The ability to manage other people is closely related to personal qualities. One of them is a strong will. Followers are unlikely to follow a “rag” man, they have few friends and they are not successful with women.

Even if all of the above is not about you (and if about you, then even more so), the following exercises will help you develop strong will.

Exercise 1. Search for hidden power.

This is the initial exercise. Its purpose is to define and feel what the “muscle of the will” is. You need to understand what kind of volitional tension it is and how to show effort at will.

We are developing an easy task for ourselves. Any, but useful. For example, in the morning, when you wash your face, fold the towel and put it in a certain place. In the evening, at the same exact time, you transfer the object back.

We do this exercise for a month. Even if this action becomes a habit, it will be a good habit.

Exercise 2. Understanding strength.

We choose an activity that is interesting for ourselves, a sports game. For example, minting a ball. It is fashionable now and does not require much space. You can replace the ball with a racket and a ping pong ball. We mint twice a day for 30 strokes. The basic rule, if you decide to make a certain number of strokes, then there should be exactly as many of them and not one more or less. The point is to be able to control yourself. We do 30 days.

Exercise 3. Normalization.

The purpose of this exercise is to control sleep patterns. Teach yourself to go to bed at the same time, fall asleep quickly, sleep at least 8 hours and no more than 10.

Exercise 4. Work and rest.

The goal is to control the mode of rest and activity. Break up any activity into equal intervals, like in school, for about 45 minutes. Take regular breaks to rest for 10 minutes. Change the type of activity. It is desirable that this exercise remains not only training, but also becomes a habit.

Exercise 5. Volitional communication.

When talking and talking, control your words and emotions. Imagine how you look from the outside, control your gestures and facial expressions. Remember a good rule: thought is action. Any action and word must be subject to reason.

Exercise 6. Volitional meal.

It is simple: full control of the process of absorption of food. Calmly, slowly, deliberately. We feel the taste and aroma, imagine and tune in, how we are energized and become stronger. We don’t fill our belly to the bone, we eat only when we are hungry.

Exercise 7. Control of living space.

This exercise should become a habit. Keep your work and living space in order at all times. Know what is where. There is a good rule: remove everything that hurts the eye. Then gradually everything will be in the form as you imagine.

Exercise 8. Volitional planning.

Make a plan for the day, month and year. The more precise it is, the better. Follow your schedule.

Exercise 9. Looking for laziness.

The point is that if you have things that you don’t want to do at all, then you need, on the contrary, to do them right away. I don’t want to get up early - we jump out of bed, I don’t want to clean the room - they grabbed a bucket, a broom and did it, and so on.

Exercise 10. Strong-willed strengthening.

The point is to exercise every day. It can be a regular run, and home fitness and a cool section. The main thing is that it enters your life and changes you.

Remember another good rule:
first you strengthen your will,
then the will works for you.

Each of our actions, mental or physical, is accompanied by an act of will. At its core lies a general state of mental tension. Let's consider this aspect in more detail and see how you can train willpower.

Will as a function of the psyche

The psyche inhibits parallel mental processes that prevent the onset of action (contradictory emotions, thoughts) and skips others. The act of will itself stands out from behavior as a state of strong emotional charge. Structurally, the entire nervous system is responsible for the formation of a volitional act, but the main importance is attributed to the controlled function of the frontal lobes.

Psychophysiological blocks of the brain, on which the volitional act depends:

1. the block responsible for the physical clarity of consciousness - wakefulness - sleep. It includes subcortical structures, reticular formation;
2. block responsible for receiving and storing information;
3. the frontal lobes, in which the creation of meaning, motive takes place - here the mental control of behavior takes place.

At the heart of the feeling that precedes the planned action is a sense of responsibility for the act. The semantic content of the goal is considered in the modal frame “possible” or “should”. Willpower is directly related to our desire, in the event of a discrepancy between desire and social norms, emotional stress increases greatly.

The development of the will initially occurs with the help of external control of behavior - communication with other people at school, in the garden, at work, at home. The approval of parents and loved ones reinforces the will to perform difficult tasks.
Gradually, rules of conduct are established, the will is transferred to internal conscious control. Strong self-motivation leads to overcoming one's own laziness, the development of useful abilities.

Repeated repetition of skills, accompanied by volitional efforts, is fixed in behavior. At the same time, conscious control weakens, and actions become automatic (stereotyping). Conscious development of abilities helps to reduce mental energy for a volitional act. Thus, the brain saves effort.

With Wikium you can organize the process of willpower training according to an individual program

The will affects the moral and ethical sphere as part of the personality. Our consciousness is completely socialized and lives according to the principle of reality, morality points to actions for which we love ourselves and feel good - volitional efforts are almost not required. However, generally accepted morality does not apply to scientific discoveries and actions. Therefore, for example, the scientists who created the hydrogen bomb can be considered immoral in relation to the value of human life, but not weak-willed.

According to Freud's psychoanalysis, the impulse to act within the framework of "maybe" is carried out when the act does not affect the interests of others, but superpersonal attitudes may ignore social approval, as in the example with scientists. In the latter case, it is rather the power of self-expression and the defense of interests, both vital and intellectual.

Strengthening willpower must occur internally and externally. It is worth learning to neglect insignificant goals, to put the main thing in the foreground. Willpower exercises include different motivations:

1. Increasing self-esteem.
2. Improving abilities and achieving high results.
3. Control over your actions
4. Increasing status, expanding social ties.
5. Increasing stress resistance.

It must be remembered that even a weak will during training will grow to a high level; figuratively speaking, it can be pumped up in the same way as a bodily muscle.

1. Adjust your diet. The daily diet should include natural and quality products. It is better to give preference to fresh vegetables and fruits, boiled dietary meat. Meals should be divided into 4-5 meals, eat a little, but more often, avoiding the feeling of hunger. It is worth abandoning low-quality products, fast foods. Start training your willpower - cook your own meals individually.
2. Fight bad habits- smoking, reading books at the dinner table and so on. This also includes the rejection of ready-made junk food, semi-finished products.
3. Willpower Exercises by Releasing Conscious Control. For example, if you are considering quitting smoking, don't hide your cigarettes in a closet in the hope that you won't be annoyed by the thought of smoking. Keep cigarettes in an easily accessible place, somewhere in plain sight. From the fact that you will know that no one forbids smoking, the resistance of the psyche will decrease, negative thoughts will disappear. Then you will begin to think that you yourself are able to give up cigarettes. You can use images of smoking people as additional "provocateurs".
4. Psychologists have found that strengthening the volitional impulse contributes to the tension of the muscles of the body. If you are tempted to miss the desired goal for the sake of others, tighten the muscles of your hand, clenching your palm into a fist. Thoughts coupled with physical stress will strengthen the emotional state.
5. Scientists have found that willpower is strengthened by good deeds towards other people. For example, giving some money to a beggar. This forms the opinion that you are essentially a good person and you should respect yourself. Another effect of the act - control over bad intentions. A person who has accumulated numerous positive experiences is unlikely to want to cross it out.
6. Development of the ability to switch and concentrate attention. Distractions and conversations that are not related to your goal should be ignored and focused on important tasks. Also, in the current unfavorable environment for the chosen task, you can switch to another type of activity - your mind will be occupied by other thoughts.
7. Creating New Habits. A habit is a habit or action that has become automatic. In order for the action to be obtained unconsciously, it is necessary for some time to consciously force oneself to perform this or that work. For example, learn to write, wash dishes or brush your teeth with your left hand.
8. Consistent sleep patterns increase willpower. Set the evening time, for example, at 11 pm and try to get to bed no later than this time. Morning rise set at 7 o'clock. Such a schedule disciplines you, will contribute to the maximum accumulation of body resources at night. As a result, the occurrence of disturbing, awakening thoughts will decrease, lack of sleep will be excluded, working capacity and psychological stability will increase in the daytime.
9. Volitional communication. Try to keep all your emotions and feelings under control. In a conversation, show them only when necessary. Do not express excessive emotionality, if the interlocutor does not require it. Facial expressions and gestures should also be appropriate and contain a strong-willed orientation.
10. Fight against laziness. If you have things to do, don't put them off until later. It is necessary to go for a walk with the dog - take the leash, the dog and go outside. Try not to look for excuses - it's raining, it's cold, you want to sleep, but just do it. In addition to training willpower, exercise increases productivity in business. Instead of a dog, sports can be used as an incentive. When it comes to work and school, the ability to start doing tasks right away is even more important and will be directly related to your success.
11. Give up meaningless activities that are easy to quit.
12. Bring what you have planned to the end. As a regular exercise, for example, if you are reading a book, formulate the task of reading it to its semantic completion (for example, to the end of the current chapter) and try to implement it. Try to read thoughtfully - this will increase interest and attention to the text. When reading, do not be distracted by extraneous factors, control your thoughts.
13. Reward yourself. If you have completed a task that you have been putting off for a long time, please yourself with a sweet or small gift. This will consolidate the feeling of self-satisfaction and will at first. However, in encouraging yourself, don't overdo it.
14. Know how to relax. Sit on a chair or armchair, calm your thoughts. Do not allow any part of the body to move (despite the feeling of unacceptable inactivity), such a state gathers all psychic energy together. A relaxed tone reduces the impact of extraneous thoughts and focuses attention on the right one. In such a state, it is easier to “study” thoughts, comprehend events, leaving the energy impulse outside of consciousness.
15. Motivating actions through modeling results. Imagine that postponing things will cause negative feedback from you and others, you will spend more time on your laziness than on an act. Then imagine how the situation will change when you finish things earlier than planned - with satisfaction and mental unloading of consciousness. Comparison of different options for a possible future creates an emotional charge, a nervous impulse to action.
16. You should comprehend and explain to yourself personal intentions, plan the result. Present all stages and intermediate results on the way to achieving the main goal. Without clear planning, a person tends to be distracted by small, intermediate actions, to get hung up on their development. Or, on the contrary, he sees the main goal much closer than it really is. In such cases, direct implementation can lead to frustration due to the fact that a person was not prepared, expected some abstract result.
17. You should not grab all the willpower exercises at once and “cram” them into your daily schedule.. Start with the easiest for you according to your free time. Gradually change your daily routine. To get started, try to do at least one or two exercises for a month. Then you can add a third or change the applied ones.

The main thing in the development of the will is a stable intention, a willingness to change your way of thinking and living in order to achieve a sustainable effect. This, by the way, is also an exercise in willpower! In the end, you will be rewarded, because, as they say: "Success is the result of serious work."

Once, many years ago, when I was still a preschooler, my mother went on a business trip for the whole week. My father, who was always very busy and whom I rarely saw at home, now came home from work early every day to pick me up from kindergarten.

We spent several unforgettable evenings. My father cooked dinner and we ate it together. We watched movies and hockey. We talked for hours about this and that. And once they started talking until late and continued the conversation already lying in beds in the dark.

The topic of conversation was what it means to be a man. It was very interesting for me to find out how masculine traits are represented in me: strength, kindness, character, will.

And then my father said: "Do you want to feel your willpower?". Of course I answered: "Yes". And then he said to me: "Go to the kitchen and touch the refrigerator". "Why?" I asked. “If there was a reason, it would be easier”, replied the father.

The task seemed simple to me and I threw back the covers. Without a blanket, it immediately became not so comfortable, but I went towards the kitchen. Walking through the bedroom in which my father was was not difficult, but behind her door began the living room, behind the living room was an entrance hall, from which a rather long corridor led to the kitchen. Each step was getting harder for me. Five or six years old, dark apartment, haunted around every corner. But I couldn't go back. Chilling with fear, I passed the living room and found myself in a completely dark corridor, where there was not a single window. I remember that I walked with my hands out in front of me, hoping very much that they would touch only one thing - the door to the kitchen.

And here is the refrigerator in front of me. My joy of victory was very short - there was a way back. I will not describe how I overcame it, believe me, it was not easier. When I was under the covers again, I experienced an incomparable feeling of the sweetest victory - victory over myself. This feeling did not need comments and discussion. Throughout my life, I have repeatedly had to experience this feeling again. And always victory over oneself was given by an effort of will.

It seems to me the most successful comparison of the will with a muscle. Only this muscle is not bodily, but moral and psychological. A muscle is made up of fibers and when we overload a muscle, these fibers tear. It takes time for them to recover. Therefore, we are warned against too frequent training. But when the body restores torn fibers, it increases their number so that the muscle can withstand such loads in the future. We, on the next workout, increase the load and tear the fibers again. The body restores them again and adds a few more. This increases the volume and strength of our muscles.

We don't often need their ultimate capabilities. In everyday life, we do not need voluminous biceps to pour a glass of champagne to a lady, pull up a chair for her, or open her car door. But we train muscles for the rare moments when they need their ultimate tension, and just for beauty.

Likewise, we regularly train the will not because we need it daily. We train her for moments when the possibility of her exertion can be a decisive factor in the competitive struggle. Well, just for beauty. After all, the beauty of a man is not primarily external. Will, character, self-control - that's what the best women appreciate in us much more than rounded buttocks or abs.

I want to remind you that the word "will" in Russian has two meanings.

• Firstly, it is the readiness at the right time to apply a conscious effort to solve the problem.
• Secondly, it is a synonym for the word "freedom".

It is tempting to conclude that a strong-willed person expands the area of ​​his freedom. It becomes available to him that for others, weak-willed, is not available. He can do what others can't. He is stronger - he is freer.

Here I want to tell you about three methods, three exercises, if you like, that will make your will, if not iron, then at least much stronger than today.

Like muscle training, willpower training requires regularity. We start with a small weight and a short duration, gradually, as the will-muscle strengthens, increasing the load. Beware of stress and injury. We are getting ready to experience “muscle joy” and pride in ourselves.

At the same time, one must understand that the will exercises themselves may seem absurd and meaningless. No wonder, after all, pumping up muscles in the gym for the uninitiated looks like a pointless exercise. And only the one who trains knows for what purpose he makes these efforts and spends time.

1. So, the first exercise. Warm up.

In it, you will not make serious efforts yet. But if you decide to significantly strengthen your willpower, do this exercise during the first week of working on yourself, as soon as you remember it. There is a fear that your subconscious will try to prevent you from remembering this exercise. Help yourself - put five reminders a day on your gadget.

So, let's start - during the day, perform short volitional acts, asking yourself the question: "What do I want the least right now?" or “What am I too lazy to do now?”. And do exactly that on purpose. Get up from under the warm blanket and go to the kitchen to touch the refrigerator. Get up from a comfortable chair and do twenty squats. Tidy up your desktop.

I rely on your common sense and I hope that you don’t think: “The last thing I want to do now is jump out of the window” or “I’m too lazy to go to the director’s office in my shorts now and ask for a pay raise.”

Now let's learn the flip side of this unusual, but very effective exercise. It will be necessary to interrupt a pleasant occupation by an effort of will. Download the game Angry Birds on your tablet and as soon as you pass three levels, stop the game and close the application. After eating half a piece of cake, move the plate away from you and do not touch it again. And, at the risk of encroaching on the sacred, in the midst of a boxing match, turn off the TV and go to bed.

Remember that it is also important to observe safety precautions, so do not try to leave half of your mother’s pie in your plate, interrupt watching a cartoon with a child, or, what’s good, interrupt sexual intercourse in the middle and go to bed. After that, you may not wake up. This exercise is simple and easy to do. Treat it with humor, however, be aware that its effect can be quite strong.

2. Exercise two. Let's get the volume.

To gain volume will be in a fight with the survival instinct. If you can oppose yourself to the strongest of instincts, your ability to self-control can reach unimaginable heights. One might suggest abstaining from food and water, bathing in icy water, balancing at great heights, or walking on coals. But without proper instruction and safety net, these exercises can end not with strengthened willpower, but with exhaustion, hypothermia, fractures or burns.

I will offer you an exercise that will not only strengthen your willpower, but will definitely strengthen your health and increase your energy. Each approach will last at first no more than a minute, then we will increase the duration. But even for the maximum duration of the approach, you will need a shock, the so-called short will.

Start the stopwatch to complete the exercise. It needs to be done daily. The total duration is 5-10 minutes. Sit or stand, take a breath and hold your breath. Record the time. Wait until the breath becomes unbearable, count another five seconds from that moment, and only after that allow yourself to breathe. Do not worry, you are not in danger of fainting or asphyxia: just as the brain gives a command that the stomach is full during lunch only 10-15 minutes after the actual saturation, it signals about a lack of oxygen and an excess of carbon dioxide with significant lead. Perform this exercise three times in a row, trying to gradually increase the duration of breath holding.

The next day, do the same, only hold your breath as you exhale. On the following days, alternate between inhaling and exhaling, aiming for a three-minute interval on each set. Just as it is useful to close unnecessary applications and disable unnecessary functions to save energy in a smartphone, it is also useful to choose a body position in the breath holding exercise in which you can achieve maximum muscle relaxation. A surprise for you may be a side effect of this exercise - the stabilization of the psychological state, which will last several hours.

3. Exercise three. Stretching.

A strong-willed person is capable of self-control. He will never say “I am not responsible for myself” or “I could not restrain myself”. But self-control is an act of will extended over time. Therefore, a strong long will is necessary. As I have already said, we will work on the development of a long will incrementally. Let's start with external spheres of control.

Set aside time on your calendar to clean up:

• at your workplace
• in car
• in the house
• in documents
• in finance
• on phone and computer
• in wardrobe
• in your body (hygiene, health, aesthetics)

Remove the excess, streamline the necessary that you decide to leave. Meekly throw away files, phone numbers and things that you no longer need to use. Every extra item and every extra information loads your brain and depletes your willpower resources.

But a long will is not yet needed here. The long will is activated in the next stage, the control stage: now maintain this level of order at all times. This will help you move to the next level - the level of control of the inner spheres. Now tidy up:

• their actions
• your thoughts
• your emotions

The first is easier. Before you say or do anything, pause for a few seconds and ask yourself if it's worth doing and if it's worth doing it this way. Remember that sometimes five seconds of reflection saves years of regret.

Learning to control the train of thought is more difficult, but also possible. Do you remember how hard it is not to think about the green monkey. You can distract yourself from an unwanted train of thought with an exciting activity. Conversely, if you need to think about something without being distracted, you create a favorable environment for reflection (this is decided individually, you better know what disposes you to think) and mark the time during which you agree with yourself to think about only one problem. By the way, do not discount such a resource as articular thinking. If you need to think about an important issue, brainstorming technology is at your service. Get to know it, it is described in thousands of resources on the Internet, and use it to make decisions with colleagues, friends and family members.

I would like to pay special attention to the exercise "volitional retention of a good mood." Start with an interval of two hours, gradually increasing its duration until the entire time of wakefulness. During this time, you do not allow yourself to complain, grumble, grumble, and other forms of expression of negative emotions.

Remember that the idea that you have to let go of negative emotions is just a myth born of ignorance. Experiencing emotions and expressing them are one and the same process. Restraining the manifestation of negative emotions is their neutralization. During the exercise, you will need to maintain a positive attitude. This does not mean at all that you will need to shine with a thirty-two-tooth smile and hug everyone you meet, as if you had a long-awaited heir. It will be enough if your positive attitude is felt only by you.

I guarantee that in the first week this exercise will not be so easy. Every now and then you will catch yourself cursing, frightened by a cat that jumped out from around the corner, or a car that jumped out into the oncoming lane. Such spontaneous emotional outbursts do not mean at all that you have failed the exercise. It is important that they do not affect the stability of your good mood in general.

It is clear that the ways to “pump up” willpower are not exhausted by these three exercises. But I have chosen for you a convenient and doable set that will quickly give you a feel for the result. Let's not discount the fact that indirectly the will is strengthened by sports, hardening, yoga, meditation, walking the dog and patiently listening to children's babble, sitting with an interested person at a meeting and watching the beast on the hunt, and much more.

However, remember that the will, like the muscles, is insidious. And at times, when nothing portends trouble, it can misfire. This effect is called abulia - a temporary attack of lack of will. Sometimes it happens for no reason and you just have to wait it out. And sometimes the cause of aboulia is an overstrain of the will during the previous period.

It happens when you overtrained your muscles, and then in the shower you could not lift a bottle of shampoo over your head. Therefore, plan acts of will for the morning hours, while the will is not yet tired. Over time, you will learn to control the volitional resource available to you, as you control the amount of gasoline in the tank.

But even when you do, be careful. Aggressive attacks can be made on the will. And the will, no matter how strong, can not resist. The most effective aggressors are excess alcohol and excess stress. Those who quit and started smoking again will confirm my words - they break down most often during a stormy party or after, for example, a quarrel with his wife. If you firmly decide to strengthen your will, avoid the attack of aggressors. At least for the first three weeks, until the will gets stronger and it will not be so easy to attack it.

The profession of the author of this article is to conduct trainings, seminars and lectures. Thus, to express his thoughts in writing is a less familiar and less pleasant task for him. In order to start work on the article, continue and finish on time, he had to make several acts of will. Some of them were committed in his own office, where one of his colleagues constantly strove to distract him. Some of them are on the plane following the route Ulan-Ude - Moscow, returning from a business trip, where for several days he had to get up and work at local time - and this is five hours earlier than usual. Every adult performs dozens and hundreds of volitional acts every day. And just as any muscular effort is the less uncomfortable for us, the more physically trained we are, so the volitional effort is the easier and more pleasant for us, the stronger our will.

And now, setting an example for my reader, I make an act of will and interrupt my pleasant occupation - writing this article, and put an end to it.

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A person performs a huge number of actions every day, many of them require willpower, which allows not only to live, but to achieve success. Psychologists have developed various recommendations that allow you to become more purposeful, active, train your character and get what you need from life with your own efforts. If you want to learn how to develop willpower, pay attention to the following recommendations.

Definition

Have you ever forced yourself to do something? And how often do you quit the job you started, not finishing it to the end? What emotions and sensations accompany the process of abandoning the goal? Willpower is the ability of a person to realize his ideas, intentions, despite internal laziness, physical disabilities and interference from the environment and environmental factors.

The ability to overcome temptations and your own shortcomings allows you to move forward, achieve success, solve even the most difficult tasks and make choices. Willpower is the ability to do what you don’t want and don’t like, what is needed at the moment.

What is the ability to overcome yourself

Every day we have to deal with many tasks: from getting up in the morning to vital problems. A person with poorly developed willpower cannot force himself to do even the simplest things, such as taking out the trash or washing the dishes.

In a global sense, a lack of will can interfere with the proper construction of personal relationships and career growth. Thus, the development of willpower is important for us, and it should begin in childhood, however, in adulthood it is never too late to change everything and increase your ability to act and overcome obstacles.

Knowing how to strengthen willpower helps in work. In work, the ability to clearly and on time fulfill the assigned tasks, resolve conflict issues, as well as the desire to achieve heights in a career is of great importance.

How to develop

If you go to a bookstore, you will see a lot of literature on the topic of how to develop willpower, but you can do without it. The first thing that is important is motivation, that is, the desire to do something and focus on the goal. The presence of motivation helps us overcome difficulties and tune in to solving the most difficult tasks. However, it can also disappear quickly.

Let's say you decide to lose weight. To do this, you do exercises every day, reduce the amount of food, you are going to go to fitness, but after a while the enthusiasm disappears. Fry a fatty piece of meat again, get up later and do not have time to warm up, put off going to the fitness club for another time. Naturally, you will not achieve results. In order to continue classes and achieve success, that is, lose weight, you need willpower. A few recommendations for people who want to learn how to achieve what they started.

1. Do what you don't like no matter what. Put such tasks in the first place, stop postponing them for another time.
2. Repeat to yourself daily: “I can. I do. I'm trying."
3. Dare to deny yourself. Cultivate your character. Craving ice cream? Pass by. Are you used to every time you go to the store, take a pack of cookies? Change the habit.
4. Enjoy whatever you do. Sing, smile. You will strengthen the spirit, recharge with optimism, and therefore, the desire to do and achieve the goal.
5. See the target ahead. A motivated task goes more easily, and willpower training is more successful.

Willpower Exercises

• meditation. During meditation, we are forced not only to focus on our inner world, but also to learn patience, because we have to sit still for a while, which is especially difficult for people with excess energy. With the help of meditation, the character and spirit are tempered, thoughts and emotions are put in order. One of the difficult meditations is the ability to completely turn off the activity of the brain, stop thinking, reproducing images or words. This helps to find peace and learn gradualness in their actions.
• Learn to perform actions sequentially and break them down into small steps. If you decide to lose weight, then set yourself the task of giving up sweets this week, and start cooking healthier foods next week. You also need to gradually increase the physical activity.
• Challenge ourselves to fight. We take our consciousness “on weakly”. Why others can and I can't? I can and will prove it too.
• We take care of our appearance. Always, even at home. It is necessary to accustom yourself to accuracy, even if you don’t feel like it, even if it seems that it doesn’t matter now, this will help build character and at the same time become more attractive.
• Making a schedule physical activity, we draw it up in the form of a picture or a table, put our signature and do everything that is prescribed there without exception. Physical exercises train not only muscles, but also the spirit, in addition, increase the level of overall energy.
• If you are looking for how to develop willpower, then one of the tips is to give someone a promise, it is customary to keep it, otherwise they begin to consider you irresponsible and weak-willed. Evaluation of other people greatly affects our ability to act.

When doing exercises to develop willpower, remember about reinforcement. Praise yourself, give small gifts for successes, write down what is achieved. Record any positive progress so you know you are progressing towards your goal and being able to overcome yourself.

Stop using negative words: I can't, I won't, I can't. Replace them with positive ones: I do, I achieve, I can, I can, I'm interested.

Keep track of your usual activities: how much you ate, how long it took you to get to work, how much time you spent watching TV or a computer. Daily activities will tell you a lot about what unnecessary activities you do and what can be reduced and eliminated from everyday life. Let's say you spend a lot of time watching useless shows. Turn off the TV, go wash the dishes or go for a walk. Replacing one action with another allows you to train character.

Sport is a great way to overcome yourself

Starting to engage in even the easiest sport is not easy. This requires willpower. Meanwhile, sport helps to overcome oneself, one's laziness, increase self-esteem, strengthen one's spirit and change one's character for the better. Daily training requires perseverance, adherence to the regime of the day, food intake and physical activity. The more often you play sports, the stronger your spirit becomes, and the faster willpower will be developed, which helps to overcome yourself and achieve incredible success.

Beginners are encouraged to learn simple workouts. Choose which sport is most suitable for you to enjoy attending classes. We increase the load gradually, the body must adapt to new conditions. Willpower education is a daily work on oneself. A strong character is not obtained by itself, it is built, developed by overcoming pain, emotions, fears and laziness. In this regard, sport helps to train not only the body, but also the spirit.

What can interfere with the process of character training

We are constantly disturbed by something. Sometimes circumstances, sometimes other people. The environment and its relation to our success is of great importance for us. Close people can repeat: you are lazy, you can't do anything. As a result, motivation falls, willpower decreases, and the desire to train it disappears. You have to go through not only yourself, but also not to notice the criticism of others and their assessment of the personality.

Thinking about how to cultivate willpower, one should pay attention to the innate properties of temperament. Melancholic and phlegmatic people have the hardest time. The former are often unsure of themselves, the latter prefer to do everything measuredly, slowly. Choleric people have great willpower, they prefer to go forward, no matter what and no one. Sanguine and choleric people are less likely to be interested in how to develop willpower, their energy allows them to be active in various life situations.

It prevents you from changing your character and low self-esteem. We must strengthen ourselves, our spirit, learn to be persistent and independent. Increasing self-esteem is an important link in strengthening the will.

A comfortable and calm state often leads to the fact that willpower disappears as unnecessary. If you are thinking about how to develop willpower, then step out of your comfort zone to feel the difference between a calm state and a search and problem-solving mode. Change the environment, work, start repairs, set yourself challenging tasks that help train your character and strengthen your spirit.

Act no matter what

The consumer society strives to make life as easy as possible. Computers, home delivery of food, personal transport, attendants lead to the fact that we stop doing many things on our own. As a result, each new action is given with increasing difficulty, and as a result, willpower disappears completely.

As soon as you feel weakness in the body, the desire to sit longer, postpone the work you have begun or communicate with unpleasant people, take it and do it. Turn off the brain’s thoughts about how hard it is, just get up and do it, and then the question of how to strengthen willpower will disappear by itself, because the character will become persistent and the spirit enduring.

Today we will talk about willpower - that part inside everyone that is responsible for the decisions we make: to be or not to be, to do or not. Whenever there is a need for action which is not part of our habits or contradicts our inner desires and beliefs, we use willpower.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato was the first to offer a description for man's internal struggle with himself, around 400 BC, by comparing the soul to a chariot. In the place of the charioteer, according to Plato, there was a reasonable beginning, endowed with some kind of willpower. The chariot itself is harnessed by a pair of horses, symbolizing the noble and sensual principles. Obeying the driver's hand, they carry the chariot forward, but if he is tired or drives the horses too much, then he immediately loses control over them, speaking out against his conscious desires.

Our minds are structured the same way. In a tense struggle with our internal “I want”, he inevitably gets tired , willpower is weakening, and, as a result, we can no longer make some decisions that require certain efforts from us. By caring for personal productivity and controlling our inner desires, we want to make the “charioteer” stronger so that the “chariot” always goes in the desired direction. Simply put, we always want to see the result of our efforts. This can be achieved by training willpower.

Willpower is your ace up your sleeve

Willpower, at its core, is the ability to successfully complete tasks. It is she who determines how quickly you can get involved in work, give up unhealthy food, start going to the gym. Willpower is applicable to absolutely all aspects of life.

Consider that willpower is one of your muscles that, like all other muscles, needs regular stretching and exercise. Otherwise, they atrophy, like an astronaut returning from an orbital station.

The same opinion is shared by scientists Mark Muravin and Roy Baumeister. (Muraven and Baumeister).To confirm their hypothesis, they once conducted an experiment that went down in history as an experiment with radishes and cookies. Its essence was as follows: the hungry subjects were asked to divide into two groups, one of which could only eat radishes, and the other could only eat chocolate chip cookies. After some time, the participants were asked to solve a complex geometric problem. At the same time, not a single group of people knew that the solution simply did not exist.

During the experiment, it turned out that those who treated themselves to radishes, gave up a good 20 minutes faster than those who got the cookies. Why? The point is that the last didn't have to make an effort and eat less palatable food, which means using willpower. The experiment clearly showed that the will has achievable limits.

You might be thinking now, "Hmm, what willpower is there ... I could not stand it and pounced on cookies. I hasten to reassure you: meticulous servants of science have found out that willpower, like any muscle, can be successfully trained, like a tiger that fell into the hands of the Zapashny brothers. With proper training, willpower allows a person to do much more complex tricks. For example, to go completely without food for five days, which, you see, is a very serious test.

Two Ways to Strengthen Willpower

1. Cultivate will. To strengthen the muscles, we subject them to stress, and they get tired, and when they recover, they become stronger. Willpower is trained on the same principle: take care of your health, try to streamline your thoughts and become more collected.
2. Use power wisely. Willpower - especially. Sometimes it is better to go around the mountain than to climb it. So most everyday tasks actually require less effort than it seems at first glance.

So, if you are one of those who want to take self-control to the next level, we will continue to introduce you to a toolkit designed to make your willpower stronger than diamond claws. .

How to develop willpower

Let's face it - we're mostly weak-willed. Many have a real talent for living and vice: we sit all day on social networks, indulge in hamburgers, smoke, do something else harmful. Try going to lunch mobile phone to the side- It's not as easy as it might seem at first. Being in constant tension, you do not feel the need to train your will. But as soon as the thought comes to your mind to lose weight or open your own business or find a better job, then you have to find out about the disadvantages of her absence on the thorny path to success.

And yet there are chances to win in this unequal struggle with oneself. It's simple: pay attention to health, as physical as well as mental. Try to follow a few simple recommendations that we offer you below.

1. Eat healthy

The human brain is a mystery to this day. This body is arranged very difficult, and its significance is not subject to the slightest doubt. The weakening of a person's mental faculties leads to a disorder of habits and inclinations. The most obvious external sign of this is the so-called (BMI). If it is too high or tends to increase, then the level of sugar in the blood begins to “jump”, and you feel sluggish and “swing” for a long time.

However, body weight is not the only indicator of health status that affects a person's ability to self-control.

Deficiency of vitamins and trace elements in the body, such as vitamin D, may lead to cognitive impairment. That is why a healthy diet plays one of the decisive roles: a person’s weight is in order, and the necessary vitamins with trace elements, willpower is also present in the proper amount.

2. Exercise

Many of you have probably heard the saying “In healthy body - healthy mind. It really is. The more active a person is physically, the better he, as they say, thinks.

If we are without movement for a long time, and especially if we sit, then all the muscles gradually “fall asleep”, and with them our brain.

That's why it's so easy to doze off on a long-distance bus or at a lecture. Partly for the same reason, standing tables are gaining popularity today. The so-called desks can significantly increase productivity due to the fact that the muscles of the legs and back remain in motion, which means that the vessels are fully involved in blood circulation, supplying the brain with oxygen. If working standing up is not possible, take the time to get up and stretch a little. You don't have to be a marathon runner or a heavyweight in oats - just be more active. To do this, include a warm-up in the list of mandatory activities for every day. After all, we are ourselves, right?

Try to comply with the "Japanese" norm, which prescribes to do 10 thousand steps daily to maintain good health. It will also be useful to climb the stairs a couple of times. Do whatever you want, the main thing is to be on the move.

Sometimes it seems to us that the forces seem to leave us and continue to work is no longer possible. Don't fight this feeling. Get up and go for a walk! You will be surprised when you feel better in just five minutes.

3. sleep

To achieve the highest concentration of willpower, combine a healthy diet and exercise with quality sleep at night.

By lack of sleep, we mean sleep for less than seven to eight hours during the hours of darkness. A sleepy brain works at half strength, as if you “took it on your chest”, which can already be compared with a complete lack of willpower. Imagine, just an hour or two, which you need to “get” to the eight-hour norm, will make your willpower an order of magnitude stronger. But for a sleep deprived, albeit infrequently, strong-willed efforts will not be so easy.

4. Drink more water

This is the last item related to health care. Honestly.

All living things need water - an indisputable fact. It turns out that the ability to concentrate efforts is largely due to the water content in our body. Even mild dehydration can have a serious effect. on human mental activity.

It is believed that to maintain a normal life it is necessary to drink two liters or eight glasses of water daily. We recommend increasing this rate by one and a half to two times: beautiful skin and a healthy, moderate appetite will be pluses for good health.

Water also contains potassium, sodium and chlorine - the most important electrolytes for the human body.

5. Meditate

Kelly McGonigal, a psychologist, professor at Stanford University and author of a series of books on willpower, believes meditation is one of the best ways to train it.

The concept of "willpower" is associated with a person's ability to focus on the task being performed, controlling the scattered consciousness. Many of us have a problem with this, which is exacerbated by the constant stream of all kinds of information pouring on us from mobile phones, laptops and social networks.

With the help of meditation, you can train self-awareness, the ability to abstract or focus your attention on any internal process - the goals can be different. If you have mastered the basic techniques of breath control, then focusing on work will not be much of an effort, even if the environment is not conducive to work.

Moreover, meditation teaches us to "control ourselves among the crowd of confused", instead of losing your temper or getting upset for any reason - you must admit, the latter is unlikely to make you an employee of the month.

Concentrating on different sensations, we learn to get rid of emotions and their external manifestations that are unnecessary in a given situation.

If you want to try the wonderful effects of meditation on yourself today, check out the application, for example. which will help to master the science of relaxation.

6. More practice

Whatever you want to be good at, practice. When starting willpower training, start by checking yourself for “lice”. Let's do without wisdom, because with willpower, as in war or in love, all methods will be good.

Willpower alone is not enough to achieve your goals. Imagine that you have a Ferrari in your garage, under the hood of which a whole herd of horsepower lurks - a car, no doubt, very fast. However, if the fuel tank is dry, you won't go anywhere.

This is why it is important to apply good and proven control methods. Why run to where you can reach without haste? In the following paragraphs, we will learn about ways to use willpower sparingly so that there is “for later.”

1. Divide and Conquer

Sometimes, just looking at the front of the upcoming work, we already want to give up and admit: nothing will come of it. So it is with personal motivation. For example, if you say to yourself: “I have to lose 20 kilos,” then you need to understand that it may take more than one month to achieve this goal.

However, if you conditionally divide one big task into several smaller items, say “read one paragraph from a textbook on microbiology” or “lose two kilograms”, then the goal will no longer seem so unattainable to you.

The more difficult the task, the more effort you will have to make over your will. Understanding this, first take on uniquely feasible items. This will “warm up” before doing all the rest.

2. Form habits

Lifehacker has already talked about Charles Duhigg(Charles Duhigg) and his book "", in which he claims: habits make up about 40% of our daily activities.

In general, this is good news. Imagine if every time you got into the car, you started the thought chain: “So, I take off the handbrake, press the clutch pedal, turn the key, look in the rearview mirror, look around, turn on the reverse gear.” Do you understand? If these actions were not a habit, we simply would not have time to think about anything!

But, whether we like it or not, bad habits, alas, have not been canceled. It is because of them that we delay the alarm signal several times a morning, twist the keys in our hands and (oh, horror!) Melancholy pick our nose. As soon as self-discipline weakens, they are already there.

On the contrary, good and healthy habits help keep willpower at its maximum tone and state of combat readiness. For example, if your regular schedule includes daily runs in the morning, then jumping out of bed and running to the park is unlikely to be a problem for you. If not, force yourself to start, and in a week your body will get used to the new morning “ritual”. Use this simple technique to gain truly valuable skills.

When you get started, try to spend half an hour of your time planning the most important tasks - in a few days it will become quite normal for you.

Think about what actions in everyday life require special moral efforts from you. Make a list of them and identify those that could become a habit. Service can be an additional source of motivation. , which will display the progress of your achievements graphically, identify lazy people and “punish” with a ruble for weakness of spirit. This is Sparta, brother.

3. Avoid bad news

The one who feels "a million" and thinks clearly, and the person is usually strong-willed. The absence of stress and all sorts of sorrows will have the best effect on the education of self-control. That is why the expression "You are what you eat" will be true for "mental" food - the information we consume.

Of course, our world is not perfect, and not every event can bring a smile to your face. Road accidents, wars, financial market collapses - in a word, everything that is continuously broadcast on TV screens and mobile devices, along with all other information, affects our mood and ... willpower. In fact, even vacation photos that your friend posted on his page on a social network can be a serious threat to willpower and reduce your fuse to nothing. As you know, an ax does not care what to chop. It is the same with our consciousness, which processes the signals coming from outside in the autopilot mode.

To avoid over-information, try to limit the consumption of information that is not directly related to the field of your activity. Of course, if you are a broker by profession, then it is your direct responsibility to be aware of stock market fluctuations. But reflections from the series “What will happen tomorrow if ...” will not be of practical use.

4. Create a positive work environment

With willpower - like with money: the less you spend, the more you have in the end. It would be logical to assume that you can make the environment work for you, that is, reduce the likelihood of situations where you might need willpower. So, you can calmly focus on the most important thing.

For example, you have a box of expensive chocolates on your table. From time to time, a desire arises in your head to open it and treat yourself, but you fight it with the help of willpower. A mobile phone is habitually located next to the box, on the screen of which notification icons appear from time to time. Trying not to be distracted, you continue to work. Know that willpower works with you.

The same applies to appetizing food photos in glossy magazines.

To be sure not to fall into the number of spineless losers that Jonathan talks about, try the service : it will not only allow you to take into account your working time, but also help you classify activities according to their degree of importance.

5. Prepare ahead of time

Psychologically, decisions are made easier, the need for which we know in advance. Knowing this, we can minimize the use of our volitional resources in achieving our goals.

Just think about what you need to do, and repeat to yourself, fixing the desired thought in your head, as if it were a mandatory rule. For example, “When I get to work, I will answer all emails immediately” or “As soon as I wake up, I will get dressed and go to the gym.”

Such rules greatly simplify the struggle of a person with himself, saving his internal resources. They also help keep promises. Sometimes doing it and forgetting is better than not doing it and being tormented by internal contradictions and remorse. Believe me, generated by cognitive dissonance, they will inevitably appear to spoil your mood. If you know that there is a long and hard work ahead of you, tune in to it in advance and do some easier tasks to “warm up”.

6. Listen to yourself

Many people know their natural “clock”. There is a feeling that the forces are about to leave, or, conversely, when productivity is at its highest level, it seems that there is no such problem that could not be dealt with.

This is due to circadian rhythms -cyclic fluctuations in the intensity of various biological processes associated with change of day and night. This is why most people feel tired around two in the morning and energized after two in half a day. If you're one of them, plan to get the most important things done before your activity levels drop.

Another type of biological rhythms is also known - ultradian rhythms. They are responsible for the concentration of attention, changes in pain sensitivity and a number of other processes that occur during the day and night in the human body.

In fact, every hour and a half, our brain goes through a cycle in which a high level of activity is replaced by a low one. If at the moment of peak activity you are busy with work, then work is argued and brings satisfaction.

On the contrary, acting contrary to your natural rhythms, you thoughtlessly spend a limited supply of willpower and, as a result, quickly “burn out”.

If the time of day is “not yours”, and there are still a lot of things to do, we advise you to work in sets for an hour and a half, interrupting for a 15–20-minute rest between each of these sets.

More will

So, if you already feel that the knowledge you have gained is eager to be put into practice, here are some tips for you to start immediately:

1. Think about what aspects of health you should pay attention to: overweight, sleep quality, physical education. Do not take on everything at once, start with one thing.
2. Evaluate the benefits of today's well-known helper services, such as and . They work, we checked.
3. Alternate simple and complex tasks throughout your workday to stay on your toes.
4. Critically analyze the organization of your workplace for things that steal your attention and time. And try the service .
5. Identify the peaks of your activity and the periods of decline observed during the day or evening. Remember these time periods and start planning with them in mind.
6. Think about what good habits you could pick up and what must-haves on your list you can plan ahead of time.

We hope you are finally convinced of the inevitable success of all the events you have planned. Even better, if a plan of action has already begun to emerge in your head. We will be glad to learn about other effective ways of self-control and read your "winner's story"!