quotations about willpower
Oatmeal for breakfast. Salad for lunch. Chicken and veggies for dinner--and a bag of chips, some ice cream, a glass of wine, and two cookies for a midnight snack. If this sounds like a typical day, you're not alone. It's a classic example of depleting willpower. Research suggests that willpower may actually be a finite resource, rather than something over which you always have complete control. Studies have shown that people who make one virtuous choice find it harder to choose right when faced with the next decision--as if willpower ran out.
JAMIE DUCHARME
"Is This Phenomenon Ruining Your Healthy Diet?", Boston Magazine, March 15, 2017
Willpower is not going to be enough. You need some type of program.
CHRIS URAN
"From prescription pills to heroin addiction: How a Racine man was able to break the cycle", Fox 6 Now, January 27, 2016
Most of life's actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower.
ROBERT MCKEE
Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Willpower can produce short-term change, but it creates constant internal stress because you haven't dealt with the root cause.
RICK WARREN
The Purpose-Driven Life
There's a lot of psychological disagreement about whether or not willpower is a limited resource. For many years, psychologists believed that self-control was finite, and could be "depleted" after you use too much of it. The classic study supporting this point of view found that students who'd had to resist eating chocolate-chip cookies did much worse on a self-control test afterwards than those who didn't have to resist the cookies beforehand. But we're increasingly discovering that our perceptions of willpower may shape our self-control more than anything else. Various studies have discovered that if people believe that their willpower is limited, they'll exercise it less often -- they make fewer New Year's resolutions, for instance, or take a break after a task that involves a lot of self-control and show less self-control afterwards. If they believe that willpower is infinite, though, they'll just keep showing it, no matter how many other bits of self-control they've exercised that day.
JR THORPE
"Why Are Some People Good At Saving Money? And What Can We Learn From Them?", Bustle, March 28, 2017
Willpower is likely the most important keystone habit there is. Willpower has more of an impact on individual success than intelligence, talent or education level.
P. JAMES HOLLAND
The Power of Habit
Wishes run over in loquacious impotence, will presses on with laconic energy.
JOHANN CASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Nothing can withstand the power of the human will if it is willing to stake its very existence to the extent of its purpose.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI
attributed, Effortless Willpower
Strong willpower is always driven by a strong underlying purpose. A reason to put in the necessary effort and take action. Reasons are the fuel behind the dream!
CANAAN MASHONGANYIKA
It's Do-able!: Power to Unleash Your Dream
The higher life begins for us ... when we renounce our own will to bow before a Divine law.
GEORGE ELIOT
Romola
To assert your willpower is simply to make up your mind that you want something, and then refuse to be put off. In short, think about what you want and hold to that thought. Believe in it as a reality, regardless of what may appear to be true. This is willpower in action, and anyone can do it.
PHILLIP COOPER
Secrets of Creative Visualization
If you have a will to win, you have achieved half your success; if you don't, you have achieved half your failure!
LEE LABRADA
FaceBook post, May 13, 2011
A willing heart adds feather to the heel,
And makes the clown a winged Mercury.
JOANNA BAILLIE
De Montfort
For I am--or I was--one of those people who pride themselves in on their willpower, on their ability to make a decision and carry it through. This virtue, like most virtues, is ambiguity itself. People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception. Their decisions are not really decisions at all--a real decision makes one humble, one knows that it is at the mercy of more things than can be named--but elaborate systems of evasion, of illusion, designed to make themselves and the world appear to be what they and the world are not.
JAMES BALDWIN
Giovanni's Room
He who is firm in will molds the world to himself.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Hermann und Dorothea
One notable study showed a seemingly miraculous way to restore willpower: by consuming sugar. The study claimed that participants who had sipped sugar-sweetened lemonade demonstrated increased self-control and stamina on difficult tasks.
NIR EYAL
"The Way You Think About Willpower Is Hurting You", Huffington Post, November 22, 2016
Reprogramming your behaviors is critical for achieving change, but what about when you just want to avoid texting your ex on his birthday? You still need willpower to help resist making life's everyday bad decisions.
DARIA MEOLI
"7 Things You Didn't Know About Your Own Willpower", Shape, January 26, 2017
Willpower, or lack thereof, has been blamed for failed diets, missed fitness goals, credit card debt, and other regrettable behavior since the third century B.C., when the ancient Greeks began to study self-control as a means of overcoming destructive behavior.
DARIA MEOLI
"7 Things You Didn't Know About Your Own Willpower", Shape, January 26, 2017
Willpower is comparable to a "magic" power because it helps us reach any goal that is important to us. It helps us create a new reality and perform miracles, big and small. It helps us take initiative and then actually put it into practice. It helps us become the person we really want to be.
BELLA TINDALE
The Magic of Willpower
Unless your willpower is ridiculously strong, chances are you will give into temptation if the people around you have unhealthy habits.
AMANDA TEJUCA
"Ways to Facilitate your Healthy and Fit New Years Resolution", Uloop, January 17, 2016