Will the Will be Willing?

Will the Will be Willing?

It's Sunday night, the start of another week, so it's time for some self-motivation. If I don't motivate myself, who will?

Sometimes we all fall into the habit of needing a lot of support from family and friends before gathering enough courage to do anything in life. In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield has this to say about support:

Seeking support from friends and family is like having your people gathered around at your deathbed. It's nice, but when the ship sails, all they can do is stand on the dock waving goodbye.

At some point you must realize that, no matter how much you enjoy the support of family or friends in whatever you are doing, ultimately you youself will have to face your challenges alone. In the end, everything comes down to an effort of will on your side: Do you or do you not have the willpower to do it?

And what is this thing called Willpower? Physiologically, isn't it just another deep intake of breath, a quickening of the pulse, a certain pattern of firing in your neurons? Why then do you cower in fear whenever you are confronted with certain challenges in life, when all it takes is this "simple" effort of the Will?

That too, only you yourself would know. The friends and mentors who give you support can wish you luck, preempt you of certain pitfalls that you might encounter down the road, but they will still not know what's inside you that's preventing you from moving forward. You, will have to honestly ask yourself what it takes to cross that hurdle.

Everything takes an effort of the will before it can happen: to wake up in the morning and go to work, to resist another helping of dessert during lunchtime, to slog through that tedious proposal that you promised to deliver to your boss yesterday, to tell that someone, enough is enough.

You are the only one who can will yourself to do or not to do it. No one else can, or will. But, will you?