Willpower is absolutely critical to your success for giving up the booze for 30 days, but note this is only in the short-term. You must use your willpower to install new habits that run on autopilot.
- Willpower outperforms IQ for predicting academic performance by a factor of 2.
- Willpower is finite, and weakens throughout the day.
5 KEYS TO BOOSTING WILLPOWER
Eating – Low blood sugar is tied to poor decision making
Moving – Releases ‘Happy’ chemicals in your brain
Sleep – Missing 4 Hours of sleep is equivalent to drinking 1.5 bottles of wine, & studies link poor sleep to alcohol
Breathing – One deep breath can take you out of Fight, Flight or Freeze response & quickest way to boost willpower in the moment
Meditation – A brain’s best friend. Improves focus. Leads to clarity. Increases willpower.
Key Takeaway: Holding on to guilt and shame DESTROYS your willpower. This is when you will truly be in the self sabotage cycle of:
Guilt. Shame. Anxiety. Self Sabotage. Self Loathing. Alcohol. REPEAT.
Be honest about your challenges, but with self-compassion. Your goal is use willpower wisely to install habits on autopilot.
My 6 week Sobriety Program is a great resource that along with the recovery behavioural science tools and techniques also covers what I call the “SUCCESS STRATEGY’ for overall sobriety success, including, but not limited to the following:
- Visualisations
- Affirmations
- Goal setting
- Looking at the negative emotions triggered (the ‘Root Cause’)
- Replacing limiting beliefs with new empowering beliefs
- Aligning your actions with your values
- Focusing on what you want, not what you don’t want
- Keeping your agreements, especially with yourself (personal agreements)
- Act as if (see it, feel it, believe it, be grateful)
The important question we need to answer is what’s the success strategy best suited for my personality and what do I need to do on a consistent basis to thrive? For example, mine are coaching, spending time with my kids, husband and dog, and learning/connecting (usually from listening to other people share their experiences and journalling about what I learn), running and meditating. When one of these are missing from my life for very long, I notice.
Willpower will work in the short term, but for a truly lasting and sustainable change we must consider implementing our own SUCCESS STRATEGY so we are being the best version of ourselves.
For more info reach out www.rachelhind.com
