Willpower- where is yours?

[white knight]

Bare with me here.

At 17yo having joined the RAAF I was overweight, unfit and just a boy. I found running long distance very hard especially while carrying lots of weight with equipment.

During long marches there was running in a troop situation. You were required to maintain your location in that troop...no matter what.

Eventually, feeling exhausted I'd fall drop to the back of the troop where my corporal would yell at me and threaten that if I didnt get back to the front I'd fail. Fail meant likely discharge. I'd sprint up the front and stay running there until I dropped back again.

I passed the course but had my corporal not yelled in my ear I would not have ran half that far. I would have given up. Such was my lack of willpower. Obviously I had the physical ability, not the mental determination/strength to carry out my obligations.

As adults with a mental disorder we are less likely to have a disciplinarian yelling over our shoulder to "get out of bed..NOW! So the easier thing to do- stay in bed.

We are fragile people. We know and accept this. We dont like it, but that's the way it is. However if we acknowledge such shortcomings we are half way towards achieving a goal- to break our mental shackles and challenge ourselves beyond any limits we have ever had before.

What might be required is a mentor figure that can tactfully pressure us to take the harder road. Or, for us to develop a plan to gather such strength or change of attitude to achieve the goals we need to implement to improve our daily lives.

How do we do this? If doing it alone, we can attend motivation lectures, probe methods to develop positive thinking techniques, enter a new phase of self change and read up on stories of amazing courage by famous people (eg Shackleton, Mandela etc that succeeded against all odds)

If you have a willing and loving partner that is tactful, you can include him/her in your plans. You wouldnt want a disciplinarian yelling at you but some firm insistance could be the prompting you need. Just refrain from getting angry at them doing what you've endorsed them to do.

You greatest tool with this challenge is honesty with yourself, to recognise your need to be more motivated.

Enjoy your new journey of finding your willpower...it's there hiding...but it is there.

TonyWK

[demonblaster]

Hi Tony and all ☺

I'm in the process of giving up fags and also losing weight.

I'm working on understanding and coping with depression and willpower now. I'm starting to think the same techniques will work for both. Mind and thought control.

I have a will of steel but in the past it's been for the wrong things including compulsive gambling (beat that) eating wrong food etc. If we can turn the determination in our favor.

Stubborn would be being strong willed I just thought, if not it sure helps.

• How? ...Our minds don't stop so our thoughts usually move on to others unless we're in a ruminative phase. So we forget within a short time

• Distraction is very helpful and as Grandy mentioned also
• mindfulness, if we're aware what we're thinking we can catch thoughts and turn them before the tumbling effect of our minds talking us into it or pulling us down. Same with depression.

Our habit is if we want it we do it.

I'm on new AD's (anti depressants) I'm sure giving up smokes and those are both full on making me want to eat so I'm making up my mind by reiterating, haven't habited it yet why I want to give up and lose weight. The reasons are happies you feel better less cost etc. I'm remembering how good I feel and feeling it as a result of giving both up.

• The more we focus our thoughts and resulting emotions on now bad we feel the harder it'll be

So where I'm at is I'm allowing for Aunty nag but relying on Aunty distraction that until the next time nag visits I've forgotten.

Also thought either doesnt physically hurt in withdrawal or depress as such it's more frustration I think or feeling deprived

I think cause I've given up so many times I'm ok to do it apart from in mania when although its great the stress is higher. I can have the odd one without wanting to go back.

In summary. Distractions a great tool. It helps to reinforce positives to why it'll be good to stop.

We forget after a short time.

Being aware of our thoughts can help us stop the follow on negatives.

Reiterate often the positives of giving it up. Changing our thinki g patterns

Btw I heard sugar cravings take 3 wks to leave.

Also heard 3 minutes for a food craving, mine are a lot less but oh so often but that'll change.

To stop a habit we need to start a new one which is not doing it.

If we want to... we can so working on the want I guess.

Have a good day all ☺ well done and good luck.