Willpower is the ability to resist temptation and impulses that don’t serve you. The motto I live by as a neuroengineer is: If you can’t beat the fear, do it scared.
Neuroscientists have discovered through many studies the part of the brain that is the seat of willpower and even beyond that, the will to live. This part of the brain is called the anterior mid-cingulate cortex. This part of the brain is smaller in many obese people and bigger in athletes.
This part of the brain is not grown just by doing hard work, but it is grown by doing hard work that you don’t want to do. This means when you do something you love to do, it doesn’t matter how much hard work you put in, it won’t grow.
But one thing I like about biology is if somebody feels they don’t have it or feel like this thing that other people have, we all have the capacity to build it. Everybody, unless they are brain damaged or have a hole through their head, has two anterior mid-cingulate cortices, one on each side of the brain hemisphere.
One guy who’s been sober for 30 years from alcohol told me, “Veli, the amazing thing about addiction is there’s a cure for it, the problem is it only works one day at a time.”
So, you’ve to renew it every day. So, you grow it by doing things that feel uncomfortable to you repeatedly. It’s that hard and uncomfortable part that grows the willpower and discipline in your life.
Most people never achieve their dreams because they avoid the uncomfortable and hard things to do. They take the path of least resistance.
All success lies behind something you must do that is uncomfortable. You have the power to build your willpower.
