The following is a summary of Session 30 of my podcast, The Engineering Career Coach (TECC) Podcast with Anthony Fasano, PE. I will summarize the main points in this post; however, you can also listen to the show through the player below or by subscribing on iTunes. I offer a career-changing tip at the end of each podcast session.
- Definition of willpower – It is the ability to take right action. Right action is the things you know that you need to be doing that are beneficial for success. Taking right action will help you achieve your goal faster.
- Importance of willpower – It is critical in all the small decisions or choices that we make that essentially drive our lives. Make sure every little choice will align you with your goals and vision for yourself.
- Ways to build your willpower:
- Meditation – Meditate for about 10-20 minutes every day. This will strengthen that part of your brain that calms your mind down, which will help you to be more focused.
- Exercise – Push yourself to do physical exercise every day. It takes a lot of willpower to go and exercise. Doing this trains you to push yourself and builds your self-control .
- Work Hard – Try to focus on one thing at a time. Work a full workday and work it well. Try to work on the most important tasks first, do things one at a time, and do not multitask.
- Do anything challenging – Anything challenging that you do is going to build your willpower.
- Factors that destroy the ability to build willpower – These things when done in excess will create habits that make it easier to choose the wrong decision: watching hours of television, surfing the Internet in the first few hours of the day, indulging in eating, drinking, drugs, and sex. These may feel good in the moment but make you feel bad in the long term.
Have you found this post useful? Are you able to implement the strategies in building your willpower?
Anthony Fasano, PE, author of Engineer Your Own Success, found success as an engineer at a very early age and now writes and podcasts to help other engineers do the same. Visit Anthony’s website at EngineeringCareerCoach.com for free engineering career advice and other resources.