ZigZag Rants

discovering willpower

REPOST from discovering belief: I can’t figure it out, you know, the difference between believing something so firmly and actually living based on that belief.

Then my mom utters is, as if she knew I had just posted a blog on tumblr “Where’s your will hunny?” She utters, with complete and total belief that I have one. You gotta love em when they’re built like that… I’m sorta lucky that way.

I quickly googled the definition

will·pow·er or will pow·er (w l pou r). n. The strength of will to carry out one’s decisions, wishes, or plans. Self-control: the trait of resolutely controlling your own behavior.

Willpower ties in to discovering belief, it ties in with a bow - a bright red, shiny bow, the kind you just DON’T WANT to untie.

Willpower is the difference I was looking, it’s synonyms include…

persistence
determination
tenacity
dedication
discipline
…. blah, blah, blah. So easy to say, so hard to do. After all, I don’t need to know the word if I can’t relate it’s relevant action.

I am being so negative I KNOW but that’s because I am aggravated, I CAN’T FIND MY WILLPOWER… then it dawns on me.

A lifelike representation of willpower through the search for willpower. Now we’re talking. I am on a mission to discover my own willpower, with my willpower to do so. Confused?

oh kay kay kay. Me too. Let me make this easier.

I WILL NOT be discouraged just because it’s “So easy to say, so hard to do.” So where do I begin figuring this out?

I think Willpower is the state of controlling your own choices with your own integrity. It is the superhuman like character that says “NO, fuck the fuck off” to those lil’ distractions that infiltrate your desires.

What I can’t seem to get is how to get it. How to do the Willpower dance. Not just now, or tomorrow but for the rest of my life. Simple, believe in it.

Milestones will motivate me ahead.
Distractions will push me back.

My Willpower will feed the former and fight the latter.

BUT this isn’t a complete analysis. Because…

You can’t feed anything if you don’t know what it likes to eat - how do we achieve a milestone anyway? And… 

You can’t fight what you can’t see - what are our distractions?

I think a big word that is so overplayed yet so underrated is missing here… that word is GOAL. It’s action is actually FIGURING OUT WHAT YOU WANT & BY WHEN.

Set goals, goals will create the metaphorical “Willpower diets” to achieve these milestones.

Set goals, goals will define your distractions and filter them out, ensuring they enter a metaphorical “Willpower wrestling ring” to get destroyed.

I noticed I cannot discover the Willpower I’ve been looking for if I don’t know what I want.Willpower must be directed in a way that considers what you believe and what you want.

What is a Willpower without a goal anyway? It’s not progressive, it will keep me content and comfortable but it won’t move me forward…

Milestones will motivate me ahead.
Distractions will push me back.
Belief will remind me of where I’m going.
Willpower will make sure I get there.

You can’t apply if you only believe, but you won’t only believe if you have Willpower.

Simply put, Willpower was that difference between believing something so firmly and actually living based on that belief.

… but don’t forget the overplayed & underrated power of setting your goals, it will become your Willpower’s desire.

Here are some faint thoughts in the back of my mind, begging to be spelt out… (italic denotes thought)

Those Shoalin Monks spend their whole life discovering their willpower. A willpower so strong, it makes my Willpower seem pointless. But that doesn’t matter, our goals are different I won’t let that be a distraction… I will let it be an example.

Quotes.. I need quotes.. ouuuu this one is nice…

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will. - Vince Lombardi

discovering belief

I can’t figure it out, you know, the difference between believing something so firmly and actually living based on that belief.

I think I have some sort of sound grounds to knowing what it takes to GROW, to LEARN, to ACHIEVE, and I believe in that knowledge. I believe that if I take what I know and I apply it it will happen but why don’t I?

Why don’t I always apply it to the point that that belief becomes a part of my daily living?

Why are the distractions so prevailing? Even though my thoughts have reinforced these distractions are just distractions - pointless mind teasers along the way?

Could it be a direct chemical link between the distraction and hormonal happiness in my brain?

If that is the case, than why is it when I think of these distractions, I don’t feel happy rather I see them as inferior to thoughts of focus, persistence, determination?

Why do we do it if it is against our thoughts? Why are we not consistent in our actions and our beliefs… more importantly… how can we be?

I have no clue as to why, so I’ll settle with the suitable ‘it’s human nature’ response. I do on the other hand think I know how we can be, but even with that belief, I still lay confused because I believe it but I haven’t done it. What I have done is succumb to the distractions along the way…

Maybe I am a master, a master of detractment. Maybe that is all I know… but I don’t want to be a person of this knowing. I want to be a person of strong belief.

So I’ve decided that it’s ok to believe something and find yourself not embracing it’s every thought. It’s life. What is not ok, is to give up on that belief even if you’ve failed it once, twice or a milly.

Milestones will motivate you ahead.
Distractions will push you back.
BUT your belief…
will remind you of where you’re going.

Your system of belief should not be graded. It’s a knowledge that is continuously tested but never quantified. The only failure is the failure in not believing. Whether or not you drifted off the path, if you’ve chosen to get back on, you have succeeded.