The walk to the gym.
It was a walk I had been doing for over 2 and a half years as I had been training for the Spartan Race. In my first race in October 2012, I finished in 334th. But after over 2 years of hard training I had worked my way up to finishing 7th – a mere 2 spots away from becoming a sponsored athlete.
Read More"Can we help students who are struggling in class turn things around by helping to boost their self-esteem?"
It seemed like a good idea in theory. After all, there is a correlation between getting good grades and having a high self-esteem. [1]
But which comes first?
Do students with a high self-esteem naturally try harder because they believe in themselves? Or is it just natural that those who work hard and get good grades have a high self-esteem from achieving great results?
Read More"Why don't these people get it?!"
Thought researchers who were studying a group of non-exercisers who were trying to set up a habitual exercise routine.
The participants had been asked to estimate the amount of time they knew FOR SURE they'd be able to spend in the gym over the next 2 weeks. On average, the participants planned to spend about 10 hours/week in the gym.
I'm sure you have gone through a similar planning process at some point. So you probably won’t be shocked when I tell you that the average time actually spent in the gym wasn’t even half of that!
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Where would you be today if you saved just $1/day every day since you graduated from high school? (Assuming a 2% interest rate)
If that was 10 years ago, you’d be $5807 richer.
If that was 20 years ago, you’d $12,887 richer.
If that was 30 years ago, $21,517 richer
And that’s just $1/day! Those numbers would more than double if you had saved $2/day.
Read More“These people must be saints!”
Thought Roy Baumeister, one of the top researchers on the science of willpower.
He and his colleagues were researching people in Germany and the Netherlands who seemed to have unstoppable willpower.
They ate healthy
They exercised regularly
They were well educated
Read MoreStanley is currently undergoing one of the toughest challenges to our willpower imaginable – he is on a diet.
He has been struggling to get his weight down for years. Always making progress, but never reaching his ultimate goal. But this time, Stanley is determined to not let that happen again. This time he really is going to make it through the toughest days and reach his goal.
Read MoreWillpowered Day 1 Task List:
- Establish principles that I will not break under any circumstances
That is what I penned in my journal on September 26th as I was about to embark on this new adventure with Willpowered.
I knew that before there were any subscribers, before there were any customers, before there was even an article written, I was going to need to establish a higher standard that I would always live up to.
Read MoreLet me introduce to you William.
William is a smart, quiet, introvert with a dry sense of humor and a generous spirit. He’s 20 years old, a college student and has never been very good at talking to women.
One day, a girl that he has liked for months sits next to him in his chemistry class. He is nervous, but knows that he needs to summon the courage to talk to girls he likes one of these days.
Then, by a stroke of luck, the professor assigns the two of them to work on a project together. He starts building a friendship with her. He is awkward at times, but they generally get along well.
Read More“I quit my job and I’m going to start a blog where I write about and teach the science of willpower.”
How would your friends and family react to that statement?
Yeah, mine too.
Blank stares, worried faces and ultimately a lot of judgment and criticism – especially because the last time I pursued a dream, I failed. Miserably.
Read More“Uh Dad, Green Bay isn’t even a city on this Map.”
“Don’t worry, when I’m done with that team, it will be.”
That’s what the legendary coach, Vince Lombardi, told his daughter when he and his family were about to move from New York, to the tiny town of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Read MoreIn the summer of 1990, Joanne Rowling – better known for her pen name J.K. Rowling – was on a train from Manchester to London when an idea came out of nowhere.
“I could see Harry very clearly. This scrawny little boy. And it was the most physical rush of excitement. I’ve never felt that physical reaction to anything about writing before.”
20 years later, J.K. Rowling became the first billionaire author, ever.
But her journey from that train when Harry Potter was a simple idea, to him being an international icon, written about and seen all over the world, was far from simple or easy.
Read More“What can I do I set myself up for success?”
A simple question that was asked by one of the subscribers to Willpowered.
My answer – it’s all about getting the morning routine right.
Think about willpower like a phone battery. You charge it overnight while you sleep, then wake up to a “full battery” in the morning. Then throughout the day as you use willpower to eat healthy, be productive at work, and finally get around to cleaning, you use up your “battery”.
Read MoreOne day in Bentonville, Arkansas, Sam Walton sat down for breakfast with a friend. Despite his wild success as the founder of Wal-Mart, Sam lived a very simple lifestyle. This included frequenting this tiny, neighborhood Arkansas diner for many of his meals.
As he and his friend were eating, a man entered the diner. Sam turned to his friend and said, “that’s Joe. I really admire Joe. He used to be a truck driver, but decided to go into business for himself and raises chickens. Now his business is extremely successful. I have a lot to learn from Joe.”
Read MoreOur greatest fear isn't failure...it's failure in public.
That is why venturing outside of our comfort zones is so scary. We set ourselves up for critics, ridicule and embarrassment.
Unfortunately, one of the places that this happens the most is at the gym. Many newcomers simply do not know the proper exercises, the proper weights, or the proper form. The thought of looking stupid exercising in front of others is one of the reasons that many people aren't able to make exercising into a habit.
This is a terrible feeling, and can be seen vividly through the eyes of Reddit user GnashBros.
Read More“There is NO WAY I can do this.”
Those were my thoughts as I looked at the course load at the beginning of my 4th Spanish class in University. I knew the value of learning multiple languages, and I was determined to continue working on it until things finally stuck.
I had received exemplary marks up until that point – especially in my 3rd level Spanish class. My 3rd level class was a breeze. The professor was lenient, the assignments were easy, and I aced the course. So I had a lot of confidence going into that 4th level Spanish course.
Read MoreThe town was Framingham, Massachusetts – a simple place in the Northeastern United States with a population of approximately 68,000. It is a lovely town with a mix of old colonial ties and new developments. And in 2012, Framingham was listed by CNN Money Magazine as the 36th best place to live in the United States.
Read More“We have done it!” Thought James Olds, “we have found the happiness center of the brain!"
The year was 1953. Olds and fellow psychologist Peter Milner had been stimulating various areas of the brains in rats to determine how different areas would affect their behavior.
One day, they stimulated an area of the midbrain that the two researchers were sure was connected to happiness. Whenever they triggered it, the rats seemed to be in a state of euphoria.
Read More“I have 30 days of oxygen.”
That was what I told myself at the beginning of February. I had enough money to live for another 30 days and that was it. I was broke.
When I started Willpowered in October, I knew that this day was coming. I had a big circle on my calendar for March. March was when I was going to run out of the money I had saved to take the leap and fully commit to Performance Psychology.
Read More“I’ve done 20 Ironman Traithlons, who needs this?”
Said Joe DeSena, founder of The Spartan Race, as he was in the middle of doing the Utah Ironman Triathlon. Joe is renowned for pushing his body to the limit, but this time he felt like he had pushed his body as far as it could possibly go
Read MoreThe experiment could be called a form of torture.
Psychologists Claire Adams and Mark Leary invited young women who were watching their weight into the laboratory and actually encouraged them to eat doughnuts and candy (for the good of science, of course).
Although their experiment seemed like torture, their intentions were good. The question on their minds:
Will people indulge less if they do not feel guilty about it?
Read MoreWillpowered was founded on one idea - Help people win the mental battle. All of our products and services are designed based on scientific evidence to help you overcome mental obstacles on the way to achieving your dreams.
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