Developing Willpower I
As regular readers of Create Good Things will be aware, the power of thought – and specifically of creative thought – is tremendous. However, when creative thought is coupled with the similarly potent potential of will, the combined power is truly phenomenal. For this reason, in this new series on Developing Willpower we shall discuss how one can develop the power of will in an effective manner.
The will can be defined in a number of ways. Many people described the will as ‘resolute self-determination’ or ‘personal resolve’. Longman’s dictionary defines the will as, ‘a mental power by which one controls one’s wishes and intentions.’ For our purposes, the will can be defined as, ‘Volitional effort applied toward a known objective.’ In other words, it is a mental power which manifests whenever we take action that we know we should take.
Many people complain that they ‘don’t have much willpower’. Some people actually believe that don’t have any willpower at all. But of course, both statements are quite untrue. All human beings have willpower, just as we all have muscles in our arms. However, as with the muscles in our arms, willpower is stronger in some people than it is in others. Not because some are born with more than others, but simply because some use it more than others and, like a muscle, the more you exercise willpower, the more it grows. Thinking creatively is an extremely good way to improve all aspects of your life, but when you learn to develop and apply your willpower towards the same ends, the results can often be quite miraculous.
Developing and applying your willpower is not a complicated process. Over the next few parts of this series we will provide you with four separate training exercises to help you increase the strength of your willpower exponentially. We suggest that you use the first exercise for a whole week before moving on to the second, then use the second for a whole week before moving on to the third, and so on. This will effectively give you a full one month training and development course that can’t fail to benefit you.
