Do we lack willpower?

Remember the last time you had to deal with a boring or difficult task. Maybe you had the feeling that your willpower left you, suddenly your ability to focus was not with you. We all feel this on occasion. Even now, when you feel you are fighting against your own instincts, you can stop and focus. You just have to recharge your willpower.

“Willpower gives you energy and strength needed to face the challenges, that is, the ability to stand by setbacks, and strength to tolerate conflict or stress that might otherwise make us flee goals or projects that are important to us,” says Kelly McGonigal, a psychologist at Stanford and author of the instinct of Willpower (Avery, 2011).

Your willpower works like a muscle – it needs to be trained, developed and maintained. “Many people tell me they have no willpower,” says McGonigal. “But nothing I have found a gene proposes willpower.” Everyone can develop your willpower, so here we bring you five tricks to start working on it:

Remember your goals: If your willpower feels exhausted, think about the task at hand as necessary to help you achieve your goals step. “Willpower is very easily exhausted if disconnected from your values and goals,” says McGonigal.

For example, if you do not like billing, you will see it as a difficult task and it will cost isolated muster the energy to do so. If I posed as one of the many ways in which you build your successful business, then the passion you feel for your business will help motivate the concentration – and even enjoy – billing.

Practice coping with stress: When we are working toward a goal, we are forced to face hard times. To achieve the ambitious objectives it is necessary to persist in conditions of stress, even when anxiety, fear or boredom threatens to undermine our willpower.

Working with mindfulness helps cope with stress and strengthen willpower. Test mindfulness meditation, or better yet, do yoga to learn to stay in situations of distress and find some inner serenity. “It’s almost like training of willpower,” says McGonigal.

Forgive your mistakes: These bound to make mistakes, but your willpower will be stronger if you take those mistakes in stride. “Forgive yourself for mistakes increases motivation and commitment to the goals,” says McGonigal.

Let us own failure with the kindness you offer a friend, but keep in mind the ways in which we can do better next time. It allows you to recover and grow at the same time.

Connect with your colleagues: Willpower naturally rises when we recognized and appreciated by our work. “We believe that willpower is to be tough and individual, but the most connected people feel more willpower than others,” says McGonigal.

When you feel discouraged or distracted, go talk to a coworker or invite colleagues to lunch is a good option. The simple pleasure of working with people you care toward a common goal is a surprisingly effective to restore your willpower mode.

Hopes that it will become easier: Often we strive to continue to participate in the difficult tasks because we imagine, perhaps unconsciously, they will remain just as hard in the future; we feel defeated or hopeless and gave up.

To combat this feeling, remember that your skill improves with practice. “We appreciate that a task is difficult, but do not repeat it will always be difficult,” says McGonigal. Most likely, the task will be a little easier every time you repeat it.