Almost every out of shape person I have ever met has said they have no willpower. When people say this it normally always means their belief systems are not conductive towards getting results rather than they lack will power.
The whole concept of will power is based on conscious thinking. The idea is you tell yourself you are going to stop doing something e.g. eating late at night, or alternatively you tell yourself to start doing something e.g. go to the gym before work. However, your subconscious programmes have not changed since you made this new decision and thus you must battle against your ‘natural’ thinking patterns. The problem with this strategy is you are in a battle that will almost always be lost until you address the underlying programming. This is because your underlying programmes produce your emotions and this determines the majority of your behaviours.
That is not to say you cannot get results using the traditional will power method, because you can. However, the success rate is very low because it is not targeting the powerhouse of your actions – The subconscious. People who do succeed using pure will power usually induce subconscious change along the way and hence are able to sustain results.
The problem with any conscious thought is that it is only active as long as you are aware of it. Often your goal is forgotten as you go about daily life. When it is out of your mind it is no longer influencing your behaviour and you may end up sinking back into your subconscious behaviour patterns which will lead you astray if they are not wired to be in amazing shape.
The second problem is that the subconscious is still producing its emotional output in response to what you encounter in life. For most people their conscious thoughts produce a conflict in the mind. Put another way, if your conscious thoughts did not produce a conflict you would already being doing that task without a problem. If you said you were going to give up smoking and no conflict occurred then you would just stop easily and effortlessly. As you are aware, this does not happen for most people.
A typical example of the Will Power Method comes each New Year. An enthusiastic resoluter consciously decides this will be the year to lose the weight and decides to cut out all junk food. During a miserable couple of weeks they battle hunger and temptation before caving in and eating their body weight in junk food. The person then feels guilty and berates themselves for their lack of self will. As they also have a subconscious behaviour pattern that says they eat junk food when they feel bad the person then goes onto eat even more junk food as a result. This negative spiral is a common result of the will power method.
The will power method is based on the premise of giving something up. I am going to give up eating rubbish food. If you are giving something up it suggests that this is a sacrifice and what you are giving up is something you want to have. The mere action of taking something away from you makes you want it more regardless of how you felt about it before. It is something innate in us because almost everyone suffers from craving what others have or what we are not allowed.
You see this with children. Have you noticed how one child will always want the other child’s toy even if they are not interested in it themselves? We may be a bit bigger but do not think that we are that much different in our behaviour. Our desire for what other people have, or to crave what we are told not to have is powerful. It is a commonly used strategy by marketing and PR agencies. If they can convince you to think that by not having their product means you are missing out you are just a short step away from buying from them. The will power method accidently creates an increased desire for the very thing you are trying to give up.
When you are deciding to do an action using the will power method the behaviour will only occur as long as it is under your attention. The moment you go onto automatic you forget the task. If you have ever resolved to drink plenty of water in a day you may have experienced this. You start out well drinking every 30 minutes but as soon as your work gets busy the first thing that is forgotten is to drink the water.
Conscious behaviour patterns can very easily be knocked off track. For example, if your water bottle is empty then that may stop you drinking for the rest of the day, If your train is late you may by pass your planned gym session, if you do not bring in your pre prepared lunch you end up eating rubbish.
If you are experiencing an internal conflict within your emotions between the subconscious and the conscious this will provide sound justification to not do the action you have planned. For example, if your subconscious belief is that going to the gym is taking time away from your family then it will take a fair bit of conscious thought to overrule this belief. You will allow many things to knock you off track, e.g. feel bit tired, minor headache etc. When you do finally make it to the gym you will experience a conflict because the behaviour is going against your emotions.
From my experience the will power method does have a place in regards to getting into amazing shape. This is because it takes a degree of will power (not much but a little) to get you going to do the tasks initially. You must have the will power to read this book, to join my weekly newsletter, do the set out exercises etc.
The main problem with the will power method is it is not sustainable and artificially creates a craving for the very tasks you are trying to stop doing. However, if you start off using the will power method you can buy yourself time to change the subconscious programming as you go.
Do not get me wrong, you can go a fairly long way using the will power method. It will not be enjoyable and it will be hard but as long as you change your underlying thought patterns as you go you will find it becomes easier and easier and before long natural and enjoyable. When the behaviours that get you in shape are natural and enjoyable you are on the path to success.
You can enhance your will power using various strategies. These include visualisations, having goals such as holidays, weddings etc, competing with someone else, making a pact with a friend, joining a weight loss group, using a personal trainer etc. These all greatly enhance will power but they are still limited for long term success unless you also change your subconscious programming along the way.
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