Today, when a task comes up that hasn’t set into a steady pattern, I expect there to be plenty of stories attached to it. In fact, it’s easier to accept that I’m about to enter into excuse mode or distraction talk from my lifelong thicker skin. However, by now understanding that most subsequent thoughts become obstacles, and often they are well-disguised obstacles, this is a huge relief and lightens my load.
But if only I learnt this as a kid, I can’t help but wonder… What if I could go back in time and do it all again with fresh insight?
Just think…
There would be no more succumbing to the desire of keeping my will at arm’s length as I would have learnt how to take only a slice of the early reward so I wouldn’t fill up and not move.
Also, dealing with the one greater goal in line with my nature from a deep yet simple understanding, which means no more digging around a scattered filesystem unnecessarily, would have proved to be another big help.
I dare say that my content and programs as a young adult would have packaged and categorised the world’s knowledge rather neatly. Life, overall, would have optimised earlier on instead of later.
The Conclusion of ‘Will’
Any task that demands my will upfront means I’m either eager for a reward or I want to avoid a problem/punishment, which is a type of reward. Otherwise, I won’t break my comfortable patterns or set ways to complete something. Today, I simply observe all urges, impulses, and reactions concerning an upcoming task or goal in my mind.
The byproducts of ‘my will’ are:
When I cash in on rewards early and hard, spending energy, this weighs me down at liftoff or before contact with task-driven behaviour.
In the closing of the gap between the idea and act, there’s a compression in my mind, and I feel delayed. Time intensifies and weighs on my psyche (creating Weight). I’m overwhelmed by fluctuating thoughts as up and down stories and excuses carry on. Therefore, I must also be aware of destructive mind chatter dressing up as the greatest help.
By and large, there’s nothing useful here. Please don’t take this seriously, both the good and bad chatter. As time closes in on my task, any engagement into the background sucks more energy which potentially stops or disrupts the flow in my real world.
My willpower over-inflated early resulting in another weak takeoff.
So, by seeing all of the above play out, this helped release the majority of my unnecessary thinking, allowing smoother outward behavioural change to occur. And even though a task is foreign and my background chatter soon creates resistance by default, once the physical path gets a start, and my behaviour lifts off (opening and strengthening new neural pathways), my mind settles down. I just need to get to this point before anything else.
Therefore, when my will is optimised and runs efficiently from less interference, I ease my way into new movements that become less foreign against my set ways.
Lastly, in the case where there were too many instances of my will in different areas of life, this also caused a heavier workload and immediately reduced the value behind each idea. Distance between my thoughts from each fragment (areas of life, double/triple lives, personas, etc.) bred overlaps and fluctuated my behaviour in another waste of energy. Fortunately, I’ve now culled the majority of weight and have kept what mainly aligns with my nature.
Life benefits from the one robust and lightweight instance of Will.
And that’s it! That’s enough of my Willpower as the second player in Driving Forces. I hope this angle has resonated with you. If so, then you are ready to focus on the third player, Focus.
Get your LENS out and ready because we WILL be putting our attention there. 🧐