“Every person possesses some “Will To Do.” It is the inner energy which controls all conscious acts. What you will to do directs your life forces. All habits, good or bad, are the result of what you will to do. You improve or lower your condition in life by what you will to do. Your will has a connection with all avenues of knowledge, all activities, all accomplishment.” – Theron Q. Dumont

Everyone is training their will power in all of the small and big things they do. Do you roll back to sleep when your alarm goes off? If so, you are training your will power to be weak. Do you turn off your alarm and get right out of bed even though it’s nice and cozy and warm and it’s the weekend? If so, you are training your will power to be strong.

You can make extraordinary use of your will power if your desire is strong enough. The problem lies in whether or not that desire leads to your betterment or your regression. Think about the alcoholic. He may have a little desire to quit drinking, but his desire to continue drinking is even stronger and therefore he concentrates his will power in a direction that will lead his to the fulfillment of the stronger desire. There are alcoholics that have gone to extreme lengths just to have a drink.

Alcoholics will think of the craziest schemes and do almost anything to get their fix. They are using a lot of will power, but they have trained it in the wrong direction, and it has become so strong that it can be nearly impossible for them to train it in the opposite direction. They don’t lack will power; they just train it the wrong way.

Alcoholism may be out of their control, but the will is not. My father is an alcoholic, yet he has not had a drink for over 30 years. Not because he is cured of his alcoholism, but because of the strength of his will. He has concentrated his forces in the opposite direction, because he desires something else more than he desires to drink, to be in control and not let alcohol be the one behind the helm.

Whenever a desire arises, you should think over whether or not satisfying that desire would be for your betterment. If it is not, then you should use all of your will power to kill out that desire, but if it is a righteous desire, then you should summon all of your will power to see it manifested.

Don’t be slow to make decisions. Procrastination and putting off things that you need to do is a sign of weak will power. It may be easier not to do it at that moment, but choosing an easy life now usually leads to a harder life in the future. If you procrastinate because you lack the courage to do something, try using the 3 second rule. If you procrastinate because you are lazy, you should practice strengthening your will power with the 5 minute rule.

For the next week use the 3 second rule and the 5 minute rule to help you make quicker decisions in your daily affairs. Get up exactly when you mean to. Everything that you plan to do should be done on schedule or ahead of time. Important decisions should be given some time for deliberation, but small decisions shouldn’t. Practice doing this for a week and then evaluate your improvement.

Make decisions when you are calm. When you are angry or upset you lose control of your mental forces, and it will be difficult to concentrate and make a good decision. When you lack emotional control, you will follow impulse rather than reason, which usually leads to poor results.

Dumont suggests taking back control of your emotional state by the simple rule of counting backwards. Counting backwards requires you to concentrate, and you can regain a calm state by doing so.

Take initiative. Many people have loads of potential, but they fail to accomplish much because they don’t take initiative. They wait for someone else to come along to tell them what to do and fail to will anything for themselves. There is no doubt that there are geniuses out there who fail to be as successful as the one who takes initiative, in fact, they often become employed by the one who takes initiative, not because of their lack of ability, but because of their lack of ambition.

“There is nothing so responsible for poverty as this lack of initiative, this power to think and do for ourselves.” – Theron Q. Dumont

Everyone is different. We have different problems, different situations, different opportunities and abilities. Study yourself and your life and make plans for improvement and then follow them to execution. Don’t just say you will, do it. Make a definite plan and don’t stop until you see it through. Use your foresight and see what is on the other side of your finish line. Don’t follow a road that leads nowhere.

Foster the spirit of perseverance. Perseverance always wins in the end. There are countless stories of people who made it big because they persevered, and there are countless more about the ones that gave up before the finish line.

“Lack of Perseverance is nothing but the lack of the Will To Do. It takes the same energy to say, “I will continue,” as to say, “I give up.” Just the moment you say the latter you shut off your dynamo, and your determination is gone. Every time you allow your determination to be broken you weaken it. Don’t forget this. Just the instant you notice your determination beginning to weaken, concentrate on it and by sheer Will Power make it continue on the “job.”” -Theron Q. Dumont

Doing things that force you to use your will power to persevere will benefit you in all areas of life. This is why you should exercise, do martial arts, or play sports. These things teach you to persevere and train your will power to accomplish more and more as you get better. Never think that you lack will power, you must train it and demand more of it until you have sufficiently strengthened it to see your desires into fruition.

It is more important to learn to use your will than to develop your intellect. The use you make of your will power will greatly determine your fate. If you don’t make proper use if it, you will not be independent, you will lack self-control and thus become a machine for other people to use. You won’t decide things for yourself, instead you will allow others to decide your life for you.

“The man that has not learned how to use his will rarely decides things for himself but allows his resolutions to be changed by others. He fluctuates from one opinion to another, and of course does not accomplish anything out of the ordinary, while his brother with the trained will takes his place among the world’s leaders. – Theron Q. Dumont