There is an important difference between the two and therefore it’s important to know
when and how to use each of them. Using these two powers incorrectly can cause great
pain and failure.
Shirley, a young mom with a 6 month old baby is told by her husband that she must start
working because of their bad financial situation. She does not want to work but feels she
has no choice and returns to her interior design job which she hates but which makes
good money. She pushes herself to find clients using her willpower to get up every
morning as she painfully drops off her baby at daycare. As you might imagine, she
burned out after three months feeling guilty.
To use willpower to accomplish a long term project which we don’t enjoy is a bad use of
willpower. Pushing and pressuring oneself always leads to burnout. Using willpower to
accomplish a short task we don’t enjoy is a good use of willpower, such as mowing the
lawn, meeting a deadline for work, or helping our spouse fold the laundry. But to
accomplish a long term project, like building a business or learning a skill, or working on
personal or spiritual growth self-improvement with willpower alone will most always
fail.
Instead of willpower, Shirley needed to tap into her power of will. The power of will is
activated when we identify what we want to do rather than what we feel we should do. In
order to identify what we want to do, we must be honest with ourselves. Shirley’s
mistake was that she allowed herself to be pressured by her husband’s demand that she
start making money. Instead of thinking about how she might work and not resent
putting her baby in daycare, she impulsively decided she had to go back to a job she
hated.
There is always an option for doing what we want to do if we are honest with ourselves.
Shirley certainly had other options, like working at home, online, so that she would not
have to leave her baby. Finding the option we want to do is how we access our power of
will. When we access our power of will we experience calm, positive energy, and
motivation. We cannot succeed at any long term endeavor with willpower alone, we
must activate the power of the will.
How about you? Are you misusing your will power to accomplish something that
requires tapping into your power of will?