How can we increase the amount of willpower we can use before we enter the state?
How can we increase our self-discipline?
Well, numerous studies were conducted between 1999 and 2006 by Professor Roy Baumeister, who’s one of the pioneers of willpower research.
He took large groups of people and tested how much willpower they had initially by forcing them to do certain willpower exercises, such as seeing how long they could work on an unsolvable puzzle before giving up.
He then split these groups into two.
The first group was the control group and they were simply told to go home and come back in two weeks.
The second group was told to participate in a variety of different tasks.
Some were told to try to fix their posture, some were told to try to use their non-dominant hand for tasks like brushing your teeth and opening doors.
And others were even told to actively change the words they used in their sentences like removing the use of filler words like um and like.
These groups were told to actively try and stick to these changes for the next two weeks and then come back.
To Baumeister’s surprise, all of the groups that elicited some sort of control over their lives had a significant increase in their levels of willpower after a two-week period as compared to the control group who saw no change.
So, what does this mean?
Well, this means that willpower is just like a muscle.
When you work out constantly for long periods of time, your muscles get stronger, they get bigger and you’re able to lift more weight.
Willpower is the exact same.
If you actively try to change something in your life, you’re using willpower to make these changes then over time, you’ll be able to use more willpower without entering a state of ego depletion, your willpower muscle will get stronger.
And this explains why keystone habits are so powerful.
If you recall in a previous video, which I will link to in the description below, we spoke about how some people change one habit in their life, and all of a sudden, they change their entire life.
They change a bunch of different habits.
The keystone habit is so effective because by sticking to a single habit, you’re training your willpower, it’s getting stronger.
And as your willpower gets stronger, you have more strength to change the other habits in your life.
So, what can we do with this knowledge?
Well for one, it shows us just how important it is to stick to our keystone habit.
If we can successfully stick to this habit and get it to that line of automatic, it will mean that the amount of self-discipline we have will also increase dramatically.
And this is the reason I structure the course this way.
We put the focus on building a keystone habit instead of focusing on getting rid of our bad habit.
That’s because by building the keystone habit, you will eventually become strong enough to get rid of the bad one.
And that’s why you’ll notice that the large majority of people who are extremely successful have an obsession with self-improvement.
They’re always looking for ways to use their willpower to improve their lives and they may not know it, but this obsession with improvement makes them strong enough to accomplish the tasks that make them so successful.
So, drill this into your mind by actively trying to change your life by being interested in self-improvement by sticking to that keystone habit, you will become stronger.
So, keep strong and carry on because you’re getting stronger every single day as long as you stick to this.
And that sums up everything we need to know about willpower.
At this point in the course, you should already be building up your keystone habit.
If you find yourself slacking, remember all you need to do is stand back up and stick to this habit.
If you follow this one simple task, you will get much stronger.
如何建立你的自律
在我们进入状态之前，我们如何增加我们可以使用的意志力？
我们怎样才能加强自律？
Roy Baumeister教授在1999年至2006年间进行了大量研究，他是意志力研究的先驱之一。
他带着一大群人，通过强迫他们进行某些意志力练习来测试他们最初的意志力，比如看看他们在放弃之前能解决一个无法解决的难题多久。
然后他把这些小组分成两组。
第一组是对照组，他们只是被告知回家两周后回来。
第二组被要求参与各种不同的任务。
一些人被告知要试着调整姿势，一些人则被告知要尝试用非惯用手完成刷牙和开门等任务。
其他人甚至被告知要积极改变他们在句子中使用的单词，比如去掉诸如嗯和like之类的填充词。
这些小组被告知要积极尝试，在接下来的两周内坚持这些变化，然后再回来。
令Baumeister惊讶的是，与没有变化的对照组相比，所有对自己的生活产生某种控制的组在两周后的意志力水平都显著提高。
那么，这意味着什么呢？
这意味着意志力就像一块肌肉。
当你长时间不停地锻炼时，你的肌肉会变得更强壮、更大，你就能举起更多的重量。
意志力是完全一样的。
如果你积极尝试改变生活中的一些事情，你正在用意志力来做出这些改变，那么随着时间的推移，你将能够使用更多的意志力，而不会进入自我消耗的状态，你的意志力肌肉将变得更强。
这就解释了为什么关键习惯如此强大。
我们谈到了一些人如何改变他们生活中的一个习惯，突然之间，他们改变了他们的整个生活。
他们改变了很多不同的习惯。
关键的习惯之所以如此有效，是因为通过坚持一个习惯，你在训练你的意志力，它会变得越来越强大。
随着你的意志力越来越强，你就有更多的力量去改变生活中的其他习惯。
那么，我们能用这些知识做些什么呢？
首先，它向我们展示了坚持我们的基本习惯是多么重要。
如果我们能够成功地坚持这个习惯，并使其达到自动的水平，这将意味着我们的自律能力也将大幅提高。
这就是我以这种方式构建课程的原因。
我们把重点放在养成一个关键的习惯上，而不是集中精力改掉我们的坏习惯。
这是因为通过养成关键的习惯，你最终会变得足够强大，摆脱坏习惯。
这就是为什么你会注意到，绝大多数非常成功的人都痴迷于自我提升。
他们总是在寻找用意志力改善生活的方法，但他们可能不知道，但这种对改善的痴迷使他们足够强大，能够完成使他们如此成功的任务。
所以，通过积极尝试改变你的生活，对自我提升感兴趣，坚持这个关键的习惯，把这一点灌输到你的脑海中，你会变得更强大。
所以，保持坚强，继续前进，因为只要你坚持下去，你每天都在变得更坚强。
这总结了我们需要了解的关于意志力的一切。
在课程的这一点上，你应该已经养成了你的基本习惯。
如果你发现自己懒散，记住你所需要做的就是站起来，坚持这个习惯。
如果你完成这一项简单的任务，你会变得更强壮。
希望我的分享能够对你有所帮助。
如果你喜欢，请你随手分享给周围需要的人。
作者简介：蓝海蓝，广外硕士级妈妈，心理学学士，原开办英语培训机构及外企、院校任职，现英语独立教师(传授英语系统规律+激发自主学习习惯+培养乐观积极性格），爱读书、爱写作，爱跑步，爱旅游，走遍全球20多个国家。专注英语教学及亲子教育心理研究，原创教育思考文章多篇！欢迎关注公众号蓝海蓝（ID:BOB_Education)。
特别提醒：如有启发，给我鼓励，请不要忘记点赞分享哦！
