7 WILLPOWER IS ALWAYS ON

WILL-CALL

“Odysseus understood how weak willpower actually is when

he asked his crew to bind him to the mast while sailing by

the seductive Sirens.”

—Patricia   Cohen

Why would you ever do something the hard way? Why would you
ever knowingly get behind the eight ball, deliberately crawl between a
rock and a hard place, or intentionally work with one hand tied behind
your back? You wouldn’t. But most people unwittingly do every day.
When we tie our success to our willpower without understanding what
that really means, we set ourselves up for failure. And we don’t have
to.
Often quoted as a statement about sheer determination, the old
English proverb “Where there’s a will, there’s a way” has probably
misled as many as it’s helped. It just rolls off the tongue and passes
so quickly through our head that few stop to hear its full meaning.
Widely regarded as the singular source of personal strength, it gets
misinterpreted as a cleverly phrased, one-dimensional prescription for
success. But for will to have its most powerful way, there’s more to it
than that. Construe willpower as just a call for character and you miss
its other equally essential element: timing. It’s a critical piece.
For most of my life I never gave willpower much thought. Once I
did, it captivated me. The ability to control oneself to determine one’s
actions is a pretty powerful idea. Base it on training and it’s called
discipline. But do it because you simply can, that’s raw power. The
power of will.
It seemed so straightforward: invoke my will and success was
mine. I was on my way. Sadly, I didn’t need to pack much, for it was