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How To Increase Willpower [science backed tool]

increase willpower

Want to know how to increase willpower to either avoid a temptation or to start a new, positive habit? Here’s a helpful science backed tool.

Consistently research on “willpower” reports that the best way to create huge changes in your life is to  make small changes daily. After all, it’s easier to be a saint for 15 minutes, than to be a saint for 2 hours. 

I’m personally a big fan of small daily changes – which means I love “Kaizen” – which is a Japanese word which pithily summed up means:

“doing small changes over time in order to create huge life changes”

I want you to do a Kaizen Experiment

For the next month commit to devoting a tiny 15 minutes a day to a new improved habit– and tweak your way to a happier life.

Good News:

You can always find an extra 15 minutes in your day!

More Good News:

Brain researchers Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang believe if you can train yourself to stay disciplined for a mere 15 minutes a day doing a specific task – eventually – over time – you will become a more disciplined person in general – and be able to do a habit for far longer than 15 minutes!

Brain Research Cliff Notes:

Aamodt and Wang have discovered that a human brains overall willpower capacity increases like a muscle every time a human practices even a little bit of willpower — for even 15 minutes — because the human is literally strengthening their brains neural pathways.

Meaning?

  • If you want a toosh of steel, exercise your toosh muscles a little daily!
  • If you want a discipline of steel, exercise your discipline muscles a little daily!

On An Amusing Note:

Aamodt and Wang mention in their report how increasing “a human’s overall willpower muscle can begin with something as simple as disciplining yourself to brush your teeth for two weeks with your non-dominant hand.

Well, instead of having you brush your teeth differently, I want you to brush up on doing “that thing” you know you need to brush up on!

For example…

  • Yoga stretches.
  • Jumping rope.
  • Read a book.
  • Organizing closets.
  • Meditating.
  • Gratitude journaling. 
  • Walking for exercise

Basically, sometimes the idea of doing something new can feel so overwhelming – that you wind up choosing not to do anything.

However, if you commit to doing a tiny 15 minute habit a day – moving one tiny 15 minute step forward a day – you will happily discover changing your life is not as overwhelming as youd thought.

By the way…

I believe thereʼs a secondary reason why discipline for changing your life increases when doing small 15 minute habit changes over time. Youʼre creating what I call “identity shifting.” Basically, when you start doing a new disciplined live-improving 15 minute action, your identity begins to shift to see yourself as a disciplined life-improving person.

Your subconscious starts to say…

  • “The old me did not used to have discipline. But lo and behold, now this new me does! I be da boss of my cerebrum, baby!”

Thereʼs even a famed psychological theory called “Cognitive Dissonance” which explains this identity shift.

The Cliff notes on “Cognitive Dissonance.”

We humans donʼt like to have a disparity between our thoughts and our actions — so when we change our actions, we change our thoughts to match them.

For example…

If Human A starts to do a loving action for Human B — through Cognitive Dissonance — Human Aʼs brain will start to tell them “Geez, I must surely like Human B if Iʼm now doing a loving action for them!” As a result, according to studies on cognitive dissonance, Human A will wind up liking Human B a wee bit more.

Likewise…

If you force yourself to do positive, disciplined actions, then your brain — via the perks of Cognitive Dissonance — will start to tell you, “Geez, I must be a positive, disciplined person if I am doing positive, disciplined actions.” Eventually you will wind up being a wee bit more positive and disciplined!

Want to increase your willpower around food?

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Join Stop Emotional Eatinga life-changing online course –  which will rewire your thoughts and emotions around food.

Already Stop Emotional Eating has helped many thousands of people to slim down and feel good – including myself!

These tools helped me to lose 20 pounds in 3 months – and keep the weight off for over 6 years – and still going strong!

Stop Emotional Eating is an online course you can start right away – do at your own pace – and keep for life!

P.S. Before you wander off to whatever’s next, here are 2 things that will help you get more out of this wild ride called life:

1. Explore My Book: "Your To Die For Life: How to Maximize Joy and Minimize Regret Before Your Time Runs Out." It's just the tool you need to pry more joy, love, meaning and fulfillment out of your life. Curious? Learn more and snag a copy here.

2. Life Review Therapy - This is a coaching session where we get real about where you are, where you want to be, and why you haven’t gotten there yet. We’ll dig deep into what’s working, what’s holding you back, and how to create more joy, love and fulfillment moving forward. If you’re ready for actionable steps and real results, book a free consult call here.

Think happier. Think calmer.

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