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The Will Power Challenge
 MENTAL MUSCLE Have you ever sat down to work on a crossword puzzle only
to find that afterwards you haven't the energy to exercise? Or have you come
home from a rough day at the office with no energy to go for a run? A new
study, published in Psychology and Health, reveals that if you use your
willpower to do one task, it depletes you of the willpower to do an entirely
different task. "Cognitive tasks, as well as emotional tasks such as regulating
your emotions, can deplete your self-regulatory capacity to exercise," says
Kathleen Martin Ginis, associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster
University, and lead author of the study. Martin Ginis and her colleague Steven
Bray used a Stroop test to deplete the self-regulatory capacity of volunteers in
the study. (A Stroop test consists of words associated with colours but printed
in a different colour. For example, "red" is printed in
blue ink.) Subjects were
asked to say the colour on the screen, trying to resist the temptation to blurt
out the printed word instead of
the colour itself. "After we used this cognitive
task to deplete participants' self-regulatory capacity, they didn't exercise as
hard as
participants who had not performed the task. The more people "dogged
it" after the cognitive task, the more likely they were to skip
their exercise sessions
over the next 8 weeks. "You only have so much willpower." Still, she doesn't see
that as an excuse to let
people loaf on the sofa. "There are strategies to help
people rejuvenate after their self-regulation is depleted," she says.
"Listening to
music can help; and we also found that if you make
specific plans to exercise - in other words, making a commitment to go for a
walk
at 7 p.m. every evening - then that had a high rate of success."
She says that by constantly challenging yourself to resist a piece of
chocolate
cake, or to force yourself to study an extra half-hour each night, then you can
actually increase your self-regulatory capacity.
"Willpower is like a muscle:
It needs to be challenged to build itself," she says.
Will power is the ability to overcome laziness and procrastination. It is
the ability to control or reject unnecessary or harmful impulses. It is
the ability to arrive at a decision and follow it with perseverance until
its successful accomplishment. It is the inner power that overcomes
the desire to indulge in unnecessary and useless habits, and the
inner strength that overcomes inner emotional and mental resistance
for taking action. It is one of the corner stones of success, both spiritual
and material.
Self-discipline is the companion of will power. It endows with the stamina to persevere in whatever one does. It
bestows the ability to withstand hardships and difficulties, whether physical, emotional or mental. It grants the ability to reject
immediate satisfaction, in order to gain something better, but, which requires effort and time.
Everyone has inner, unconscious, or partly conscious impulses, making them say or do things they later regret saying or doing. On
many occasions people do not think before they talk or act. By developing these two powers, one becomes conscious of the inner,
subconscious impulses, and gains the ability to reject them when they are not for his/her own good.
Here are a few exercises to develop Willpower:
- Don't read the newspaper for a day or two.
- Drink water when thirsty, in spite of your desire to have a soft drink.
- Walk up and down the stairs, instead of taking the lift.
- Get down from the bus one station before or after your destination, and walk the rest of the way.
- For one week, go to sleep one hour earlier than usual.
- If you like ice cream, don't have any, for a day or two.
These are only a few examples to show how you can develop your will power and self-discipline. You may think that practicing such
exercises is being tough on yourself, maybe a little, but they add so much to the storehouse of your inner strength. By following a
systematic method of training you can reach far, have more control over yourself and your life, attain your goals, improve your life, and
gain satisfaction and peace of mind.
Show and prove to yourself that you are strong and in control, and practice the above exercises for a little while, before passing any
judgement on them.
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