“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”
~ Lance Armstrong
ARE YOU WILLING?
Faced with a beckoning candy jar, a looming deadline or your squawking alarm clock, what part of you wins:
Your Pleasure-Seeker or your Will?
Just as a child will always choose the Captain Crunch or a later bedtime, your Pleasure-Seeker rarely has your best interest in mind. It wants to feel good NOW, forget later.
Your Will, on the other hand, is determined to help you reach your full potential. It is your cheerleader, taskmaster, coach, and parent. Without it, you cave if things get too difficult or when something else seems more appealing.
Will requires one thing, a vision-a goal. Connecting action to purpose, it keeps you on the path to achievement, making choices that serve you long-term and saving you from the nagging feelings of guilt and regret.
Not simply denial or self-sacrifice, it requires having a very clear and specific goal and then do whatever is necessary to get there.
Strengthen your Will by turning up the volume. So, when the Pleasure-Seeker starts screaming, “I DON’T WANT TO,” the Will replies, “I hear you, but you’re not in charge.”
RECIPE FOR WILL
The development of the Will requires practice and persistence.
The first step is acknowledging that you always have a choice, that you are in charge, that you CAN help it.
The next step is to begin to consciously turn up the volume. Choose a very specific and measurable goal that requires you to exercise your Will. Notice the competing voices, among them the Procrastinator, the Pleasure-Seeker, and the Will.
Choose Will. Use Will. Hear the other voices, but follow your Will. Try it for a day. A week.
Allow your Will to be the captain of your ship.
