To do many things in life requires motivation. But on its own it is not enough, because the fuel of motivation is willpower: the only energy needed to convince oneself to do something unpleasant (or not totally pleasant) comes from there.
They say that willpower is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets and the more it is able to withstand effort. It happens, however, that like all muscles, it is subject to the excesses of training: it can become exhausted, it can suffer and no longer function properly.
Think about the effort required of you to follow a diet: the willpower (and also the progress you make, hopefully) helps motivate you to continue. How much effort is required, though? You make an incredible effort and sometimes you have to use your mental energy not only to follow a dietary (or workout) program but also to focus on just that. Because failure is just around the corner: it appears in the form of “It’s not doing any good this diet, I’d better overindulge on chocolate to comfort myself,” or “But who makes me get up tomorrow at 5 a.m. to run to prepare for the marathon? But who cares?” The tricks our mind devises to justify moments of failure are endless.
Just a little bit of (not sugar)
What is often overlooked in these motivational regimens is context. If we don’t change habits and create the right environment to succeed we are just challenging willpower to perform a task too big for her. It would be like claiming to be on a diet while living in a bakery.
How do you prepare the right environment? How do you rearrange your life to facilitate willpower in its task? First of all, by eliminating those disruptive elements that would force it into an unnecessary and overly burdensome task: that of resisting the temptations of gluttony or bed-where you sleep, of course-and then, exhausted, convincing yourself that you need to eat only 65 grams of pasta and do the repeats.
Do you want an illuminating example of how it works and, more importantly, how it exhausts willpower? You go out with friends and decide that you will never check your phone. You place it on the table face down, so as to eliminate the distraction of notifications. Well, a study has verified that the problem is not solved, quite the contrary: the mental energy required of you to resist the temptation to check your phone anyway affects the quality of time you spend with friends. Which, I remind you, you originally wanted to be free of any distractions. Instead, the result you got was to make an effort to talk to them and simultaneously make an effort not to look at your cell phone.
This example may already suggest how to organize your life when you need to let your willpower do its work: you need to eliminate distractions. The great thing about this method is that it applies to many areas of life.
Diet
Should you pay attention to what you eat, avoiding the most unhealthy (but very rewarding) foods? Eliminate them from your reach. Don’t challenge your mind to resist the temptation to slice you that delicious culatello at two o’clock in the morning or to eat one of those 10 chocolate bars in your house. Do you need to keep away from alcohol? Don’t keep it in the house at all! It would be like detoxifying an alcoholic by demanding that he live in a wine cellar or bar. So: eliminate temptations by never having them at hand.
If you follow a diet that then requires special meals and dosages but do not always have access to a kitchen, prepare them in advance and bring them to work. A restaurant or cafeteria, for lack of anything else, could be the temple of temptation.
Social life
Do you want to be more focused and involved in family life, with friends, or at work? Once again: eliminate distractions. And we all know what they are, don’t we? The cell phone, always him.
Turn it off after a certain hour, impose on yourself not to use it after dinner, for example. Don’t “take a ride” on social media before bed. In short, decide that the time you spend with other human beings is dedicated only to them: you will succeed by not having a cell phone in your hand or pocket. Lock him in a vault in Switzerland, leave him in the car, make something up!
Finally, the hardest: keep only the really essential apps in your phone: mail, text messages, maps, music at the most. Eliminate social, embrace the path of minimalism!
Sports
Do you need to train and only have time in the early morning? Prepare the necessities the night before. You will not have to search for the right pants or shoes when you are sleepy, thus requiring avoidable effort from your willpower that is busy convincing you that going out for a run at 5:30 a.m. in 3°C is a wonderful idea.
If you must work out at a gym, choose one close to home.
If you do not live alone, choose training times that do not conflict with those you live with. You may have to “live with them” sometimes, right? The choice to play sports is yours alone and should not fall to or take time away from those close to you: in short, choose times when you would be alone or very early in the morning.
Willpower is a beautiful muscle, but to allow it to express itself fully, it must be free to move. It would be like training with lead shoes thinking that this would accustom your muscles to endure greater exertion: it would just kill them unnecessarily.
(Via Outside)