How to Improve Willpower: 10 Ways to Regain Your Strength

When we are stressed, we tend to unconsciously fall back on ingrained habits, whether they are helpful or harmful.

Creating good habits helps you get through stressful situations without affecting your willpower.

It’s easy to give in to temptation, feeling guilty about yourself afterward.

A good meal and regular exercise can decrease the desire for smoking, alcohol and caffeine consumption, and increase healthy eating and emotional control. Look for activities you enjoy, such as jogging, cycling, swimming, martial arts, etc. 

Our environment has a great influence on our behavior. For example, if you mute and put away your phone while working or studying, you will be less tempted to look at it. 

Associate your environment with a specific task. Re-arrange everything you want to focus on, and keep away the things that take away your concentration.

We make many decisions on any day, from the most simple, like what to eat for lunch, to important ones.

Create the habit of performing some activities without having to rely on your willpower. For example, previously packing your clothes in order to avoid excuses for not exercising.

Sometimes the complexity or importance of the task is overwhelming.

Break down the task into as many manageable parts as possible, organizing them in a logical sequence. This guarantees that you will never put yourself in a state of willpower depletion.

Self-compassion works much better than self-criticism when we have to deal with failures, or not reaching a certain goal.

People who exercise self-compassion tend to develop a willingness to learn from their mistakes. They find it easier to recover from setbacks and pursue positive change.

The 2-Minute rule is a great way to break the first and most difficult barrier of procrastination: getting started.

Make the following deal with yourself: you’ll do it for just 2 minutes. Most of the time you will continue with whatever you are doing.

In the event of an emergency, giving in to a piece of chocolate is not a bad thing.

The small energy boost from dark chocolate will help you to focus on the decision.