I have heard that willpower is finite and every person starts their day with a limited capacity.

On the other hand there are people like gym goers or sportspersons saying that they can muster up more will power if they have the right mentality at the right time.

I don’t know which one is right, but is it possible to increase one’s capacity for will power ? If so what kind of exercises or training methods do they have to use ?

  • @De_Narm@lemmy.world
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    221 year ago

    Willpower is not even a transferable skill. I quit most sugar cold turkey, went from eating everything to being vegan over night and started going to the gym three times a week after being a couch potatoe for several decades. Still, I can’t get out of bed early or take cold showers among other things.

    The first secret is really just to want the result more than the hurdles you want to overcome with willpower. So, if you want to increase your willpower, increase your motivation.

    The other secret is just never using much willpower. Want to stop snacking? Just don’t buy anything. This way you only ever need more willpower while shopping, but don’t use any at home. Want to spend more time doing something? Don’t plan any large blocks. Just convince yourself to do a minute. Then either stop or continue until you really feel like stopping. It’s way easier than starting multiple hours of something, but you’ll form a habit. Once the habit is there, use the same tiny amount of willpower to grow your habit into 5 minutes. 10 minutes. And so on until you’re happy with it. Want to stop an addiction? Slowly reduce it. Smoking 5 cigarettes a day is better than 6. Once you manage try 4, and so on. Down to one? Skip every other day. Just get creative and avoid any large hurdles altogether if possible.