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Will power is synonymous with self-control and self-discipline?

• Will power: Control deliberately exerted to do something or to restrain one’s own impulses. Oxford Dictionary
• Will power: The ability to control your own thoughts and the way in which you behave. Cambridge Dictionary
• Will power: The ability to control yourself: strong determination that allows you to do something difficult (such as to lose weight or quit smoking). Merriam Webster Dictionary
• Self-control. Self-discipline. These are many names that all mean the same thing: having the mental strength and attitude to consciously do the things you know you must do; even when you don’t emotionally want to.  Sid Savara
• Self-control,  Control,  Self-discipline,  Temptation, Determination,  Commitment

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Will power is the ability to resist temptation now to benefit in the long term

• The ability to delay gratification, resisting short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals.
• Willpower is what separates us from the animals. It’s the capacity to restrain our impulses, resist temptation – do what’s right and good for us in the long run, not what we want to do right now. It’s central, in fact, to civilisation. Roy F Baumeister
• Willpower is trying very hard not to do something you want to do very much. John Ortberg
• Temptation

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Will power is nothing but a willingness to do

• Willpower is nothing but willingness to do. K. S. Iyengar
• The most important thing in life is to stop saying ‘I wish’ and start saying ‘I will.’ Charles Dickens
• The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore. Dale Carnegie
• There are three kinds of people in the world–the will’s, the won’ts and the can’ts. The first accomplish everything; the second oppose everything; the third fail in everything.
• He who wills believes with a fair amount of certainty that will and action are somehow one; he ascribes the success, the carrying out of the willing, to the will itself, and thereby enjoys an increase of the sensation of power which accompanies all success. Friedrich Nietzsche
• A man can do what he ought to do; and when he says he cannot, it is because he will not. Johann Gottlieb Fichte

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Will power is the application of a higher mental faculty

• Willpower is not some mythical force that we either have or don’t have. Willpower is our decision to use higher-mind thinking instead of lazing around in the clutches of our primal mind. A.B. Curtiss
• Science is showing us that there are neurological (brain) factors that contribute to self-control and willpower, along with learning and upbringing. And when these brain systems are functioning improperly or become damaged, normal levels of self-control and willpower are impossible. Russell A. Barkley
• Intelligence,  The mind

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Will power is about choice

• Willpower is not about resisting, forcing, or controlling—it’s about choosing. Penney Peirce
• Choice

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Human will can be a potent force

• 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
• Men can do all things if they will.  Leon Batista Alberti
• Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great. Niccolo Machiavelli
• Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great; All things give way before it, soon or late. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• The human will, that force unseen, The offspring of a deathless soul, Can hew the way to any goal, Though walls of granite intervene. James Allen
• He who is firm in will moulds the world to himself. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• A willing heart adds feather to the heel, and makes the clown a winged Mercury. Joanna Baillie
• A strong will deals with the hard facts of life as a sculptor with his marbles, making them facile and yielding to his purposes, and conquering their stubbornness by a greater stubbornness in himself. Christian Nestell Bovee
• Where there is will, there is way. English Proverb
• Wishes run over in loquacious impotence, will presses on with laconic energy. Johann Caspar Lavater
• All things must; man is the only creature that wills. Johann Friedrich Von Schiller
• Willpower is the driving force in hopeful thinking. R. Snyder
• Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see. Arthur Schopenhauer

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Will power brings great rewards

• Improving willpower is the surest way to a better life. Roy Baumeister
• The development and use of willpower is the most direct access to happiness and motivation that I’ll ever have. Steve Chandler
• You might think that people with really strong self-control struggle through this grim existence, forcing themselves constantly to do the right thing. But that’s not correct. What it seems is that people with good self-control stay out of trouble and minimise problems.  Roy Baumeister

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Will power is a major key to success and achievement

• The will is the keystone in the arch of human achievement. It is the culmination of our complex mental faculties. It is the power that rules minds, men and nations. Thomas Parker Boyd
• Dozens of studies show that willpower is the single most important keystone habit for individual success. Charles Duhigg
• One of the satisfactions of a genius is his will-power and obstinacy.  Man Ray
• Self-control is a better predictor of academic success than intelligence, a stronger determinant of effective leadership than charisma, and more important for marital bliss than empathy. If we want to improve our lives, willpower is not a bad place to start. Kelly McGonigal
• The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves. Herbert N. Casson
• Willpower is essential to the accomplishment of anything worthwhile. Brian Tracy
• Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear. Dan Millman
• Willpower is so common among highly successful people that many see its characteristics as synonymous with success. Peter M. Senge
• Higher willpower is associated with being happier, scoring higher on standardized tests and earning more money. Willpower is also highly correlated with accomplishing personal goals. Sid Savara
• Heroism doesn’t occur from taking orders, but rather from people who through their own willpower and strength are willing to sacrifice their lives for an idea. Thor Heyerdahl
• With but few exceptions, it is always the underdog who wins through sheer willpower. Johnny Weissmuller
• Success,  Achievement

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Will power creates a virtuous cycle

• As people strengthened their willpower muscles in one part of their lives—in the gym, or a money management program—that strength spilled over into what they ate or how hard they worked. Once willpower became stronger, it touched everything. Charles Duhigg
• As with a muscle, though, you can train your willpower. Even small, day-to-day acts of willpower such as maintaining good posture, speaking in complete sentences or using a computer mouse with the other hand, can pay off by reinforcing longer-term self-control in completely unrelated activities. Jon Henley
• Virtue

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Will power aids decision-making

• Most of life’s actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower. Robert McKee
• Choice,  Decision making

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Will power is a sign of strength and character

• Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. Mahatma Gandhi
• Will is character in action. William McDougall
• People do not lack strength; they lack will. Victor Hugo
• Strength,  Character

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A lack of will power comes at a price

• Nothing is easy to the unwilling.  Thomas Fuller
• In the absence of will power the most complete collection of virtues and talents is wholly worthless. Aleister Crowley
• Will without power is like children playing at soldiers. Alexander Flohr
• There is not great talent without great will power. Honore de Balzac

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Temptation, self-criticism and stress are enemies of will power

• The biggest enemies of willpower are temptation, self-criticism, and stress. These three skills —self- awareness, self-care, and remembering what matter most— are the foundation for self- control.  Kelly McGonigal
• Stress strongly depletes willpower. When people are stressed, they tend to fall back on ingrained habits—whether those habits are helpful or harmful. Often, this is not a conscious choice. Rather, people resort to old habits without thinking because they are in a stressed state.  Denise Cummins, Ph.D.
• Temptation,  Stress,  Criticism

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Self-pity is an enemy of will power

• Don’t pity yourselves. The moment that a man begins to pity himself he loses stamina, he loses will power, he loses initiative, and unless he can master his self-pity, he is on the road and far along the road to a life of failure. Reuben Clark
• Self-pity

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We all have will power

• We know what willpower is, but by some misguided conception, many of us believe we have to be a certain type of person, strong, determined, extroverted, to be able to be willful, to exercise willpower. Not so. We all have it and just don’t know how to use it. Rosemary Altea
• It’s not that some people have will power and some don’t. It’s that some people are ready to change and others are not.  James Gordon

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You have as much will power as you believe

• You are only as lazy or lacking in willpower as you think you are. Ken Christian
• Self-belief,  Belief

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Build your will power gradually like a muscle by exercising it regularly in small ways

• Willpower is a muscle that can be strengthened. Roy F. Baumeister
• If we try to save our energy by becoming willpower couch potatoes, we will lose the strength we have. But if we try to run a willpower marathon every day, we set ourselves up for total collapse. Our challenge is to train like an intelligent athlete, pushing our limits but also pacing ourselves. Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D
• Other studies have found that committing to any small, consistent act of self- control can increase overall willpower. And while these small self- control exercises may seem inconsequential, they appear to improve the willpower challenges we care about most, including focusing at work, taking good care of our health, resisting temptation, and feeling more in control of our emotions. Kelly McGonigal
• When you’re trying to make a big change or transform an old habit, look for a small way to practice self- control that strengthens your willpower, but doesn’t overwhelm it completely. Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.
• Willpower is a muscle that can be strengthened. Roy F. Baumeister
• Indeed, the best way to think of willpower is not as some shapeless behavioral trait but as a sort of psychic muscle, one that can atrophy or grow stronger depending on how it’s used. Jeffrey Kluger
• Exercise your willpower muscle to get more of it. Roy Baumeister, one of the leading researchers in this field, thinks that willpower is like a muscle. Exercising a muscle in the short- term leads to its exhaustion. In the long-term, though, exercising a muscle causes it to grow. In fact, there is some good evidence that exercising your willpower, though temporarily depleting, means that it will be stronger in the long run. Ian Newby-Clark

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Strengthen your will power by making up your mind you want something

• 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
• Know what you want

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Strengthen will power through neatness

• Another simple old-fashioned way to boost your willpower is to expend a little of it on neatness. People exert less self- control after seeing a messy desk than after seeing a clean desk. You may not care about whether your bed is made and your desk is clean, but these environmental cues subtly influence your brain and your behavior, making it ultimately less of a strain to maintain self- discipline. Order seems to be contagious. Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
• There is a strong connection between external order and the strength of your willpower. In one study, some of the participants were taken into a neat lab, while the others were placed in a messy one. Those in the latter group exhibited less self-control: they ate less healthy snacks, gave up quicker on tasks, and were more likely to take a small amount of money up front, instead of waiting a week to increase the payout. Brett & Kate McKay

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Strengthen will power through exercise

• Exercise turns out to be the closest thing to a wonder drug that self- control scientists have discovered. For starters, the willpower benefits of exercise are immediate. Fifteen minutes on a treadmill reduces cravings, as seen when researchers try to tempt dieters with chocolate and smokers with cigarettes. Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.
• If you tell yourself that you are too tired or don’t have the time to exercise, start thinking of exercise as something that restores, not drains, your energy and willpower. Kelly McGonigal Ph.D.
• Exercise

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Strengthen will power by learning to manage stress

• Stress encourages you to focus on immediate, short term goals and outcomes, but self- control requires keeping the big picture in mind. Learning how to better manage your stress is one of the most important things you can do to improve your willpower. Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D
• Stress management

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Strengthen will power through breathing

• There is one way to immediately boost willpower: Slow your breathing down to four to six breaths per minute. That’s ten to fifteen seconds per breath—slower than you normally breathe, but not difficult with a little bit of practice and patience. Slowing the breath down activates the prefrontal cortex and increases heart rate variability, which helps shift the brain and body from a state of stress to self- control mode. A few minutes of this technique will make you feel calm, in control, and capable of handling cravings or challenges. Kelly McGonigal
• Breathing

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Strengthen will power by remember your long-term goals

• Kathleen Vohs, professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota, says that in lab studies, self-control is boosted when people conjure up powerful memories of the things they value in life. Laughter and positive thoughts also help people perform better on self-control tasks. DSelf-control problems occur because people are caught up “in the moment’’ and are distracted from their long-term goals. “You want to look good in a bikini next summer but you’re looking at a piece of chocolate cake now,’’ said Dr. Vohs. “When we get people to think about values we move them to the long-term state, and that cools off the tempting stimuli.’’ Tara Parker Pope
• Goal setting

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Strengthen will power by knowing what really matters to you

• Willpower is not about being the “right” kind of person and forcing yourself to do what you don’t really want to do. Willpower is about finding the energy and courage to do what really matters to you, even when it’s difficult, and even when a part of you is afraid or unwilling.   Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.
• The biggest enemies of willpower are temptation, self-criticism, and stress. These three skills —self-awareness, self-care, and remembering what matter most— are the foundation for self- control.  Kelly McGonigal
• Put first things first

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Strengthen will power through meditation

• Neuroscientists have discovered that when you ask the brain to meditate, it gets better not just at meditating, but at a wide range of self- control skills, including attention, focus, stress management, impulse control, and self-awareness. People who meditate regularly aren’t just better at these things. Over time, their brains become finely tuned willpower machines. Regular meditators have more gray matter in the prefrontal cortex, as well as regions of the brain that support self- awareness. Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.
• Meditation

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Strengthen will power by getting enough sleep

• Get enough sleep. That’s seven to eight hours for adults.  Sleep deprivation makes us susceptible to temptations Self-control takes a ton of brain power, and when we are tired, our bodies don’t tend to deliver enough glucose to our brain for it to get the willpower engine going. Christine Carter, Ph.D.
• Get enough sleep and take naps. Sleep refreshes your willpower supply. So don’t skimp on getting your sleep at night, and take a nap between one self-control exhausting task and the next. Brett & Kate McKay
• Sleep

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Strengthen will power by taking breaks

• Your self-control is at low ebb when you are mentally exhausted. Ian Newby-Clark
• Don’t keep yourself in a constant state of willpower depletion. While wisely exercising self- control is a great way to build willpower, never giving yourself a break is a good way to deplete your resolve. Denise Cummins, Ph.D.
• Rest and renewal

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Strengthen will power by eating properly

• The glucose in your bloodstream is part of what fuels the energy source of willpower, and it comes from any food you eat that contains carbohydrates. Exercising self-control depletes relatively large amounts of this glucose, and when glucose goes down, so does your willpower. No food=no glucose=no willpower=risk aversion and poor decisions. Brett & Kate McKay
• It turns out that glucose is one of the key ingredients that your brain needs for effective self- control. Ian Newby-Clark
• Will power can be revived with glucose. Getting a decent night’s sleep and eating well – good, slow- burning fuel – is important in the exercise of willpower, but in times of dire need a quick shot of sugar can make all the difference. Jon Henley
• Diet

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Strengthen will power by enhancing your mood and enjoying life

• Being in a happy mood improves willpower. Being given a choice improves willpower and paying attention can improve willpower. Michael Inzlicht
• Positive emotional experiences replenish your self discipline reserve.  So throughout the day – take a few moments to enjoy your life.  Sid Savara
• Enjoyment,  Savouring,  Life is meant to be enjoyedx

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Strengthen will power by modifying your routine

• Do the opposite of what you normally do. Like a muscle, your resolve can be strengthened over time with practice, even if you’re not trying to correct a specific bad habit. Anytime you modify your routine, you’re developing self- control.  Stephanie Booth
• Routines and rituals

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Make changes during periods of calm

• Make changes during periods of calm. If your willpower is a finite resource, then you don’t want to attempt big goals and habit changes when you’ve got a lot on your plate. These stressors will suck away your willpower, leaving you without enough of it to reach your big goal. Brett & Kate McKay
• Calmness

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Delay gratification instead of abstaining altogether

• Cutting something out of your life entirely increases the desire for it (forbidden fruit!) and increases the degree of binge if you finally give in, while postponing a pleasure both diminishes the strength of the craving and allows you to be satisfied with less when you do indulge. This is why it can be very effective to allow yourself one cheat day a week on your diet where you get to eat whatever you want, and why the Pomodoro Technique (working for 45 minutes straight and then taking a 15 minute break) can help you study more effectively. When you know you have a scheduled break/indulgence coming up, it becomes much easier to stick with a program without feeling overwhelmed by what you can’t do or have at the moment. Brett & Kate McKay

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Tackle the tough things first

• Throughout the day, you’re going to be exercising your self-control and making decisions, which will slowly deplete your willpower until eventide. So tackle your most important tasks as soon as you can in the morning, when your willpower tank is full and fresh.  Brett & Kate McKay

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Write out your to-do list

• Once you finish a task, your brain largely forgets about it. But unfinished tasks have been shown to stick in your head and jangle around. Your brain hates loose ends and will keep nudging you to do something about them. The problem with these loose ends camping on your cranium is that they’re subtly eating up your willpower. To un-plug your vampire to-do’s, you simply need to take the loose ends out of your head and put them down on paper. The classic to- do list can really work wonders for your willpower.  Brett & Kate McKay
• Plan and manage your week

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Strengthen will power by being yourself

• It takes an enormous amount of effort to suppress your normal personality, preferences, and behaviors. Not surprisingly, doing so depletes willpower. Psychologist Mark Muraven and colleagues found that people who exert this kind of self-control in order to please others were more easily depleted than people who held true to their own internal goals and desires. When it comes to willpower, people-pleasers may find themselves at a disadvantage compared to those who are secure and comfortable with themselves. Denise Cummins, Ph.D.
• Be who you are

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Combine will power with choice, commitment and willingness

• It is not discipline, willpower, or pressure from others that facilitates adherence to a challenging course of action. Rather, it is the freedom to choose among alternatives, the personal commitment to a mission, and the willingness to take responsibility for the consequences of our decisions that steels the will and emboldens the spirit. Neil Fiore
• Choice,  Commitment

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Combine will power with a vision

• When you see a thing clearly in your mind, your creative “success mechanism” within you takes over and does the job much better than you could do it by conscious effort or “willpower.” Maxwell Maltz
• Vision

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Don’t put yourself in temptation’s way, or if you do, have a plan

• People with low willpower use it to get themselves out of crises. People with high willpower use it not to get themselves into crises. Roy F Baumeister
• Willpower is a limited resource – so don’t waste it. Everytime you need to tell yourself “no” to a temptation in front of you, you slowly deplete your willpower – and it takes time to replenish. So whenever possible: remove the temptations from your life.  For example, if you know that you watch too much TV, and need to focus on a project for the next month – cancel your cable, or physically unplug your TV from the wall.  As a personal example, I know I’ll eat junk food if it is in the house – so I never keep any in my home.  Sid Savara
• Avoid places that will tax your willpower. If you can’t avoid temptation, make a plan in advance for what you are going to do instead of succumbing. Denise Cummins, Ph.D.
• Make a plan for dealing with the temptations you will face. What will you do when things go wrong? Don’t leave your answer to chance or your whims; instead, write out a plan, however simple. Christine Carter, Ph.D.
• Research shows that when your willpower starts getting depleted, having a plan and a goal you are chasing can help mitigate the effects of lowered willpower. Sid Savara
• Anticipate and plan for your times of low self-control. Now that you know that self-control is a limited resource and that depleting it means less for later, you can do some anticipating and planning. For example, make sure that you’re not in the chips and cookies aisle of the grocery store after a long day at work. Ian Newby-Clark

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Work on only one goal at a time

• Only work on one goal at a time. Because your willpower is a finite resource, when you spend your willpower on one thing, you have less it available for other things. Thus when you try to change multiple habits at the same time, what you’re doing is allocating just one sliver of your willpower pie to each goal. The result is not surprising: failure in most, if not all of them. Brett & Kate McKay
• Focus

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You don’t need will power 24 hours a day as cravings come in waves

• One thing too is that the craving will not be there constantly, even though it might feel like it at times. You don’t need willpower 24 hours a day; just distract yourself in the moment that the urge arises. If you can distract yourself for a few minutes the intensity should pass. You might have to do this many, many times in a day, but thinking of a short intense burst of flame that you need to throw a blanket on can feel better than thinking that there is a blazing inferno that you need to constantly fight. Amanda Harvey
• Cravings,  Desire,  Addiction

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Will power can be depleted

• Because self-control requires energy, which means we have less energy available for the next thing we need to do. And that’s why resisting temptation, making hard decisions, or taking initiative all seem to draw from the same well of energy. So willpower isn’t something that we just exercise – it’s something we deplete. David Eagleman

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Will power has limits because it creates only short term change

• Willpower can produce short-term change, but it creates constant internal stress because you haven’t dealth with the root cause. Rick Warren
• Change

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Will power is fuelled by emotion which can change at any time

• Willpower is a myth. The problem with trying to use willpower to achieve and sustain a behavioral change is that it is fueled by emotion. And as we all know, our emotions are, at best, fickle. They come and go. When your emotions start running down — and they will — even your best-laid plans will fall flat. Phillip C. McGraw
• Emotions

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Will power can burn out quickly

• Willpower is your ability to set a course of action and say, “Engage!” It is the spearhead of self- discipline. It provides an intensely powerful yet temporary boost. Think of it as a one-shot thruster. It burns out quickly, but if directed intelligently, it can provide the burst you need to overcome inertia and create momentum. John Aurther
• Sustainability

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Will power saps energy

• The problems with willpower are many, but they may hardly be noticed by the person focused narrowly on success. First, there is little economy of means; in systems thinking terms, we act without leverage. We attain our goals, but the effort is enormous, and we may find ourselves exhausted and wondering if it was worth it when we have succeeded. Ironically, people hooked on willpower may actually look for obstacles to overcome, dragons to slay, and enemies to vanquish– to remind themselves and others of their own prowess. Peter M. Senge
• Energy management

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Will power makes activities into a chore

• Willpower is useful at times. I use willpower to get the garbage out on Friday mornings. But there’s a price to pay for relying on willpower. Using willpower is the opposite of using your imagination and of losing yourself in an activity. Willpower reduces any activity to the very low status of “chore.” Leslie Godwin

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Replace will power with deeper awareness and relaxing into who you are

• The power of transformation (the reason we set goals to begin with) delivers not through willpower and fierce effort, but instead through a deeper awareness, and a relaxing into who we are. Cat Li Stevenson
• Awareness,  Relaxation

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Replace will power with want power

• We may think there is willpower involved, but more likely… change is due to want power. Wanting the new addiction more than the old one. Wanting the new me in preference to the person I am now. George A. Sheehan
• You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your deep, driving desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny. Upanishads
• Desire

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• A diet is a plan, generally hopeless, for reducing your weight, which tests your will power but does little for your waistline. Herbert B. Prochnow
• Successful weight loss takes programming, not willpower. Phil McGraw
• Excess exercise tends to be counterbalanced by excess hunger, exemplified by the phrase ‘working up an appetite.’ A few people with extraordinary willpower can resist such hunger day after day, but for the vast majority, weight loss through exercise is a flawed option. Andrew Weil
• Losing weight

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• Willpower is being able to stop after only one peanut.   Channing Pollock
• Confucius say tears are the hydraulic force by which masculine will power is defeated by feminine water power.  Confucius
• I exercise strong self-control. I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast. WC Fields

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