jump to navigation

Personal growth: New thinking on the use of “willpower” February 20, 2018

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Goal Setting and Realization.
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
2 comments

If you have tried unsuccessfully to use willpower to achieve different goals in your self-actualization program, the fault may not lie in your inability to use willpower, but rather, it may be that the concept of willpower is actually an ineffective way to make progress with your goals.

An interesting and detailed article on vox.com cites a number of recent research studies which indicate that reliance on willpower alone can actually be counter-productive in our personal development efforts.

Commenting on a study in which Blair Saunders, a University of Dundee psychologist, was the lead author, the Vox article, written by Brian Resnick, states:

“In a specific situation, sure, you can muster willpower to save yourself from falling back into a bad habit. But relying on willpower alone to accomplish goals ‘is almost like relying on the emergency brake when you are driving your car,’ Saunders says. ‘You should focus on things that drive you toward your goals rather than stopping things that are in your way.’ What’s more, the human “emergency brake” that is willpower is bound to fail in some instances, causing you to crash.

The article concludes:

“Focusing on failures of willpower leads to shame, both public and private, and holds back our curiosity from finding and enacting solutions that actually work.”

Here’s a link to the complete article:

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/1/15/16863374/willpower-overrated-self-control-psychology

Problem: When our personal growth program doesn’t work for us February 18, 2018

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Personal Development Potential.
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
add a comment

One of the problems we may face at some point in our self-actualization efforts is finding ourselves struggling with a system or program that just doesn’t seem to work for us, but we feel we’ve invested so much time in it that we’re reluctant to give up on it.

The first thing we need to realize is that, if we have genuinely worked at the system, the fault is not likely ours.

Remember, the reason there are so many different approaches to personal development and self-improvement is because no one system is suitable for everybody.

Each of us has a unique world view and value system and we should not expect these programs to enable cookie-cutter solutions to the problems and challenges in our lives.

Putting more and more effort into a self-help program that simply isn’t suitable for our personality is a bad investment of our time, energy, and ultimately our life.

And, we’ve all probably learned more than we realize — even from a growth program that doesn’t work well for us.

We should then consider cutting our time-investment losses, regard our past efforts as a good learning experience, and move on to new experiences in our self-awareness discovery journey.

— Dennis Mellersh