Willpower

Willpower is a funny thing. It's something that we put a lot of stock in, and feel like in order to achieve certain things, we must have it. Alternatively, it can be a handy excuse to give up on things, with a claim that there's insufficient willpower to get to the goal.

Willpower is not like gasoline required to make the car get to work. Fact: a car cannot run without fuel (be it electric, or gas). Fact: personal goals can be achieved by making choices that move us closer to our goals, rather than further away.

Everyone has the ability to make choices - and our choices (aka our actions) are what determine our path, and therefore our destination. I'm not going to say that making the "right" choice is always easy - far from it. I'm only saying that it's not like we don't know what the right choice is.

Someone recently said in a presentation, "Whenever you're struggling with making a decision, do the right thing. You know in your gut what the right thing is; you just need to do it". This clicked for me.

• Do I bail on plans that I made with someone because this other fun thing just came up?
• Do I order the grilled chicken wrap and salad, or the deep-fried fish and chips?
• Do I slack off and relax now, with the intention of getting my work done later?

These are the sort of decisions we make every day. Sometimes, the "wrong thing" can be very tempting, but we always know what the "right thing" is. We just need to make the choice to do it.

• Is doing the "new fun thing" more important than keeping your commitments?
• Is enjoying a meal that's admittedly delicious, but bad for you now, worth the price to your body in terms of how you look and feel afterwards? Does it taste as good as healthy feels?
• Is enjoying sloth and laziness now worth the price of either scrambling later, or not completing a task that you should have? Something that someone was counting on you to do?

The answers to these questions will be a reflection of personal values and what the "right thing" is, based on those values.

So what's needed, then, to do the right thing and move you closer to your goals?

Some self-control, perhaps, yes. A clear sense of what's important to you and what isn't, yes. An understanding of where you want to be and what you need to do to get you there, yes. I don't see that willpower is an essential element here.