into perspective and can better help you put a plan into place. 

6. Have a Rival

If you are in a position where you could get someone to start with you is brilliant for spurring you on, especially if this person happens to be a highly motivated person. Rivalry often makes us push and try harder than we usually would just for the sake of beating or keeping up with them. So by making sure that you have someone (a rival of sorts) to do this thing with means you are both going to help each other continue, also with the added bonus of not wanting to let them down. 

“Willpower is essential to the accomplishment of anything worthwhile.” 

Brian Tracy