This is in continuation to our previous article “Becoming Unstoppable – one unique thing to develop for achieving everything in Life”.
The article was all about Will Power to be developed to achieve almost everything in Life. Whenever we fail, whenever we fall short of our goals and when we analyse the reason of same. We find, there was some or the other task, which was not done or half-heartedly done due to lack of will power. We commit errors and face tragedies in life because we lack will power. Inspite of the fact that we know what is good for us, and what will help us progress, yet we are unable to find strength to pursue the required course of action. We know what is harmful for us, and which habit of ours is to be completely eliminated, yet we could not perform the actions in line on ground reality. Dangerous pictures of cancer patient on a cigarette pack also cannot stop a smoker to smoke. Does it mean he does not want to get rid of smoking? No it is only his lack of will which controls his actions.
How ‘Will Power’ Plays Such an Important Role:-
Will Power is basically result of our Ego and Mind- They both altogether impels us along a particular course of action. It is the power of our mind which motivates us to do what we know to be right. It is same mind if uncontrolled can force us to do what is harmful for us.
A smoker will always find time to smoke. It is the result of his will power and thus inclination of his mind towards smoking. He can be there in the mid of a very urgent and important work, but the moment he feels the urge to smoke, He forces himself to complete the work, or at the most to postpone the work just to smoke and satisfy his urge. This is the power of will power. Strong people with controlled mind, are said to have a strong will power, similarly weak people with uncontrolled mind are said to have low will power.
We need to identify the way out to control our mind and tame it to strengthen our will power. And then only we will be geared up for a life we always desired. We will further elaborate in this article on how to develop the will power and what can be done to further nurture it.
Two Enemies of Will-Power Needs to be Immediately Identified:-
Two major enemies of will power are
- a) our regrets about the past and
- b) our worries about the future.
When we regret about out past, we do not change anything for our future. Infact while thinking about our past deeds, we are trying to relive those moments and again, thus making the grooves of bad habits more deeper inside our mind shaping up further in the form of Samskaras. This will not only increase our guilt for our past actions, but also make us incapable of taking a corrective action. It weakens our will power so much that we cannot even think in our present and our life is just remote controlled by the ghosts from our past.
The only thing that is certain in Life is UNCERTAINTY.
Similarly when we worry about our future, we are actually not doing any change in it. We are just limiting our potential to act and carve our future from our present Karma. Worry itself is an unproductive emotion and makes us inactive with lack of will –power.
We must understand, to escape from the guilt of past and worries of future, that life is nothing but stream of experiences where each present moment of experience will decide the quality of our overall life. Now it is up to us, whether to spoil whole life by worrying about it every moment, or to celebrate every moment and live a whole life in each moment.
How to Develop a Strong Will-Power and Nurture it Further:-
It is not that difficult to develop a strong will- power if steps are taken with a conscious mind. Just like when we learn to drive a car, initially we learn the steps and implement them while driving the car consciously. Even if we are slow in the beginning, but later after persistent practice all the steps of driving the car becomes the part of our reflex actions. And we start doing it even unconsciously. Remember – anything that is registered at our unconscious level will always get better as those samskaras shape up permanently in our mind.
In a similar fashion, we need to learn to tame our mind and develop our will power consciously at least in the beginning, later which will become our habit and we will certainly emerge out as a natural leader with a strong will-power.
Following steps needs to be taken initially:-
Fix your priorities:-
To avoid our mind dominating us, we really need to fix our priorities. We need to constantly
Sometimes Exercising choice is more important for Mind than just waiting for things to happen automatically.
discriminate between what we really want and what has just came across us. This is also important, as then only we will learn to exercise our choices in a given circumstances, and then only we will not just flow with the life incidents. At any given point of time we should be aware that whether a particular choice if exercised, will take us towards our goal or it is simply another distraction forcing us away from our desired goals.
Occupied mind is better than idle Mind
We must keep ourselves busy at all times. An idle mind will always distract us from our goals and tends to indulge in all sorts of foolish pastimes and fantasies. Those who are always at a task and those who always discipline their mind at their will always succeed in all their assignments. Taking up a hobby like playing a guitar or writing poems is still better than having no work at hand.
Every Karma adding value to our mission:-
One must stop all squandering of mental energy through useless talks, purpose less work, futile controversies and so on. All your energy saved by refraining from the above useless pursuits can be then channelized to pursue constructive activities. Thus every karma that we do should take us closer to our goals.
While indulging ourselves in any karma, we should first think – is this activity adding any value to my mission, or is it just a time waster and is simply encroaching my will power. One should therefore always try to conserve his energy and focus on improving his life based on his goals and priorities.
Accept the Failure with learning and revise your course of action:-
Failures in life often disappoint us and weaken our belief in self. But we should always accept our failures and learn from its experiences. It should be accepted as a part of the game of life. We should understand that failures also have some positive attributes which should be welcomed. Failures make us learn the right way to do something, It also give us courage to stand up again making us strong. Failures also give value to our success. An easy accomplishment is often taken for granted by us, and we value it less. Everything free in life is taken for granted for that matter. Failures therefore should be taken as a precious feedback for our further assignments.
We must therefore try to work on the above steps and start cultivating good things within us for the betterment of our life. This will definitely develop our will power And A strong will with a pure mind can do wonders in our life. We must therefore be prepared for the difficulties in our life with a strong will- power and pure mind.
