How to Exercise Will Power

Co-authored by Sandra Possing

Last Updated: January 23, 2024 Approved

Exercising willpower is an important part of meeting many goals. Luckily, it can be strengthened over time. Through a combination of mental and physical exercises, you can practice good self-control and positive thinking. By paying attention to your motivations and the progress you make, you can then improve your willpower in a lasting way.

Part 1

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Practicing Mental and Physical Willpower

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1
Resist short-term temptations. Willpower must be exercised in order to not give in to all sorts of small temptations that face us everyday. If you practice resisting these small temptations, you will lay the foundations for greater willpower in other areas of your life. For instance:
- Replace sweets and salty nibbles with healthy, regular snacks. Do not buy snacks or processed food. Instead take time preparing your fresh, organic fruits, or nuts or seeds.
- Become a conscious eater, a healthy eater or a vegetarian, or a vegan. Taking care of your diet, daily, not only makes you healthier but improves the willpower.
- Go for a regular walk every morning instead of checking your email or social media accounts first.'
- Switch off your mobile, TV or Radio at home. Give your-self a mental space from all that noise.
- Don't buy an item that you want on impulse yet don't really need, such as a coffee, CD, or new shirt. Instead, save your money.
- Commit to health and natural healing. Remove any stimuli, such as: alcohol, cigarettes, medication. They are damaging to long-term health and very expensive.
- Practice sport or play an instrument or learn a new language. Studying strengthens the willpower.
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Create “if-then” plans. Knowing ahead of time what you will do in a situation to avoid temptation or to practice willpower can help you succeed. When faced with such situations, commit to “if-then” statements. For instance:
- If you are trying to avoid junk food: “If I go to the grocery store and I can't stop looking at unhealthy snacks, then I'll pick up a mix of nuts instead.” Enter only the green grocery store, avoid supermarkets. You will shop locally supporting your local producers.
- If you are trying to avoid drinking alcohol: “If someone offers me a drink, then I'll just ask for a soda.”
- If you are trying to control your temper: “If I start to feel mad, then I'll immediately close my eyes, take a deep breath, and count to ten to calm down.” Go for a walk. Do not stay in the same environment. A brief change of scene, will create miracles.
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3
Delay gratification. Giving into desires can be pleasurable in the short run, but sometimes holding off on things can increase your overall sense of willpower and satisfaction. There are numerous ways to practice delaying gratification everyday, such as:
- Taking a shower that is cold at first, and only allowing yourself warm water after a few minutes.
- Waiting 5 minutes before you eat, even when you are hungry. Do a short prayer, or create a table ritual where the family or friends share thoughts before the meal.
- Fasting for a day (only attempt this if you are healthy enough, and talk with a doctor beforehand). Health benefits of fasting are numerous, including boosting cognitive performance, protection from obesity and associated chronic diseases, improving overall fitness, supporting weight loss. Various personal growth systems encourage regular fasting once a month. Start with 32 hours of only drinking liquids and move to only water.
- Only allowing yourself to make a desired purchase after a certain period of time, such as a week (this also gives you time to determine if it is something you really want).
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Pay attention to your body posture. Remove that comfortable sofa from your living space. Research shows that paying even brief attention to your posture, breathing, etc. can boost your willpower and mood. So strengthen that back. It pays off. ^{[1]
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Trustworthy Source

Harvard Business Review
Online and print journal covering topics related to business management practices

Go to source} Simple exercises to accomplish this include:
- Reminding yourself to sit up straight while at work or while studying
- Pausing to take a few deep breaths every so often, Exercise Yoga Breathing
- Daily do an exercise, while sitting down
- Getting up from your desk for a 5 minute break every hour. Remove that couch.
5
Push yourself physically. Getting exercise is good for your physical health as well as your sense of self-control. By taking charge of your body, you will increase your willpower in other areas of life. Focus on creating a plan for physical conditioning that suits your lifestyle and abilities. Do gardening, planting is an excellent exercise that will keep you fit. Don't be afraid to start out small, and remember that any improvement you can make is worthwhile. The important thing is to stick to your plan. Depending on your experience, try:
- Taking a 10 minute jog or fast walk everyday, then increasing it to 30 minutes or more.
- Creating an exercise routine, whether indoor or outdoor.
- Playing a favorite sport with friends one or more times a week.
- Training for a 5k, marathon, etc.
- Biking to work each day instead of taking a car or public transportation.
- Climbing a mountain.
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Push yourself mentally. Free Your Mind and Think Reject or replace unwanted thoughts. In addition to physical exercises, you can increase your willpower through mental conditioning. Most importantly, focus on banishing fearful and aggressive thoughts that bring you down. By practicing self-control in this way, you will feel more in charge of how you feel and think.
- Switch off your mobile, Internet and TV. They all increase your mental addictions. Remove your favorite Social Networking site, and go out and socialize. It is always more fun in person.
- Write a diary of your thoughts and recast them in a positive light. For instance, if you are tempted to think “I've never done this before, and don't know what to do,” recast the situation more positively by thinking “This is an opportunity for me to learn something new.”
- Avoid particular people, places, situations, media, and other elements of your life that tend to cause you to have negative thoughts. If you find you're consuming a lot of negativity during the day, try to balance it out with a positive book, a walk in nature or a creative endeavor.
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Push yourself emotionally. Your life is full of opportunities. Love is also trained. Turn the negative emotions into positive. Dance, create, keep yourself occupied with other people, projects, conscious relationships.
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Push yourself spiritually. Meditate or pray. Dance or create an art work. ^{[2]
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Research source} The simple practice of meditation can dramatically increase your sense of self-awareness, boost your mood and health, and reduce stress. If you get in the habit of meditating periodically, even for 5 minutes at a time, you will practice willpower both by sticking to a goal and by deepening your sense of self. Various types of meditation include:
- Chanting mantras, in which you repeat a word or phrase over and over again.
- Exercising mindfulness to be happier, in which you focus on your consciousness while meditating through breathing exercises and other techniques.
- Practices that combine meditation with physical activity, such as meditating on love and doing tai chi.
- Certain yoga breathing exercises.
- Visualization techniques.
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Focus on virtues. As part of your overall goal of utilizing your willpower, you may want to devote some attention to virtues, such as showing compassion for other beings, being a good friend, practicing patience and honesty, etc. Research suggests that willpower and virtues are related, so do things like:^{[3]
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Research source
Roberts, Robert C.. 1984. “Will Power and the Virtues”. The Philosophical Review 93 (2). [Duke University Press, Philosophical Review]: 227–47. doi:10.2307/2184584.}
- Practicing a random act of kindness each day, such as offering a seat on the bus to someone else, anonymously paying for a stranger's lunch, or giving a compliment to someone in need.
- Devoting at least one hour a week to helping another person in some non-required way.
- Volunteering with a community organization.
- Showing patience with family, friends, coworkers, etc. by resisting the urge to be judgmental.

Part 2

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Supporting Your Success

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1
Establish your motivation. Knowing your reasons for wanting to change increases the chance that you will be successful at meeting your goal. If you want to practice willpower, try to determine and understand why, no matter if the cause is very specific or very general. Write down the items you wish to exercise, daily, weekly, monthly. Diverse examples include:
- You want to get to work on time. Jog before getting out of the house
- You want to stop smoking. Buy a house from all the savings you make.
- You want to be kinder to others. Do a voluntary word with an NGO once a week.
- You want to read more. Become a part of a Book Club.
- You want to be more successful. Finish another degree or learn a new language.
- You want to get in touch with your spiritual side. Dance or do art or visit your philosophy club.
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Focus on one goal at a time. Increasing your self-control in any aspect of your life can have a positive effect on your willpower in general. However, you are more likely to succeed at practicing and improving your willpower if you focus on one goal at a time. Prioritize your goals and determine substeps to decide where to begin. For instance:
- Suppose you have an overall goal of being more successful in life, and you have decided that being better at your job is the place to start.
- You have been chronically late to work, and determine that getting to work on time is the first step you should take.
- Do you sleep well at night? Is the first step, bringing back healthy sleep into your life? Removing an internet addiction, re-introducing healthy habits. Going back to the habit of sleeping in time.
- Focus on exercising willpower by waking up earlier, introduce an early morning jog, so that you get to work on time.
- Experiment with your goals, sometimes they are fully interconnected. Re-introducing plenty of water and fresh veggies, with a healthy work-out, buying a dog, or a creative endeavor, falling in love, might boost your energies to such an extend that you will become successful in all other projects too.
3
Monitor your behavior. It is important to keep track of your progress as you seek to practice willpower. That way, you can tell if you are on your way to success, and whether or not you need to make any adjustments to improve.
- If you are trying to get to work on time, for instance, keep a log each day that records when you go to bed and when you wake up. Notice if you are making improvement or need to make changes. For example, if you notice you are waking up on time everyday except for Mondays, focus renewed willpower on fixing that.
- There are several websites, apps, and programs that can help you monitor your progress as you seek to achieve goals. However, be careful not to over-monitor yourself or get caught up in using one of these aids, as it can become distracting and reduce your willpower.
It is perfectly ok and beneficial to reward yourself occasionally for meeting your goals and practicing your willpower. Give yourself a treat when you are successful—just make sure that increasing your willpower is the real goal, not the short-term reward.
Being well-rested is very important if you want to successfully practice and improve your willpower. If you are mentally or physically exhausted, your chances of success are reduced. Most adults need 7-8 hours of sleep a night, so set an appropriate goal.

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How do I strengthen my willpower and self-discipline?

Sandra Possing
Life Coach
Sandra Possing is a life coach, speaker, and entrepreneur based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sandra specializes in one-on-one coaching with a focus on mindset and leadership transformation. Sandra received her coaching training from The Coaches Training Institute and has seven years of life coaching experience. She holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Sandra Possing

Life Coach

Expert Answer

Start small with what you accomplish and work your way up. For example, if you want to exercise every day for 30 minutes, start exercising 2 days a week for 10 minutes. Over time you can add more time to your routine. Building good habits takes time and practice, so don't get discouraged! Just keep trying and eventually it will become second nature.

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