The goals that you’ve set for yourself today, particularly your weight loss goals or any other goals that you wish to achieve in your lifetime, can never be reached if you do not have enough willpower to simply get out there and make things happen. Of course, the first step is taking the decision and making it clear to yourself the reasons why you need to reach these goals. But at the end of the day, what keeps us going is our willpower.
However, willpower is not something that can magically come into existence, it takes a whole lot more than just taking a decision to reach those goals. Good news is, you can actually train yourself to have more willpower. Here are some of the strategies that you can use to train yourself to have stronger willpower.
1. Relax
Relaxation will help reduce your stress levels and this in turn boosts your willpower reserve. You might be thinking, “Well that’s really easy” and so you just sit on your couch and watch your favorite television show. However, true relaxation involves you giving your mind a break to allow it trigger the physiological relaxation response. In this relaxed state, your heart rate and breathing slow down, your muscles release tension, blood pressure drops and more.
Experts recommend that you lie on your bed, close your eyes and take deep breaths. And if your body is tensed, try flexing the muscles in that particular area to relax.
Studies have shown that people who performed this daily relaxation exercise had increased willpower than those who didn’t.
2. Make Small Deadlines
If you try to control one thing that you’re not used to controlling, it can help train and strengthen your willpower muscle. You can do this by simple setting small deadlines of trying to tackle this problem.
Let’s say for example, you’re trying to lose weight, so you’re trying to fix your diet. You could give yourself a deadline of a week. Within this week, you would try avoiding foods that are high in calories and stay away from unhealthy fats entirely. Strictly eat protein and fruits for that whole week.
For the next week, set a deadline and try doing something a bit different, such as strictly just eating fruits and working out for 30 minutes a day. Keep setting these deadlines for a few month and before you know it, you’d have reached your goals.
3. Remember the reasoning
It’s important to always reason before giving in to the temptations. Try to remember your long term goals, and compare them to the short-term satisfaction you get if you give in to the temptation. You’ll realize that it’s really not worth it. Always remember to reason before taking any actions.
4. Take preventive measures
To help yourself from falling into temptation, you can actually make some changes in your lifestyle. For example, to avoid yourself from eating much, stock your fridge with healthier foods instead. Or in a case where you’re trying to cut down on how much you spend, try leaving your house without your credit card. Just take enough money that you think you’d need for the day. There are a lot of other preventive measures you could take, it depends on what you’re trying to avoid.
5. Learn to be supportive to yourself and not critical
The journey to increase your willpower wouldn’t be all smooth and you’re definitely going to experience a lot of bumps on the road. But it’s important to learn how to pick up yourself from the dust when you feel that you’ve failed because there’s nothing that drains your willpower faster than guilt and shame. So don’t allow your past failures draw you down. When you fail, try to fix it immediately instead of wallowing in self-pity.
Conclusion
Your willpower is one of the most important tool you need to succeed at weight loss. Without willpower, it would be really hard for you to make and abide by certain decisions and this is critical for success.
WhatsApp number: +971565830067 (Just send us code 7313 and we will get back to you ASAP)
Contact Us: Click here to send us your details or fill in the form below.
You can get in touch with us 24/7 and one of our experts will not only give you a free consultation but also help you pick out an appropriate male or female personal trainer to meet your needs. One-on-one personal training lessons are available in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman and RAK.
_________