Build Will Power: The Future You

An awesome concept I recently read in "The WillPower Instinct" by Kelly McGonigal, PH.D. is how to build your will power by increasing your sense of future self. 

How many times do we catch ourselves saying, "I will start my diet next week," or even with unrelated gym stuff like "I will study later." We have this internal need to delay responsibilities or hardships. We view our future self as more discipline, not as busy, less distracted, and so on. Some how we believe our future self is a better version of our current self, so it's best putting things off.

By postponing our commitments, the future self has the additional five extra pounds to shed, pay the unused gym memberships fees, or has health issues that never existed.

Here are a few tips to increasing your sense of future self

• Put yourself in the mindset of the future self. Will the future self be glad that you lost those two pounds? That you aced your exam?  You can even write a letter or note to your future self, thanking your self for having the will power to get started.

• Be aware of what is causing the delay of gratification. By knowing the root cause, you can make adjustments. For example, if you can't seem commit a workout, maybe you need to get more sleep or prioritize your workload. 

By being in touch with future self can be a step closer to building your will power, because I know it has helped me.

-Danni
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