Welcome back everyone to Big Yan’s Weekly Blog on how to improve your daily lives!
This week we are talking about a very interesting topic that many of you readers may have never thought of: Willpower.
Now I know all of you are thinking, “Big Yan what’s that?”
Alright guys don’t worry I got you. Think about when you are about to do homework and you know you have to get it done buttttttt there’s a new netflix show out today and you want to get started on it. You decide to watch the netflix show instead of doing your homework. Then you are up until 2 a.m. doing your homework and then barely getting any sleep. Yes we’ve all been there and that is what you call a low willpower.
Recently, I read a book called The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal—WHAT! YIANNI READ A BOOK?? —Yes guys I read a book. I know it’s lame. But seriously it was so insightful—Wow I sound like my mom.. lol.
What I learned was that your Willpower affects everything that you do in your life! It’s all about self control and I’m here to help you guys figure out how to better your daily life. Willpower is your internal motivation to restrain external or internal impulses to complete a task or achieve a goal. This book helped me figure out how to train myself into having better self control over my life and in turn, has allowed me to become a better student while getting more sleep and feeling less stressed!
Now you guys are probably wondering why a guy like me who hates to read decided to read a book such as this one. The reason that I chose this book in particular is because I found myself every night with a ton of homework to do and no motivation to even look at it. Then, I would sit and tell myself that I had to do it for about 30-45 minutes and eventually end up staying up until 1:00 a.m. doing homework that I could have gotten done well before that. Due to that I lost sleep and eventually woke up the next day for my 8 a.m. class tired and not able to focus.
This book changed everything for me.
First, this book talked about the physical forces that I never really thought about that can kill our willpower on a day to day life. Here are the keys to a better lifestyle that you can instantly control.
- Sleep???- if you get more sleep every night or the right amount of sleep, you will be able to have more energy and more productive as a whole. Correct amount of sleep also ties into feeling less stressed.
- Nutrition??????- having a balanced diet allows your body to function at maximum potential at all times giving you more energy and improving focus.
- Exercise??♂️- exercise helps with many aspects such as mental alertness, focus and body image. If we feel good about the way that we look then we will be in a more positive mindset when trying to complete a task.
On the internal side the book talks about:
- Distractions- completing assignments can be very difficult if you do not have complete focus. Every time that we face a distraction, our brains stop thinking about the original topic and start to wonder.
- Focus?- the book talks about how your focus will determine the final product or how well you will complete a task. The more focus that you have on a project will also lead to a better work ethic.
- Stress?- Stress is one of the biggest ways that we can lose focus and have low motivation to get a goal completed. The way that you can lower your stress is by getting more sleep and eating a more balanced diet.
One big takeaway that I took from this book is goal setting. The author really goes into depth about how to set goals and make them as efficient as possible while also not losing sight of increasing our willpower. The biggest takeaway that I took from this book was that just because you complete the task that you set yourself to do, doesn’t mean that it justifies taking a break or deviating away from the overall goal that you set for yourself.
Now all of you are probably wondering, “Yianni does this really work?” YES!!!
While reading this book I set out to track 1) The amount of sleep I got each night and 2) my stress levels of each day as well as I added the goal setting into my daily homework routine. Here are my examples of the tracking of Sleep and my stress levels each day and the amount of time it took me to get all of my homework done the following day.
As you can see as the amount of sleep that I got the night before determined the stress level that I had that day and it also took me longer to do my homework over the course of these two weeks. This is because it was harder to focus without enough sleep! The more sleep that I got my stress level for the next day went down and I was able to get my homework done faster and more efficiently.
This book has helped me so much figure out what types of goals and motivation techniques work for me. I have been able to get more work done in less amount of time meaning that I have been able to get more sleep every night. I have more time for relaxation in order to lower my stress levels so I am in more of a happier mood everyday. I have been able to make a planner so I always get my assignments turned in and my grades have never been higher. The overall impact this book has had on my life is incredible.