Ahh, that wonderful excuse we all like to use when we can’t seem to get ourselves to stick to something - “I just don’t have the will power!”  It’s convenient, it’s comfy, and it works for just about any kind of thing you want to give up on.  It might be a good excuse, but if you want to achieve success in ANY area of your life you’re going to have to get past it.

Lets look at will power for a second.  What exactly is it?  The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as “The strength of will to carry out one’s decisions, wishes, or plans.”  So when we say that we don’t have enough will power to stick to a diet for example, we’re actually saying that we don’t have the strength to stick to our diet, or to quit smoking, or to work out, or to write blog articles, or to make sales calls, or to do whatever it is that we think we want to do.

My experience has been that will power has absolutely nothing to do with long term success.  You can will power yourself to do something for a day or two, or a week or maybe a few weeks or even a few months, but eventually if your POWER TO CHANGE comes from will power, then you will fail.  Why?  Because will power was not designed to be a long term source of power in our lives.  It is a short term power source that we get used to tapping into for short term activities, and then try to use for long term activities out of habit.

What’s great about will power?  It requires no thinking, no visualization, no planning, no preparation, etc.  You simply create a logical reason to do something for a few days and using will power you can get yourself to stick to that for a few days.  After that, however, we go back to our regular ways.

Does it make sense to try to use a short term power source like will power for a long term goal like eating healthy, exercising daily, personal development, etc?  No, I totally believe it does not make any sense to do this.  If you’re trying to will power your way through life changing activities, you’ve probably failed and failed again and felt miserable for it.

So if will power doesn’t work, what does?  How do we make long lasting changes?  The answer is not a simple one that I can answer in a single paragraph.  I will write more on the subject in the future, but here are 10 basics of what I believe is required to tap into a permanent source of power:

(1) Long term changes require preparation.  Most people underestimate how much preparation is needed.  “I’m going on a diet starting today.” is a great statement to make and you can try to will power yourself through it, but if you have nothing but crap food in your home, in your fridge, in your cupboards, etc. then how are you going to eat healthy?  Waiting until the clock strikes noon at work and then wondering “I wonder what I should eat for lunch today?” is not preparation, it’s healthy eating suicide.  Plan ahead!  You know you’ll be eating tomorrow at noon, so why can’t you plan what you will eat?  Same with dinners, etc.  Want to exercise?  Maybe you need to purchase some exercise equipment for your home or join a convenient, local gym which isn’t totally packed during the times you’ll be able to exercise.  Don’t underestimate the importance of preparation!

(2) Don’t get stuck in endless preparation.  On the converse, there are those people who are always waiting for perfection to get started.  “I can’t start my diet until next paycheque / next month / next year / etc.”  Set some targets of when you want to get your preparation steps completed.  Preparation shouldn’t take more then a few weeks, so feel free to WILL POWER yourself through getting prepared.  This is where will power comes in handy, short burts of energy.

(3) Know your outcome.  What do you want?  “I want to lose weight.”  You want to lose weight?  Takes your clothes off, you’ll lose 5 lbs.  “No, no, I want to lose some fat around my body.”  You want to lose some fat?  “Yeah, like 20lbs of fat.”  By when? “By the summertime.”  Which summertime?  This summertime, or summertime 2019?  “This summertime.”  So what do you want then? “I want to lose 20lbs of fat around my body by this summertime.”  This is just a starting point of getting to know your outcome.  You need to keep going with this.  You need to ask yourself the right questions and get the right answers and make sure you have your outcome written down.

(4) VISUALIZE and connect to your outcome.  Visualization is one of those things that almost everyone hears about, everyone knows about, and nobody does.  Yet, besides knowing the outcome you want it is the most important aspect of connecting to long term power.  If you can’t be bothered to visualize what you want for even a few minutes a day, you’re telling your subconscious mind that the thing you want is not that important.  It them makes it not important, and you move towards your other automatic vision which is your current situation.  If you want to be a millionaire, spend time visualizing already being a millionaire DAILY.  If you want to weight 20 lbs less, spend time visualizing that DAILY.  Be creative here.  It’s not just about visualizing inside your head.  Print pictures of your future body, paste them on a dream wall, write yourself a cheque for a million dollars, create a set of business cards with the job title you want, or whatever it is that you want.

(5) Restructure your environment to support you.  If you want to stop drinking alcohol every weekend, maybe you need to find different activities to participate in with your friends, or find some new friends!  If you’re going to the bar four times a week with your friends and you think you’re going to will power yourself to drink water everytime you’re there, it might not be the smartest thing to do.  Find other activities that support the new changes you are making in life.  You want to quit smoking?  Start playing sports and hanging out with some of your more health conscious friends.  Change your environment at home.  Don’t blame your environment for screwing up your plans, change your environment instead.

(6) Work on getting rid of your fears of success.  If you want to lose weight, perhaps you have a hidden fear that you won’t know what kind of clothes to wear anymore because you’ve never shopped at a “skinny store”.  Go to “skinny stores” and get familiar with the clothes racks you’ll soon be shopping at.  If you want to be a millionaire maybe you have some hidden fears about all the taxes you’re going to have to pay, or the safety of your family, or all the people that will want to borrow money from you, etc.  Dive into these fears and overcome them.  It could be some little hidden fear that’s hiding beneath the surface that’s tripping you up.  Visualizing the outcome you want will help to flush these out.  Pay attention to how you feel when you visualize yourself already achieving your outcome.

(7) Committ to an outcome, not the process.  On your path towards your outcome you may need to change the process a hundred times.  It shouldn’t matter.  The only thing that matters is that you achieve the outcome.  If for example you want to lose 30 lbs and you join weightwatchers or try a certain diet and two weeks later you find out it’s not working for you, don’t give up on your outcome - perhaps the method you tried is simply not the best one.  Adjust your course, keep your outcome and vision in front of you and don’t give up on the vision.

(8) Work on every area of your life in a balanced way.  Work on every category of your life at the same time.  Progress in one category will fuel progress in another.  If your health is not being taken care of, your business will suffer.  If your business is suffering and your finances are getting worse and worse every month your relationships will suffer.  If your relationships suffer, the stress will cause health problems etc.  Create outcomes in all the areas of your life and work on the simultaneously, not one at a time.

(9) Very little that’s worthwhile can be accomplished in a month, but miracles can happen in a year.  Stop chasing the quick fix.  You are most likely not going to go from zero to hero in any area of your life in some miracle 30 day program.  Quick fix solutions don’t work no matter how hard we chase them.  Can you have perfect teeth for the rest of your life by brushing your teeth 50 times a day for 30 days straight?  No, you need to brush a few times a day for the rest of your life.  Can you have a perfect body by hitting the gym for 30 days straight and working out 8 hours a day and then stop to focus on something else for the rest of the year?  Good luck.  Imagine if you shift your focus from the quick fix for a second and thought about 1 year from now.  What would you look like if you exercised every day for a year?  Ate healthy for a year?  Invested your money wisely for a year? or 2 years or 5 years?

(10) Visualize. Visualize. Visualize.  I know this is a repeat, but it deserves repeating.  You have to find ways to connect with your outcome.  Pictures, sounds, movie clips, action figures, websites, printouts, posters, signs, whatever it takes you need to find a way to connect to the outcomes you want daily in a fun way that engages your emotions.  You have to get excited about your outcome.  When you do this, you engage your subconscious mind, God, the Universe, Law of Attraction, whatever you want to call it and tell it on a daily basis “THIS IS IMPORTANT TO ME YOU HEAR?!”  If you don’t do this, you’re wasting your time and progress towards your outcome will end the minute your will power depleats.

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