Don’t Overestimate Your Level of Willpower
By: Brian Kim - December 9, 2009
We don’t like to admit it but we secretly do. We like to admit to ourselves that we have superpower type willpower and when temptation presents itself, we think we have the willpower to say no to it.
But as we’ve all experienced, in the heat of the moment it’s very hard to summon it. The moment you have the thought of caving into the temptation, it’s pretty much over. It’s very hard to stop when you’ve activated the mental “caving in” sequence.
We say we’ll never do it again but we do.
So how do we solve this?
Simple.
Don’t even put yourself in a position to face the temptation in the first place.
Would you go out buck naked in the snow and test your willpower in terms of seeing how long you can stay out without getting sick?
Of course not.
But we see people all the time on the news, people we thought were straight edge, putting themselves in situations that bring them face to face with temptation.
We’re shocked to hear reputable politicians and celebrities cave into the temptation of adultery.
How could a person who has everything risk throwing it all away by caving into the temptations of drugs, adultery, and other harmful vices?
So when we look at ourselves and our own lives, how do we go about not making the same mistakes of caving into our own dangerous temptations?
For example, if the temptation is adultery, don’t even put yourself in a position where you’re alone with a person of the opposite sex who’s not your spouse.
You hear it all the time when two people are in a position just like that.
They always say “It just happened”.
Of course it just happened. They were both easily positioned to face that temptation.
The advice here might sound VERY archaic but it really makes perfect sense.
Some might say it’s a cop out, that avoiding those types of situations will not strengthen our willpower, that you have to face tempting situations to strengthen your willpower.
Here’s the thing though.
There’s no such thing as willpower in it of itself.
Willpower is always attached to a belief you have and the desire to live up to that belief. The stronger that is, the stronger your willpower will be. There’s no need to exercise willpower directly. It’s a byproduct of a belief you desire to hold strongly to.
That’s what should be exercised instead.
That’s what should be concentrated upon and impressed into your mind.
Once that’s fully ingrained, willpower will take care of itself and on top of that, it won’t really be necessary because you will naturally not put yourself in positions that pit you face to face with great temptation.
Don’t overestimate your level of willpower. It’s easy to do so in order to stroke the ego, but it’s like a person who overestimates his own strength when lifting weights.
He puts himself in a situation that tempts his blown up notion of how strong he is by loading up more weight on the bar than he can handle and gets crushed as a result.
Don’t overestimate your level of willpower. Don’t even put yourself in a position to cave into it in the first place. Focus on what you believe, on your desire to live up to that belief and that’ll prove to be the best move to make so you don’t cave into your temptations.
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