Will You Do It Or Not?

Do you want to really succeed at a goal? Try Why Power instead of Willpower, then. And set your environment to be goal-enriching to support your behavior toward that goal.

I’ve used willpower and setting up my environment to help me reach several goals, but the willpower flagged with time.

Have you ever wondered why sometimes you set a goal and reach it, and stay there, and other times you hardly get out of the gate before you fall off course? I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that.

I have one theory that I think has legs, but I’ve never researched the elements of it enough to do anything with it. Let’s see what you think. You have to put your heart, mind, and stomach into committing to the goal. If you don’t have all three, you don’t have a solid commitment. Without the three you don’t have strong enough willpower.

Sounds kinda crazy, doesn’t it. But, that’s what I thought was behind my various successes and failures at staying the path to my various goals. But then, in reading a book, a new idea shook my world!

Ben Hardy, author of Willpower Doesn’t Work, suggested that motivation is better with “WHY power than willpower”. According to Ben, Why Power is more reliable — more effective and powerful.

I tested that proposition against my various goal efforts. Huh. The most successful ones had a strong why — what he calls Why Power. I ran diet plans, work projects, travel plans, exercise routines, and career goals against Ben’s theory. It held up pretty well.

I think Why Power is a combination of heart, mind, and stomach working together, but a much better name. <grin>

There’s one other element that’s important for your ultimate success is creating a proper, supportive environment for your goal. You want to be more productive and have decided to focus and not be distracted by your games or social media? Remove them from your phone, close the tabs on your computer, and schedule a short break with them during your day. That’s one example of creating a proper, supportive environment. Another would be to remove junk food from your home and office when you want to eat more healthfully.

When I compared my goal efforts with Why Power and a supportive environment working together, The Why Power proposition held up quite well. I did find that Willpower is needed for some occasions, but in general, I don’t have to rely on that fickle, weak power when I keep my Why Power strong and my environment set up for success.

What goal do you have, or want to have, that Why Power and Supportive Environment can help you reach?

A side note that relates to having Why Power:
If you find that meditation helps you reach goals, my husband has created a guided meditation in support of big future goals. Read more about that here: Meditate on Your Future.