CONGRATULATE To Live Consciously

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

From one day to day dialogue:

- It's easy for you to say, you have completed military training, so you can easily endure restrictions.

- But before that it was different, so you can learn to restrain yourself.

“I don’t know anything, it’s in your blood. And I, as in a joke, have will, I have strength, but I have no willpower.

A curtain. A lot of books are devoted to the issues of will, its strength and qualities, even separate trainings and training courses on their development have been developed. But still no one offers an unambiguous answer. The list of volitional qualities is "not closed", the very concept of will is rather vague. For example, the popular Wikipedia offers such views on will:

• as a human quality, it is the ability to make choices and perform actions;
• - the property of a person, which consists in the ability to consciously manage emotions and actions;
• - an ambiguous term denoting certain higher cognitive processes or functions associated with the control of behavior;
• - the phenomenon of the subject's manifestation of his desires and the subsequent regulation of activity and behavior, ensuring the formation of goals and the concentration of internal efforts to achieve them;
• - the ability of a person to direct their actions.

Notice what all these definitions have in common? Management, regulation, control. Indeed, the will can be called a "power lever" in the structure of the personality, thanks to which we reach our "heights". It is inextricably linked with the emotional sphere. Because a developed will = high skills in managing emotions. The latter should be understood as whims and unfounded desires to succumb to any kind of temptation. How to develop volitional qualities in yourself?

This is where a lot of disputes and discussions arise, a lot of disruptions at the start and disappointments. There is an opinion that the will develops "right off the bat" - practically by Spartan methods. And the completely opposite approach is the consistent development of volitional qualities, starting with small and gradually raising the bar. Having tried both and not getting the expected result or when faced with "impenetrable" difficulties, we often give up the idea of being at the helm and learn to take responsibility for everything that happens and that is not in our life. After all, will is needed to change the quality of the latter.

To begin with, let's figure out in what cases volitional qualities are manifested - we want something useful and very necessary to bring (develop, implement, learn) into our life or get rid of something harmful. Depending on this, a choice of approach to the development of volitional qualities should be made. Yes, now the question may arise: “Does the will develop in the process of achieving goals? Shouldn't you first work with her, and only then take on the achievement? Doubts are understandable. And yet one cannot develop the will separately and then take advantage of its advantages. This is the same as learning to speak a foreign language without speaking a word out loud.

So, if we decide to bring good to our lives and desperately resist this, then we choose a gradual approach of "education" of will, but if we get rid of the harmful effects of bad habits and actions, then the methods of the Spartans will help us. Now let's take a closer look at these approaches in practice.

For example, we decided to learn to get up early in the morning (that is, we are introducing a new habit). Which way should you go?

• Preparatory stage. We decide how early to get up - we set the exact time. For example, at 6:05 am on weekdays and 7:05 am on weekends and holidays. Why such a division? To go this way less painful: in our head the days are already divided in this way because of the working regime and the presence of state and church holidays. When the early morning wake-ups take root in our lives, then gradually this line will go away.
• Detailing. We create a schedule and a wake-up tracker. Here is an important point - we are starting tomorrow, and not from Monday, even the next one. If today the dial showed 7:20, then tomorrow the alarm will wake us up at 7:15. We take a step in minus 5 minutes. This is not a critical time for our perception, so we "agree" to it quite easily. We keep 7:15 for 2-3 days, after which we set the alarm five minutes earlier. And again we get used to the new time for several days. The weekend will serve as the gingerbread that sweetens the flour of early everyday waking up.

Why do you need a tracker? To track your dynamics and in the event of a decadent mood that this whole undertaking is unrealistic, to have factual confirmation of the opposite. The tracker can be compiled in a weekly or monthly format, as in the sample. It's great if you get creative with this, make it by hand and arrange it as your heart desires.

• Motivational filter. Actually, here it is necessary to give meaning to the whole idea. Why get up at 6:05? What will it give? And you should definitely figure out what business to spend the free time in the morning. Perhaps playing sports or meditation, reading books or cleaning, etc.
• The action itself. Now we regularly begin to bring our plans to life, adhering to the schedule.
• A moment of insight. This is the state when you ask yourself the question "How could you have lived differently before?" and you can’t find the answer. And pictures of all the bonuses received during this time are flashing through my head. When this moment comes, it is difficult to say - in a week, two, on the twentieth day or fiftieth. This is an individual process.
• Skill (habit) & volitional quality. Actually, after the insight, we can say that we have acquired the skill of getting up early in the morning and, along the way, a few more - we are looking at the things that we occupy the free time with. The line between the moment of insight and skill is conditional. How does this concern volitional qualities and their development? We figure out how and what helped us to regularly carry out the planned actions: perseverance, dedication, perseverance, interest, the ability to come to an agreement with ourselves, overcome laziness, find motivating bonuses. If we compare this list with the one suggested by Google, we find them very similar.

Well, if we chose the option of getting rid of something "harmful" and settled on Spartan technologies, then what should we do? There is an algorithm here:

• Preparatory stage. We decide what we want to get rid of. For example, from the use of words-parasites. It is important - we start not even tomorrow, but today.
• Motivational filter. We answer the question, why is it necessary? What will happen when words-parasites leave speech? What bonuses will we receive?
• Whip / substitute action. We assign for ourselves a compensatory action that will stimulate us to hold on. For example, every time we use the word parasite, we learn 2 foreign words or we squat, etc.
• The action itself. We begin to perform after we have decided on the previous 3 points. Patience, composure and restraint will be our faithful companions on this journey.

As you can see, there is no detail in this list. There is no place for dividing into portions, if we want to get rid of something, and not just reduce the amount, then it’s worth “chopping off”, and not stretching the “pleasure” for weeks and months.

Or maybe you shouldn't attach so much importance to volitional qualities? After all, the taste of life is to succumb to impulses, act spontaneously, create and enjoy every day with might and main! Of course, when it is our conscious choice. It is worse if all of the above is chosen for us. There is a theory that a person's character is 25% dependent on heredity, 25 - on environmental conditions, and 50% is his free choice. There is no gene responsible for volitional qualities, therefore, at least ¾ of all the possibilities for the development of will is in our hands. And blood has nothing to do with it.