Have you ever wanted something, excited to make a change for the better, and as you got into it you discovered your willpower needs some work? And then tell yourself you just have to power through this, and you do. For a while you:
And then try as you might, especially if you are not seeing progress quickly enough, you cave, give up and feel bad about yourself, saying your willpower sucks.
Good news - you are not an undisciplined slug! What you’ve just experienced is willpower has a fatigue factor. And similar to the muscles in your body, willpower can get fatigued when you use it over and over again.
So, with that being said, how do you become that better version of yourself when you are tempted to quit??? The most effective way to change is not to focus on what you want to achieve but on who you want to become. One of the most powerful things you can do to become who you want to be is to be in an environment of people, coming together to assist and support each other. Because becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and upgrade your thinking.
With the support of the people in our Playing to Win team, I have upgraded my thinking. I moved from just wanting to achieve my former fit body to becoming fit at any age. I realized that I wanted to have - more muscle, buff arms, and a lower BMI. My version of achieving this was willpower-based, which is why I yo-yoed and struggled week after week.
My team helped me see I am getting closer to being fit at any age, which, when I think about it, is what I really want to become. This is why I created Playing to Win teams - to help me and others stay the course when we want to give up or veer and to become the best version of ourselves.
