Stop burning your Willpower, marshal your energy

When fear or anxiety consumes us we are prone to burn more energy using our Willpower. Willpower is the strength to act, or forbear from acting, in the pursuit of a goal. Burning your Willpower is a bit like pressing a gas paddle in your car really hard making the engine rev harder and burning unnecessary fuel to go a small distance. It’s not an efficient use of this amazing power you have to get things done.

Are you achieving your goals?

Look back to the start of this year, when you set your goals. How much closer are you to achieving those goals? If you are not close then maybe you are burning your Willpower on unresourceful activities. David DeAngelo taught me a very important rule about Willpower and how to use it wisely.

When we have awareness we should focus on Willpower to create routines (habits). Use Willpower to do something that will become a routine (habitual). ~ David DeAngelo

Where is your Willpower

Willpower is with you daily. But a bigger reservoir is there with you early in the morning. This is because your Willpower is not yet sucked up by the daily disruptions, anxiety, email & internet addiction, noise pollution etc… Therefore, since your Willpower is at “maximum” early in the morning it makes perfect sense to utilise it then to make the most of it in achieving your goals.

Starting early

It’s no rocket science that most people are more productive early in the morning. You may have heard these people say things like “I’m more focused in the morning” or “the lack of morning disruptions allows me to do more”. No wonder. Their Willpower is fresh, new, full and ready to be focused on what they set their mind to. You too can tap into this limited supply of daily Willpower. Just wake up each day early and focus on your NEW will power day after day after day. After you have given focus to what you want to achieve using your new will power, your mind will take over and the power of habit pulls you to the thing you wanted to do. It becomes the thing you do automatically. If you want to understand more about quick habit building, check out my post on 21 day habit building.

Programming self thru practice

In order to make this work effectively, you have to program yourself to do it. This is done by creating a practise of it. The habit I mentioned above. Realise it will not always be in the moment. “Trying to do it” or “remember next time” never works. Practising is the only thing that works. Create a practise that you make yourself do it. Once you create a practise of it, you don’t have to remember how to do it again. The thing you practised JUST HAPPENS. It’s all automatic. In the same way great speakers can empower people naturally, and how we can drive a vehicle while listening to radio and speaking to your passengers. From practise it’s just happens, all automatically.

Awareness is the key

Awareness is the most valuable state to make this happen. ~ David DeAngelo

You need to be aware of what you are doing, how your body and mind behave and react and question everything. With questions come answers. Do the following:

1. 1. Marshal your will power on a daily basis.
2. 2. Put some accountability in place so it is something you just do.
3. 3. Make it inevitable so that you are doing this all the time.
4. 4. And it’s just what you do. So that you can free up Willpower to go and work on the next goal.

It all starts up the stream at “awareness”.

An excercise

Here’s a practical excercise you can do to understand this approach better.

1. 1. Image your specific outcomes you want & behaviour you need to change. Make sure it’s specific and measurable at specific time. For example; “I will buy a beautiful 10 bedroom waterfront property in 6 months at Carmel-by-the-sea, California.”
2. 2. Get your reason why. How will this affect your life?. For Example: “I have always wanted a waterfront property in a beautiful place surrounded by nature. My life will be more fuller, a life long goal achieved at an early age, I will have more space to spread my wings, have a large family and throw those fantastic cocktail parties for my close group of friends.”
3. 3. Visualise clearly – make it inevitable and then visualise, visualise and visualise. Imagine how you will behave when you have achieved this goal (buzzing with life and energy), how your body will look (perfect posture & glowing with energy), how you will feel different (inspired, full of life), how you will move differently (head up, chest out, relaxed), how you will breath (deep from the belly), your posture doing this new behaviour and how you will feel deep inside when you have reached this outcome. This is your new reality. Make it happen!

In conclusion

Once you engrave this new reality inside your mind, it becomes 2nd nature. Your map in your head changes and reality alters to meet your new map. You notice connections and become conscious of it. Your Reticular activating system fires up and starts to see things it wouldn’t see before. This is the same system which is behind your awareness when you buy a car and you notice that car everywhere. You know which one, we all had it happen to us with a car purchase. You are alert to it. You have learnt that through repeated and visual affirmations and clear specific outcome tied to motivation your mind snaps into action and pulls you towards it. This is nothing new. Napolean Hill had chronicled this over 100 years ago. But like most knowledge, if not used it gets lost. What nature gives it easily takes. “Believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.” – Bible.

As always I love questions so please ask!

Ernest

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tagged as: awareness, energy, focus, habits, mentality, practice, reality, willpower