One Daily Practice to Improve Willpower

Will power is very much like a muscle. Like a muscle, it tends to get exhausted with use. However, just like the muscles, will power can also be developed. That is the nature of this brain. If you apply it to math problems again and again, it becomes better at them. If somebody engages in juggling, that portion of the brain which is engaged in juggling, tends to develop. Similarly, we can develop our will power by exerting it. A little bit of will power exercise. Simple exercise for example, the body says you need to scratch. But you desist, “I will not.” It may seem like a small thing. But if you do it, you will discover that the will power has started increasing. An even more powerful way of developing the will power. What is that? Meditation. What happens in meditation? You sit down to meditate, “I will think of God” or whatever is the object of your meditation, and the mind says, “No, I don’t enjoy this. I would rather think of so and so.” Now the intellect controls the mind. “Come back here.” Every time the mind wants to wander off, you pull the mind back by exerting the muscle of self control. What is the consequence? In three hours of meditation, you will find that your will power has jumped many rungs. Try it and do it. It is not even necessary that you succeed in your meditation. Even if you are not succeeding, you are still exerting your will power. You are every time practicing. That focus, that concentration is an application of your self-control. Self-control developed in one area of life will stand you in good stead in all the other areas. So, endeavor to enhance this muscle of will power through practices such as meditation.