If you want to make any permanent change in your life, willpower won’t get you there.
We are all addicted. And the cognitive dissonance is numbing. If you’re serious about the changes you want to make, willpower won’t be enough. Quite the opposite. Willpower is what’s holding you back.
If you’re required to exert willpower to do something, there is an obvious internal conflict. You want to eat the cookie, but you also want to be healthy. Environment versus goal.
According to psychological research, your willpower is like a muscle. It’s a finite resource that depletes with use. As a result, by the end of your strenuous days, your willpower muscles are exhausted and you’re left to your naked and defenseless self.
If your life requires willpower, you haven’t fully determined what you want. Because once you make a decision, the internal debate is over.
After you decide what you want, the decision is made. Thus, all future decisions regarding that matter have also been made. No questions.
If you’re truly committed to something, in your mind, it’s as though you’ve already succeeded. All doubt and disbelief are gone.
Commitment means you build external defense systems around your goals. Your internal resolve, naked to an undefended and opposing environment is not commitment.
When it comes to achieving goals, commitment involves, Investing upfront, Making it public, Setting a timeline, Installing several forms of feedback/accountability, Removing or altering everything in your environment that opposes your commitment.
No matter how much internal resolve you have, you will fail to change your life if you don’t change your environment.
The environment is more powerful than your internal resolve. As a human-being, you always take on the form of the environments you continually place yourself.
Everything in life is a natural and organic process. We adapt and evolve based on the environments we select. You are who you are because of your environment. Want to change? Then change your environment. Stop the willpower madness already.
Courtesy: www.journal.thriveglobal.com
