Willpower, the magic ingredient also known to us as self-control, self-discipline and restraint.  Willpower is said to be the key to achieving any goal in life, the ONLY ingredient needed to get on that stepladder to success.  We've all convinced ourselves that this is the case at some point in our lives; blamed our lack of willpower for spending too much money, eating unhealthy food or even for drinking too much. In fact, we tend to give a lack of willpower the blame for anything that we struggle with.

The question is; Is willpower really all it's cracked up to be? Do all of our failures in life really come down to lacking in restraint? Some studies show that humans just aren't good with saying no when temptation raises its head.  The studies shown that those people who appeared to have better willpower than others were actually just better at avoiding situations where temptation would be an issue. Yes, those with the best willpower were  actually the people who don't put themselves into situations where they have to practice self-control in the first place.  So, the more you have to say no the higher the chance you have of saying yes instead.

That doesn’t mean that willower doesn’t play its part, but it does mean that willpower is a precious commodity and that none of us have endless supplies so we should try to preserve it by avoiding situations that will use a lot of it in one go. 

Willpower does help us when it comes to habit formation, but relying on willpower alone can be dangerous as it affects our mindset and the approach we use when it comes to achieving our goals. When we are told that willpower is "all we need", "to get on with it" and "not make excuses" we stop finding ways to make it easier on ourselves to form these healthier habits and set ourselves up to fail instead.

There are things you can do to help yourself to achieve your goals and ensure that you don’t have to use up all of your precious resource of willpower;

- Remove the things or avoid the situations that tempt you - it is easier to avoid temptation than it is to resist it.

- A plan can help you to avoid having to make choices, especially at those times when you are struggling. A plan helps you avoid temptation by taking the choice away. Lucky for you Make Me A Plan are experts at helping to draw up plans to help people to reach their goals. Take a look at the plans available, or get in touch to see if we can help you.

- Start small and be consistent. You can build up once the habit is ingrained.  This goes for anything; exercise, changes to food, saving money, drinking less caffeine and so on.

If you follow the steps above you will conserve your willpower for when you really need it - those times when you can't control the situation or environment around you and really need your willpower to be in good supply.

Good luck with achieving all that you want to in 2021 and don’t be afraid to give us a shout if you would like us to help you with a plan.  

Tamsin

XX