It’s hard to keep up willpower for any length of time.
Yes, we can stick to a new diet but eventually our willpower fades. And yes, we can do exercise we hate for a while… until we run out of willpower.
But what about getting up to take the kids to school every morning (or homeschooling during this pandemic), brushing our teeth or going to work every day.
Those may not be our favorite things to do either, but we do them daily without the risk of running out of willpower.
That’s because they have become habits.
They are so ingrained in what we do and who we are that we do them without even considering skipping a day or a week.
We don’t have to make a conscious decision each day to shower (okay…now that we’re all working from home right now this may be more optional than it used to be, but we’ll get back to our daily norms eventually) or drive to work. It’s just what we do – a habit.
If your habits don’t line up with your dream,
then you need to either change your habits
or change your dream.
-John Maxwell
When you start to think about it, there is an inverse relationship between habits and will power. When you first want to build a new habit, it takes a lot of will power to get it done day in and day out.
As you start to establish that habit, it becomes easier and easier to do until you don’t even have to think about it anymore.
I get it.
These changes can be so hard and I’m right there with you. I’ve been there and I’ve learned along the way that building willpower and stamina has a trickle down effect.
When we embrace this change in one area of our lives, it becomes more and more natural to embrace it in other areas. If you’d like to hear more of my own story, you can check it out here where I discuss the impact of working from home for me.
Building our willpower stamina and developing habits it’s just about our personal lives, it’s also relevant to our businesses.
It’s super motivating to listen to an inspiring coach, take a course and get pumped about the next product we want to create for our business.
But, then, the newness wears off and as we begin to realize that this will require an investment of time, energy and possibly finances it’s easy to start to drag our feet and put it off.
While we’re in that transition from willpower to habit, we can use tools to make it easier. Use a to-do list or set a reminder to help stay on track.
Find an accountability partner so the two of you can motivate each other and help bolster that willpower when it starts to fade after the first enthusiasm wears off.
Even something as simple as laying out your running clothes the night before and keeping your sneakers by the door will make it a little easier to go out for that run.
Do what you can to help your willpower along until you have made the new behavior a true habit.
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