Stop Relying on Willpower
If we do not create and control our environment, our environment creates and controls us. — Dr. Marshall Goldsmith
Four months stay at home such a terrible thing if we think that way. It can more valuable if we do such a great thing during the pandemic, learn new a skill, or just checked our wishlist books. At the beginning of March, I decide to make a short-term goal for ten months. I want to read at least twenty books until the end of this year.
Then, after I read Benjamin Hardy’s masterpiece, Willpower Doesn’t Work, I realize that I just read fourteen books (from March until mid of July) and I have more than five months to read six books. I think it’s not that hard to read six books for five months, or I can do more. Who knows?!
I’m gonna talk about that book. I was grateful that I got this book from an online book bazaar and this book worth reading. We all know that if we want to reach our goal, we need a thing called “willingness” or Benjamin said it in this book “willpower”. But, is that enough? Is that a good strategy?
Why we don’t have to rely solely on willpower?
Take a look at this example. If you want to do your assignment through PC and your phone exactly near the PC. Guess what happens if there is a notification after ten minutes you work, you keep looking on that phone, reply to the messages, scrolling down the timeline and it happens one hour until you realize that your assignment’s deadline making you complain all the time.
See.. willpower works just on the surface. You can’t rely solely on that. You live in a dynamic environment. There’s an external resource that can alter your willpower if you don’t have “strong why”. Benjamin emphasizes the importance to reshape our environment because who you become and what you do with your life are constrained by the people around you and the quality of information you consume. Every idea you have comes from what you’ve been exposed to.
Your input determines your outlook. Your outlook determines your output, and your output determines your future.”
- Zig Ziglar
What can we do when we have a goal?
That’s why important to choose or reshape our environment if it’s not aligned with your goals. You can build a positive pressure that can push you on the maximal limit of your struggle. People who want to become writers need to change their room so it can support their emotional unconsciously make them focus on what they’re doing.
In his book, Benjamin gives us some advice when we want to achieve our goals. Here they are :
- Investing upfront
- Setting a timeline
- Installing several forms of feedback/accountability
- Removing or altering everything in your environment that opposes your commitment
That’s all just at the beginning of the book. There are still many traditional mindsets that we live in and need renewal.
We still have no idea where is the finish line of this pandemic. Just keep doing what you think it can help you to make your dream become reality. Remember to take the time to think. Also, I recommend you to read the full version of Willpower Doesn’t Work.
Enjoy the book!
