I’m reading
the book, ‘The One Thing,’ by Gary Keller, and there is a chapter titled Willpower is Always on Will-Call. There is a common saying that goes – where there’s a will, there’s a way, and
in this chapter, Keller talks about how misleading that saying is and how
misleading common perception of will-power is as well.
Keller calls
will-power a renewable energy source, and that will-power is usable and rechargeable,
much like a cell-phone battery or the gas in your car. He references university studies, such as ‘TheMarshmallow Test’ by Walter Mischel, the ‘Heart and Mind in Conflict’
experiment by Baba Shiv, and a study on the impact on willpower on the Israeliparole system. He uses these studies to
show the effects of will-power and how to effectively use it.
While studies
have shown how effective will-power can be, studies have also shown that we all
have a limited amount of will-power, and that when we use it up, we revert to ‘default
mode.’ The most effective way to use
your will-power is to do the important things, The One Thing, first in the day
before you waste your will-power on something else; something less
important. He also shows how your diet
can affect your will-power; simply drinking a glass of Kool-Aid lemonade sweetened
with real sugar can make you more effective than a placebo.
Knowing that
will-power is not always there and that you need to manage your will-power like
you manage your diet, your cell-phone battery, or your gas tank will allow you
to use your will-power much more effectively.
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