Habits or willpower? What gets you to the finish line?
Today’s post was about getting up after you have failed. This changed after I went for a nature walk with a friend over the weekend.
She wanted to know from me how do you increase your willpower. She wants to do the Wim Hof breathing method but can’t seem to stick to it. You can take a look at the technique on his website https://www.wimhofmethod.com/
Most people don’t have enough willpower to stick to something difficult and then they give up. This is if we look at willpower as defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary.
the ability to control one’s own actions, emotions, or urges
strong determination that allows one to do something difficult
But what happens if we should change the way that we look at willpower? Instead of saying that we need willpower to do something, we say we need willpower to start something. Most of us are good at starting something but we lack the self-discipline to continue with it.
A lack of willpower has now become a self-discipline problem. You can fix a self-discipline problem by creating habits. To create a habit use the technology at your disposal to prompt you daily for 21-28 days to solidify your new habit. You can also get yourself an accountability partner that checks in with you to see if you stick to your program.
Back to my friend. For the next month, I’m to check-in with her daily to see whether she did the breathing exercise. If for some reason she did not, we will look at why she did not. When we know why she did not do it we can look at how she can prevent the same thing from happening again. Or we can look at what she can do to help her manoeuvre around the obstacle that is preventing her from doing it.
What have you given up on that you want to try with the habit method? Do you need an accountability partner? Contact me to see how I can help you stay accountable.
