While some of us clearly understand the importance of this fundamental capacity of our mind, which enables us to function effectively, few have been taught how to cultivate it.
If we don’t understand what ‘will’ is then how can we effectively use it?
To understand what will-power is, let me share an analogy from the military.
To fire an artillery gun accurately (picture above) we need two basic systems:
Range finder → to determine target’s position
Fire control → to fire the shell
In the case of body and mind, your wisdom is your range finder and ‘Will’ is the fire power to do what you want.
‘Will’ projects our mental power to do something. It does that by changing thought into energy and then directing this energy to the target. Just like the artillery Fire Control System.
John Wick had a great Fire Control system and therefore he could accomplish what he wanted through focus, commitment and “sheer WILL’.
We work on improving our communication, listening, focus and other habits, but we rarely attempt to strengthen our will. I wonder why?
‘Will’ and it’s development have been insufficiently addressed by us. And contrary to popular belief, it is much more than self-control and self-discipline.
What is Will? - It’s Stages and Types
Will is what initiates all human actions.
We must will to move or think.
Will directs the energy in the body. Harnessing this energy will help in materializing success.
It expresses itself as physical or mental will.
Physical will releases energy in the body. It is the voltage that makes the current flow in our nerves. We use this will power to perform actions.
Mental will is guided by reason. It governs self-control, desires, attention and habits.
Some people are physically lazy and many are mentally lazy.
Let’s first understand the various degrees of ‘will’ and then leverage that understanding to ensure success in the future.
There are four stages of exercising our will.
Wish → Desire → Intention → Volition
A wish is a passing fancy. A desire is followed up with inconsistent actions. An intention is a determination but is discouraged by failure. A volition is persistent actions irrespective of results - continuous, undiscourageable, unceasing efforts.
Success is determined by the degree to which the ‘will’ is exercised.
With this newfound understanding, we can assess the category our past efforts belonged to and make decisions on how to approach moving forward.
Developing Will-Power
Building up our ‘will’ is important for our progress.
Just as muscles grow stronger with exercise and practice, so does will power. It’s development follows the same principles as our gym routine.
There may be things you have always wanted to do but never could. If you start small and gradually increase your effort, your will power, and consequently your results, will improve. We shouldn’t hold ourselves back just because we currently lack the capability. The key is to start and persist.
The will that gets strengthened as a result of accomplishing one task can then be used to do another task successfully. And the more you use it the stronger it becomes.
Will is the initiator. It is the motive power. And we all have been endowed with “Free Will”. We can use our wisdom (Range Finder) to use our ‘Free Will’ constructively, or we may use it for self-destruction.
Habits, Sub-Conscious mind & Will-power
We are all born with some tendencies. We make our choices based on these inclinations. This is our original sub-conscious mind. And it can be changed.
Utilizing our conscious mind and the gift of ‘free-will, we can make conscious choices to program our sub-conscious mind in our favour. The conscious mind can be developed with ‘awareness’. I covered the importance of ‘concentration’ in one of my earlier post.
The degree of development of our ‘will’ can be gauged by observing if we are guided by our sub-conscious mind or the ‘free-will’ based conscious mind.
Habits are another way to program our mind. By consistently doing a task we form a habit (good or bad). All subsequent tasks can then be performed by the sub-conscious mind. The process is automated and this helps in conserving our mental effort.
Creation of a habit is governed by the length of time needed by the sub-conscious mind to create mental records. A receptive sub-conscious mind will speed up this process. Affirmations & Visualizations as well as improving memory helps in developing the sub-conscious mind. I plan to write a post on this in the future. But in short, one can practice programming the sub-conscious mind by dedicating 30 minutes before going to bed and 30 minutes immediately on waking up. I call it the Golden Hour.
In Summary
Our ‘will’ is guided by our pre-natal and post-natal habits. It is easy to do what one wants to do but it is hard to do what one needs to do.
We must gain wisdom as we strengthen our will. Remember we need an effective range finder before our Fire Control System can fire the shells of our ‘Will-Power’
In a nutshell, work on your ‘will-muscles’ to strengthen them. Success is a result of continuous will and effort.
Great read , IPL season easily one could correlate different shades of will power being displayed starting with rookies to more established ones. Will power is ability to go past odds/ adversity or difficult situations.
Very well written. I have never considered practicing my “will” muscles. Thank you for sharing!