I linked the video version if you prefer to watch. If you'd rather read here is the script for it

What Exactly is willpower. The word willpower didn’t originate until the 1870’s however, The original 1828 Webster’s dictionary Defines "Will" as, That faculty of the mind by which we determine either to do or forbear an action. The Cambridge English Dictionary defines willpower as the ability to control your own thoughts and behavior. And a simple google search tells us it is control exerted to do something or restrain impulses. All these definitions of willpower over the centuries have a common thread to them. It basically tells us willpower has always been about control. It’s the ability to control impulse, our choice to say yes or no to certain desires we have throughout our day

Now when it comes to building willpower it’s well known at this point that willpower is like a muscle. the part of our brain that makes this yes or no choice functions exactly like a muscle. And just like your bodies muscles if you don’t exercise them for a while they’ll atrophy and become weak, your willpower muscle acts the same way. If you currently feel like your willpower is lacking, it’s most likely because you aren’t exercising your willpower muscle frequently enough. But the good news is you can start to work it out and it’ll build up again.

So the way we build our willpower is by pushing that willpower muscle daily with the decisions we make. The littlest push can help us build the willpower muscle 1% at a time, just like we would build our biceps 1% at a time in the gym. Even something as little as getting off the couch to wash the dishes when we don’t feel like it will slightly build our will power muscle over time. As soon as I learned this concept, I started incorporating it by doing all the little things I Knew I should be doing but wasn't. Like washing the dishes, cleaning my car or walking my dog. any little thing I knew I should be doing but wasn’t I would start to do immediately as soon as the thought popped up. That’s a really easy way to start building your willpower if your starting from Ground Zero.

The smallest delay in gratification will build our willpower muscle. Even just waiting to get what you want can build that muscle. For example, If you’re at work feeling hungry and all you’ve been thinking about all day is eating that slice of chocolate cake you got in the fridge at home. But then on your way home you decide, "hey you know what I’m not gonna eat that piece of chocolate cake until after dinner. even though I really really want it right now." you pushing against that urge of wanting to eat the cake right now but waiting till after dinner, Even that little bit of delayed gratification will help strengthen the connections in our willpower muscle over time.

And of course you can push yourself more. The bigger the push the bigger the workout on our willpower muscle. The harder it is to resist or do the more our will power muscle will be worked when we follow through with our decision. Smoking is a perfect example for this. I know how powerful that addiction is firsthand, and I also know quitting it will tremendously benefit your willpower muscle just because of how much a smoker craves that cigarette but has to abstain from having it.

Now it’s definitely worth knowing that in order for our willpower muscle to be functioning at full capacity studies show eating healthy, Exercise, Meditation, and quality sleep directly affect our willpower muscle. Using a bit of our willpower to go to the gym, eat healthier, meditate, or sleep longer are 4 things that if we do will literally grow our prefrontal cortex and build better connections in it, growing our willpower muscle at an exponential pace. (Reference Kelly McGonigal - Willpower instinct)

Once our will power muscle is built it can be a major benefit to conquering all our goals in life. This is why when someone pushes themselves to succeed in just one area of their life, they find it easy to push themselves in other areas of their life. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a great example of this. First, he was a bodybuilding champion, then a top action movie star, and then after that he even became governor of California. This guy is on a whole other level when it comes to willpower and discipline, we should all take a note.

The next point we have to cover about willpower is the argument of whether it is limited or infinite. Most previous studies showed our willpower being a limited source. But it’s surfacing now that our willpower may actually be infinite. We’ll cover both schools of thought on it right now

So the original school of thought was Our Willpower is limited. Everybody said to pick your most important tasks to focus your willpower on because you can only make so many right decisions in a day. Highly successful people lived by this advice, Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg are known for wearing the same outfits to avoid wasting one of their decisions for the day. Obama is quoted for saying "I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make," Previous Studies showed with each use of will power the self-control system in our brain became less active.

And now the 2nd school of thought that has just recently been surfacing says our willpower is infinite. They basically say that if we believe we have infinite willpower we will and if we believe we have limited willpower we will. The American psychological association said A 2010 study done by Stanford University found that individuals who thought willpower was a limited resource were subject to having their willpower depleted. But people who did not believe willpower was easily exhaustible did not show signs of depletion after exerting self-control. In a second component of that study, the researchers manipulated volunteers’ beliefs about willpower by asking them to fill out subtly biased questionnaires. The volunteers who had been led to believe that willpower was a limited resource showed signs of ego depletion, while those who had been led to believe that willpower was not limited showed no signs of dwindling self-control.

The article goes on to say that further research is needed to conclude anything. There is most likely some truth to both of these schools of thought. I know when I had little to no willpower and I tried to stack several things at once that required willpower - it wouldn’t work for me. But at the same time after years of strengthening that muscle it does feel unlimited. If you’re just starting to workout that willpower muscle the best approach would probably be to focus your willpower on one major thing at a time. If your trying to quit smoking, start exercising, and start eating healthier pick the one most valuable to you and start there. Better not push ourselves in too many areas at once in the beginning stages of building that muscle. Eventually you can build yourself to having the belief that willpower is unlimited. I would bet that the ones who believe their willpower is infinite are the ones who have those 4 habits set in place mentioned earlier. Exercising, Eating Healthy, Meditation, and Quality Sleep.

So, willpower being limited or unlimited is still being researched to come to a final conclusion. But there’s definitely a few things about willpower most would agree on. The first is that getting enough Sleep and food is required for your willpower muscle. If you’re not eating enough or getting enough sleep your ability to make wise decisions will drop. The next thing is that our willpower is strongest in the morning and weakest in the evening. This could very well be one of the genuine parts from the willpower is limited school of thought. See Throughout the course of our day we have to resist a lot of things we want and do a lot of things we didn’t really want to do. All the way from waking up for work when you feel tired to choosing the healthier option for dinner. As the day goes on it gets harder and harder to make the right choices for ourselves.

So in closing the word willpower gets tossed around a lot in the personal development community. The importance of it and it’s role in our success. There’s no denying that discipline and willpower will take us far in life. But it’s up to us to build it. As the quote goes "Willpower isn’t something that gets handed out to some and not to others. It is a skill you can develop through understanding and practice." All willpower really is, is an art, the art of choosing to delay our gratification in life one thing at a time