We all know that diet and exercise go together. However the path to diet and exercise is sometimes the road less traveled.  Why?  Many people believe that maintaining a healthy body is the result of something called “willpower”.

But what is willpower?  According to the dictionary, willpower is defined as, “control of one’s impulses and actions; self-control.”
OK, makes sense right.  So how do you access willpower?  You can’t see it, and there’s no on/off switch?  How come some people just have it and some don’t?

In truth, willpower, happens when you do one thing… take a stand.  By taking a stand, you make the commitment to doing something (or not to do something).  That’s just the first step though.  People who have strong willpower are constantly taking a stand.  They renew their commitment on an ongoing basis, living a kind of “just do it” mentality their entire lives.  Eventually, after a period of time (some say 21 days to build a habit), this ongoing commitment called willpower becomes just that – a habit.

The goal to keeping your habit of diet and exercise going is to understand your mind and how it works.  In most simplistic terms, your mind is always talking to you.  It tells you what to do based on current situation, past experience, and believe it or not, on fear.  Sometimes that inner voice is stronger than willpower.  Usually that comes from your mind reacting in a fear based way.  You see, eating healthy and exercise aren’t necessarily normal occurrences.  People eat for emotional reasons and fear drives those emotions.  Exercise is about pushing past our natural tendency to be lazy.

Here is a different kind of exercise for you.  Spend the day jotting down your thoughts.  Categorize them as positive or negative.  Add them up at the end of the day and see whether positive or negative wins.  Did fear win?  Soon you’ll be come extremely aware of your thoughts and you will be able to manage them better.  And better thought management leads to more willpower.