BRX Pro Tip: Will Power isn’t Real
Stone Payton: And we’re back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, let’s chat a little bit about this idea and maybe even myth of willpower.
Lee Kantor: Yeah, willpower is one of those things that people think that they have it, when in reality, they don’t really have it. And people think that willpower is the key to making habits work or breaking bad habits.
Lee Kantor: And willpower doesn’t really work the way people think it does. It’s kind of like a phone battery. If you’re stressed or you’re tired, the willpower goes away pretty quickly, and that’s usually when you need willpower the most.
Lee Kantor: So, it doesn’t really protect you from yourself in the way that you do. And it really just kind of always makes you feel like you’re disappointing yourself and you’re lying to yourself and that you can’t do hard things when that’s really not the case.
Lee Kantor: So, instead of kind of battling willpower or your own self-control, it’s so much better to just create an environment or a system that kind of watches your back and does some of this heavy lifting for you.
Lee Kantor: For example, if you want to eat better and eat healthier, the best way to do it is just not to have unhealthy snacks in your house and around you and just keep healthy snacks around you and in front of you. That’s going to take the temptation out of the picture, and you don’t have to worry about willpower. You know that’s just a better system for you to achieve the objective you’re trying to achieve.
Lee Kantor: So, for example, if you’re trying to focus more and you want to do deeper thinking or deeper work, just move your phone out of the room; turn it off. Put website blockers on your desktop. Do the things that eliminate any of the distractions or kind of the things that are sabotaging the results that you want.
Lee Kantor: And an easy way to kind of incorporate this is just pick one habit you’re struggling with and ask yourself, how can I make my success easier and failure harder? What do I have to change around me in order to make that happen, and just make those changes? If you do that, you’re going to have a higher probability of success, and you’re not going to be relying on your willpower; you’re going to be relying on a better system.
