What is “willpower”: concept, 7 main components

Updated July 24, 2022 718 Author: Dmitry Petrov
Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. The concept of “will” originated in the depths of philosophy and means the individual’s ability to moral and physical self-determination.

Subsequently, the concept began to be used in psychology - in its context we will consider it in this article.

What is willpower?

Willpower is the internal energy of a person, which allows you to consciously activate and direct efforts to solve certain problems and implement plans, regardless of the availability of strength and desire to work.
The main purpose of willpower is for a person to overcome internal obstacles on the way to his goal. It acts as the ability of an individual, through a conscious effort, to take control of his own behavior and direct all his strength to solving a specific issue, overcoming possible obstacles along the way. It is for this reason that people who are able to overcome difficult life circumstances and all kinds of obstacles are called strong-willed or people with a strong will.

Consequently, strong-willed people can consciously awaken, concentrate and direct their own internal resources, forcing themselves to move in the direction they need. Thus, willpower is understood as the conscious desire of an individual at the right moment and for the right time to activate his internal energy to solve a certain task.

The concept of will in psychology

The structure of a volitional act has the following form:

First, a person experiences psychological or physical discomfort - this is an incentive in relation to a subsequent action (for example, there is discomfort in the stomach);
Then there is an understanding of my discomfort (the sensations in my stomach tell me that I am hungry) and the emergence of desire (I want to eat). But it happens that awareness does not occur.
Then it is customary to talk about attraction : a person wants something, but does not know what exactly. He begins to look for the cause of his feelings until the attraction turns into the status of desire (he stroked his rumbling stomach - it didn’t help, he sang a song to him - there was no result, he saw an appetizing chicken on TV - the sensations intensified and the realization of hunger came);
Desire gives rise to purpose (I need food);
Making a decision to take action (go to the supermarket for groceries). If at this stage a person has two or more desires, then a collision occurs between them. In psychology, this phenomenon is called the struggle of motives (I want to eat, but I don’t want to go outside because of the heavy rain);
And here an act of will - the choice of one of the motives (I decide to take an umbrella and go);
This is followed by internal planning (which store I will go to, what I will buy) and external execution of the plan (I get dressed and leave the apartment).

The main components of willpower

Experts studying the described phenomenon have identified seven main components that form willpower. These include:

Self-discipline , without which it is impossible to achieve any serious results even in simple matters. The development of willpower contributes to the formation of this quality, which helps to correctly prioritize and take control of one’s own actions and thoughts;
Persistence , since the path to a goal requires finding ways to achieve it, and only persistent people will find them;
Courage , i.e. the ability to take decisive action at the right time, as well as the ability to take risks or abandon unnecessary risks in time;
Faith , in this case - faith in yourself and your own strength. If a person is firmly confident in the favorable outcome of his undertaking, then it will be easier for him to achieve a positive result;
Desires , i.e. those goals that a person strives to achieve. The goal must justify the resources spent on its implementation, then the final result will be expected and desired;
The ability to endure , since the implementation of a plan, especially a large-scale one, requires enormous patience;
Independence is one of the most important character traits of a strong-willed person. An independent person knows how to make decisions and take responsibility, without expecting ready-made decisions from strangers.

All of these factors together form a high level of willpower in an individual.

"Marshmallow test"

One of the most famous experiments confirming the relationship of willpower with a person’s adaptation in modern society and his success was carried out for about 40 years by the famous psychologist Walter Michel. It began in the 60s of the last century, and final conclusions were formed only in 2006.

The name of the test is very eloquent - “marshmallow”, because it was this delicacy that was used to tempt four-year-old children, testing their ability to control their desires and momentary impulses. The experiment itself was simple and unpretentious: the child was given marshmallows and asked to imagine how tasty and sweet it was. The children had a choice: eat the treat immediately or wait 15 minutes. An indicative test of how much fortitude and willpower have already been formed. As a reward, they were promised an additional portion of marshmallows. At this point, the first stage of the study was completed. Then all that remained was to wait and record important moments in the lives of the participants.

As it turned out, in the end, the children who were able to resist the temptation and wait for the reward in the form of a second piece of marshmallow, confirming that their willpower was excellent, achieved significantly greater heights in life than their peers. In fact, this proved the hypothesis that self-control can safely be considered one of the key factors determining a person’s further success in life.

If you want to study this topic in more depth, here is a selection of books about willpower:

“Developing Willpower” Walter Mischel
“On the Limit” Eric Bertrand Larssen
"Strength of will. How to develop and strengthen” Kelly McGonigal
“The Psychology of Achievement” by Heidi Grant Halvorson
"Strength of will. Take control of your life” Roy Baumeister

Read universal advice from a psychologist that will always be useful in life here.

How to improve memory and what types of memory there are - read in this article.

Why the best things in life always come from the opposite, you will find out here.

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How does lack of willpower manifest itself?

Is it possible to find out if you are a strong-willed person? Yes, but to do this you need to honestly answer yourself a few questions:

Have you ever put off until later or done urgently important things?
Have you ever had to justify failure to fulfill your responsibilities by lack of time or other excuses?
Are most of your problems still unsolved?
Do you often get distracted from your work by various little things, such as computer games, communicating on social networks or watching TV series?
Do you periodically fail to keep your promises to yourself?

If you answered yes to all or almost all of the above questions, then you can work a little on developing willpower.

Always keep your word.

Do you want to make better decisions, find your ideal career, realize your maximum potential and receive instructions for individual development?

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All this can be done using the Human Design
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Willpower is developed not only through physical exercise. An important component of its strengthening is moral improvement. Keeping your word to someone is no less important than doing an exercise to failure. In addition to educational value, a reserved word has practical application. People around him begin to trust him more, and his social position improves.

Having learned to keep the word that he gave to himself, a person opens up opportunities for development and improvement. It becomes easier for him to force himself to do something, to overcome his laziness or indecision.

How to develop willpower?

So, let's move on directly to developing willpower. Fortunately, this character trait is not innate, but can be developed; in particular, there are seven fairly simple ways to develop this quality:

1. Set specific goals

To direct your willpower to achieve what you want, you must firmly decide what exactly you want. In cases where the goals set are thorough and serious (for example, mastering a foreign language or a new profession), it makes sense to draw up a detailed plan with specific steps and time frames, and then consistently and clearly follow each of its points.

You shouldn’t waste your energy by setting several goals at once; you simply won’t have enough strength to achieve them. To begin with, it is better to choose one specific goal, the achievement of which will give you confidence in your own abilities and motivate you to new achievements.

Psychologists and the object of their research

Will is a function of the psyche that affects all aspects of human life. It defines orderliness and the pursuit of a specific goal. The consciousness of the activities of a particular person depends on the will. A volitional action, as Rubinstein defined, is a purposeful act through which an individual achieves some goal defined for himself. Thanks to the will, as you can learn from Rubinstein, impulses are subject to the control of consciousness, and a person has the opportunity to correct the world in which he lives, focusing on his own plan and idea.

Will is also a person’s ability to regulate his behavior. It is believed to be a tool of self-determination. Thanks to this mental feature, the individual is freed from circumstances pressing on him from the outside. Thanks to the will, life receives a subjective aspect.

Versatile and important: will is necessary for man

This phenomenon has long been a source of surprise to researchers of the human psyche. Will is a person’s ability to balance between inhibition and motivation. At the same time, activating a specific action and blocking others, focusing on a goal announced in advance. An act of will is the formulation of a decision, the determination of a method of struggle, the mobilization of forces to achieve what is desired.

The volitional phenomenon is determined by a subjective thesaurus, the articulation of information taking into account the meaning of the action for a particular individual. Will is associated with the attitudes of the individual and his predisposition to certain specific actions. In many ways, the speed of reaction to circumstances and the person’s state of readiness depend on them. As is known from social psychology, will sets a subjective human orientation towards some social value.

Development of the situation

Willpower in a person’s life is not only a mental function that has selective implications. Suppose a person finds himself in a situation where he has several options for the development of events, each of which entails certain consequences. Having determined which option is most preferable in the current circumstances, the person activates the initiating volitional functionality. It consists of applying a series of efforts to implement a certain scenario. Since all the alternative motives that had to be encountered at the stage of implementing the selective volitional function have not yet weakened, efforts have to be made to eliminate all those motives in favor of which a decision was not made.

A person with a strong will implements what is planned, strictly adhering to the plan drawn up initially. He determines for himself specific actions, routes and sequences, strictly observing them in life, not allowing deviation in favor of momentary desires. In psychology, this is called a stabilizing volitional function, thanks to which you can adhere to a certain level of activity, despite the problems and difficulties that arise. Often, a person, engaged in a certain action, imagines various situations that may follow, forms plans, the implementation of which will be beneficial. This is called voluntary regulation of mental processes and actions occurring within a person’s personality and in the outside world. If it is possible to determine an additional motive, to formulate why the action that was chosen at the selective stage is needed, if it is possible to formulate for oneself a truly important result that a person is ready to strive for, while changing the motivation and supplementing it with new points formed based on the imagination, talk about changing the role of the implemented action in human life due to volitional effort.

Signs of will

Psychologists, figuring out and defining what human will is, have formulated three characteristics inherent in this mental trait. The first is the awareness of one's own freedom. A person understands that he is free to do any action. He realizes that there is no predetermination in principle, only he himself determines what behavioral reactions will be.

The sign of will is determinacy of action. This must be objective. Its presence is mandatory. The sign must be present in any action, even if from the outside it seems completely free.

At the same time, volitional behavior is a holistic phenomenon that affects all personal aspects. A person expresses himself through such mental characteristics clearly, completely. Regulation of behavior through will is considered the highest level of mental control.