How To Conquer Your Will

By Dr. Jayanthi N.L.N.

"Conquer your willpower, and you can conquer the world."
This powerful statement introduces the book "How to Conquer Your Will?" inviting readers on a journey of transformation. Have you ever struggled with controlling your own will? If so, this book explores various aspects of human experience, offering insights into resilient strength, overcoming challenges, teamwork, facing darkness, and seeking solace. Each part shares valuable lessons, empowering strategies, and inspiring stories to help individuals confront inner struggles and come out victorious.
According to Dan Millman, "Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt, or fear." Drawing inspiration from quotes by Niccolò Machiavelli and Dan Millman, the book emphasizes the crucial role of willpower in facing life's challenges.
Real-life stories in the book serve as a source of motivation, providing lessons from individuals who turned their struggles into triumphs. By exploring these experiences, you'll find inspiration and practical steps to tackle your own challenges.
The book underscores the importance of collaboration and mutual support, encouraging reflection on historical examples and modern movements that can inspire collective efforts.
The concept of Darkness Defiance urges acknowledging the shadows within and around you. Strategies like cultivating resilience, seeking help, and embracing vulnerability are highlighted to help you emerge stronger.
The journey from adversity to redemption, explored in the book, emphasizes healing as a process involving physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Quotes like Thomas Edison's reminder that "when you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't" offer guidance for perseverance.
In essence, Joe Rogan's quote, "Strength does not come from the body. It comes from the will," invites you as a reader to think about how these empowering elements can fuel your own pursuit of resilience, triumph, collective strength, defiance of darkness, and ultimate healing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr. Jayanthi N.L.N.
• Release date: Feb 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224218776

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

The will to conquer is the first condition to victory.

- Ferdinand Foch

One day... as a small child, Thomas Edison came home from school, and handed over a paper to his mother...

He said to her "Mom, my teacher gave this paper and said only you to read it"

Her eyes welled with tears as she read the letter out loud to her child...

"Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have good enough teachers to train him. Please teach him yourself."

Yes... she lied.... She taught him at home thereafter...

She did just that, until she fell ill and passed away.

And many years after Edison’s mother died, he became one of the greatest scientists of the century.

One day he was going through some of her things and found the folded letter that his old teacher wrote his mother that day.

He opened it...

The message written on the letter was...

Your son is mentally deficient; we can't let him attend our school anymore.

HE IS EXPELLED

Edison became emotional reading it. And then wrote in his diary...,

Thomas A. Edison was a mentally deficient child, whose mother turned him into the genius of the century

Sometimes, a positive line of inspiration can change the whole life of a person.

Just be the way you are...

Never believe someone ... who says, you can't do this

The moment you believe them... You are already a loser.

And when someone says "you can't do this...!"

Say Let me prove you wrong...please.

So, my dear reader! Do you resonate with the above incidents in Edison’s life?

What is willpower?

Willpower refers to our self-control and ability to resist acting on impulses. It's related to our self-discipline and how we manage our actions. Basically, comes in when we have feelings or thoughts that we want to ignore. For example, when you resist the urge to extend your lunch break instead of going back to work, that’s willpower. 

But I want to clarify one thing: Your ability to use willpower doesn't become stronger as you keep using it. You can quickly weaken it, so you need to create areas in your life that don’t require as much willpower. 

You can learn to balance your willpower with your desires over time. But it’s not a skill that’s easy to master. Desires are inevitable, and we need to know how to exercise enough self-control to avoid temptation.

Many people believe they could improve their lives if only they had more of that mysterious thing called willpower. With more self-control we would all eat right, exercise regularly, avoid drugs and alcohol, save for retirement, stop procrastinating, and achieve all sorts of noble goals.

We have many common names for willpower: determination, drive, resolve, self-discipline, self-control. But psychologists characterize willpower, or self-control, in more specific ways. According to most psychological scientists, willpower can be defined as:

  The ability to delay gratification, resisting short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals

  The capacity to override an unwanted thought, feeling, or impulse

  The ability to employ a cool cognitive system of behaviour rather than a hot emotional system

  Conscious, effortful regulation of the self by the self

  A limited resource capable of being depleted

Why is willpower important?

Willpower is important because it’s what fuels us to create change in our lives. It forces us to find the power within ourselves to make things happen and depend less on other people. That’s why learning how to increase your willpower can have such a positive impact on your life. 

Our willpower also teaches us to be more self-aware and act aligned with our values. Our willpower prompts us to look within ourselves and see our strengths and weaknesses.

If we're more aware of ourselves, we can identify when we need to dig deeper for motivation when we’re trying to achieve a goal. It’s in those moments of willpower that we discover the most about ourselves and what we’re capable of. 

Both self-awareness and willpower require us to sharpen skills that nobody else can hand to us. We have to do the work ourselves to see success. But the benefits make the work worth it: being aware of our actions helps us become better leaders, friends, employees, and partners. 

In addition, willpower helps make our actions more purposeful. If you have to exert the effort required to resist short-term desires as you seek to achieve your life purpose, you’ll be that much more driven to succeed. That’s why it takes plenty of Inner Work and consistency to learn how to increase your willpower. 

Thought, leaders have many different ideas about willpower. For example, author and public speaker James Clear argues that most people want a rapid transformation. If they don't achieve their goals immediately, they think they have poor willpower. In reality, people need to make better plans. Clear says that people don't know when, where, and how to implement their habits if they lack clarity.

On the other hand, human behavioural scholar B.J. Fogg claims that to do something difficult, you need high levels of motivation and positive self-talk. To stay motivated, you should be rewarding yourself and celebrating your victories. Failing to acknowledge your hard work only hinders your progress.

It’s important to focus on the qualities that comprise your willpower, including motivation, attention to detail, and self-discipline.

Benefits of Willpower

Willpower can have a positive impact on both your professional and personal life. In fact, having more of it will benefit you wherever you venture in life. That’s because the benefits of willpower go beyond the ability to help you achieve your goals. 

Learning how to increase your willpower can: 

  Improve your concentration and focus skills

  Teach you how to manage your stress levels

  Improve your self-management abilities

  Boost your self-esteem and confidence

  Strengthen your conflict resolutions skills

  Help you to sustain healthy, happy relationships

Where does willpower come from?

Knowing the benefits of willpower is important, but let’s dive into the science. It's time to discover neuroanatomy and how willpower is built in the brain.

Studies show that our brains develop from the back to the front. That means development is slower in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the part of our brain right behind our foreheads. We count on our PFC for impulse control, reasoning, decision-making, and more. 

The PFC helps us rationalize things like doing physical activity even though we don't feel like it. It's responsible for analysing, thinking, and regulating our behaviour. 

Our willpower is built along with our PFC. But the PFC is one of the last things to develop in our brains. When we’re children, our PFC hasn’t developed yet.

We don’t have much control over our impulses, like how