Recharge Your Willpower Battery

Prince Baruah
Sep 8, 2018 · 12 min read
Image Courtesy: Unknown

An isolated chunk of space debris floats in the blackest corner of the night sky above, as Hal Jordan, protector of Earth, greatest of all Green Lanterns, moves in with his partner John Stewart to investigate the mysterious thing. Except it’s not just a chunk of debris. It’s some sort of alien spaceship. And it’s powered by fear, the kryptonite to the Lanterns.

Fearless and brave, Hal Jordan reassures and motivates his friend.

John: ‘What do we do now?’

Hal: ‘What do we do with fear? We feel it. And then we overcome it.’

And thus, purpose overtakes fear and the power of their combined willpower blasts through the obstacle.

Now, if you are one of those who are not that into the entire comicbook circus, or have never watched a single cartoon episode in the 90s or a superhero flick in recent days, considering you were born in the 90s; you might be scratching your eyelash wondering what the flying fuck a flying superhero’s got anything to do with willpower and self-help.

Don’t worry, mate. I ain’t judging. No one is. But I’ll tell you what:

Green Lantern is the one of the greatest embodiments of willpower that exist in popular culture. So believe me when I say that thou shalt not go wrong of purpose if thou buyeth one or two comicbooks just for the sake of it. Worst case scenario, you’ll be marvelously entertained (pun NOT intended).

Now, let’s talk about us and our willpower. And how we can literally channel Green Lantern’s superpower into our own life, for our own purpose. Minus the green light.

Just to clear the air here, I’m not an expert in this. So I shall only be resorting to what I do know for now. Take it like a plate of flamboyantly cooked sausages. And my plate of sausages shall amount to the three most effective methods I personally use to amp up and maintain my willpower throughout the day.

However shitty the day or situation may be.

In the end, there is but one ingredient you’ll need to make this happen.

Discipline.

‘Beware My Power…’

Willpower Charging Hack #1:

The Morning Exposure

Granny said ‘morning tells the day’.

I don’t always agree but I don’t not agree either.

What’s the first thing we do right after we wake up?

The phone. The computer. The toothbrush that keeps slipping through the fingers. The sloppy spaghetti-legged walk to the kitchen. And a little sulking while we stare into the blank space ahead, as some of us flip open the catalogue of flourishing negativity we call the newspaper, and some of us get locked in to the memes and videos and Facebook messages of the morning.

And it’s the morning hours. The mind is vulnerable. And it’s wide open to suggestions like a hooker’s legs are to her unavoidable daily bread.

The similarity? We can decide not to let it go down that way.

But that’s when we choose to expose it to negative shit the most.

Why the fuck would we do that?

Simple. Habits.

And how do habits form?

Persistence.

Research says (well, a lot of research says) it takes 21 days to form a new habit. So I guess it makes no difference in the time needed to rewrite one either. But without discipline, I bet that’s a fool’s errand. One can try. But then there’s the eventual pitfall for the persistence and commitment that we enthusiastically establish in our head in the beginning.

And poof goes the Lantern.

It was hard for me. It was hard for anyone and everyone who has transformed and turned their life around to becoming better versions of themselves. And it will be hard for you too. Nothing great ever comes from sitting idle and letting the pincers of mediocrity crush your mind and body and heart and soul. Now I’m sure others have said the same shit before me too. I’m just another guy passing the torch of the same to others in need. Like a rising tide that raises all ships.

To have the life you think you deserve, with happiness, fulfillment, a purpose, and great willpower, you’re gonna have to do what others are afraid to.

You’re gonna have to do what most of your friends and family don’t.

You’re gonna have to unplug from the Matrix. The Zombie-Convoy.

Once you’ve made that commitment and set your sniper locked in at the target — your ideal goal at the moment, you take action. Big, fucking action. You don’t look back. You don’t judge. Yourself or even others. You just keep fucking going. That’s when you know you’re at least getting somewhere.

And then you can slowly add new healthy habits into your morning routine, one by one, through constant learning and knowledge and application, eventually sculpting an entirely new morning ritual for yourself that works the best for you. And brings out the best in you. One that doesn’t drain you out of your willpower first thing in the morning. One that lets you keep the battery charged for hours. And hours.

And you use the power for good. For your purpose as a fellow human being on Earth. You get better, life gets better, everyone gets better along with you.

Some powerful and effective exercises and habits that I myself started to apply and incorporate into my mornings include some of the most subtle and simple things we as high-functioning humans can and should do. But sadly we don’t.

Here’s a handful:

Meditation. 15 minutes in the morning. Or whenever the mind is feeling disturbed and out-of-place. Recharges willpower since restless thoughts drain willpower. And meditation kicks the shit out of that.

Affirmations. First thing in the morning. Preferably not to be missed. Amps up the performance for the rest of the day. Well, at least for me. Even better if done throughout the day. Steroids for self-love. And self-love bleeds willpower.

Coffee. Clearly not for everyone. But coffee is my favorite go-to morning drink, next to a good glass of protein shake. A teaspoonful without sugar and psychopathically black does an incredible job of keeping me high on adrenaline and focus for the next 6 to 7 hours, until I’ve finished my workout and replenished my muscles with a protein drink. (I prefer to workout in the afternoons before lunch).

But all that adrenaline amounts up to absolutely nothing when we don’t direct it at something productive and instead waste the hell out of our precious little time in the day. Window of opportunity shuts down, and we’re back under the blanket. Feeling like crap and eventually reverting back to social media for meme-venting.

Reading. Underrated activity that my friends think I do because ‘I’m some nerd without a job’. Fuck outta here. I’m dedicated to learning new things everyday and increasing my personal value. That’s why I read. Not for my ‘love of reading’, which doesn’t exist for an artistic headed fucker like me, but rather to increase my own personal value every day. Why? Because Kaizen, the Japanese philosophy of constant and never-ending improvement. Because it adds to the discipline. Because wham. Willpower. Way better than a 9–5, if you may. ;)

(You’ll find out more about my morning-rituals, Kaizen practice and my initial transformational journey in my book Outcast: A Transformation Memoir. It’s now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.)

Willpower Charging Hack #2:

How inspiring is your circle?

‘You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.’ — Jim Rohn

There is short-term stuff, and then there is long-term stuff. The short-term stuff usually involves quick-fix stuff like the stuff I mentioned above. And by short-term, I’m not talking about short-term results because the same can most often lead to miraculous long-term results.

But then there are some factors that actually happen to burn into the lives of our own, much like a slow-cooking piece of salmon.

Factors like your friend circle.

You may already know it, or maybe you’re just not that aware of it as of yet, but not-quite-surprisingly it so happens that we tend to pick up personality residue from the people we spend the most time with. It’s like osmosis, if you’ll remember your science lessons back from school; our personalities, as ever-evolving as they are, are nonetheless malleable and rewriteable to a certain extent. There are certain aspects of the people that we form rapport and emotional synchronicity with that seep into us without us consciously knowing about it, unless we are absolutely mindful and aware, and that injection of the same causes us to, most of the times, imitate the thoughts, beliefs and behavioral patterns of the person we’re in deep sync with.

‘You guys are so alike!’ You might have had someone say to you and your best friend.

So it certainly goes without saying that the life-habits of the same people can very much get set up within our own, leading us to, well, you get the idea.

Which means if you have shitty friends, friends who complain, friends who spread and spit negativity, you’ll eventually be turned into a shitty, complaining, negative piece of whatever.

If you’ve got friends who’re into the arts, who are creative as fuck and literally spend most of their day either practicing the arts or getting inspired by people performing the arts, and even sharing knowledge about the arts with one another, soon you’ll be influenced by them and forced to let your inner artist out. Note: These are people you’ve got to keep around. Not only are they fun, they also fire up your creative neurons in a way your parents and relatives never will. And there’s no other way to live than through creativity.

And creativity bleeds willpower.

Ben Franklin took advantage of these social dynamics in the best way possible. He established the Junto — a club, a ‘meeting joint’ for men with an inclination for political affairs, mutual imrovement, writing and philosophy and other similar fields of interest.

The Junto

You can have your own Junto if you wanna.

I’m trying to make mine. Unfortunately there are but less than a few fuckers I can rely on. For now.

For me, personally, I make sure my circle is one of people with purpose. With drive. A purpose could be anything. As long as they’re passionate about something and contribute to the greater good while they’re at it, or at least even hustling their asses off by their own will rather than sulking and throwing their precious time away in their social media; now that’s what gets me off big time. And I’m a stickler for those people. They’re worth keeping around.

Because they act like natural charges for willpower.

Or you can build your own Green Lantern Corps.

And it’s long-term. It bleeds into you. It forms into you and soon becomes part of your personality.

It could be a long-time comicbook fan who attends and organizes big meets and comic-con-esque parties for similar people of the tribe. It could be a budding musician who practices and produces day-in-day-out and gets listed first place among 100 other top producers in some international database. Or it could just be a guy who’s passionate about his love for graphic-designing who has started hitting the gym because he believes in being a better version of himself.

All of these. Checked and verified examples from my own life.

That’s the kind of willpower I feed on.

Willpower Charging Hack #3

Do you have your personal soundtrack?

‘Don’t know why I’m volunteering for something out of the DC universe.’

*Puts on I’m Gonna Do My Thing by Royale Deluxe on speaker*

I can just take leave here and leave a smirk emoji and the point will explain itself. ;)

Step 1: Pick your favorite songs. Not the ones you think are brooding or melancholic and so-fucking-sophisticated. Save that shit to some other folder.

Pretty fucking counter-intuitive coming from a guy who makes music, I know.

So be it.

Choose the songs that pump you up the most. The ones that refresh you, reactivate your adrenaline, recharge you, make you feel like a charismatic, magnetic, charming, self-loving badass. The ones that not only make you feel like you’re on top of the world as you’re making sweet erotic love to it, but also relax the shit out of your bones and veins and tendons. You know what I’m talking about.

Stretch it out from Audiomachine to Hi Finesse to G-Eazy to Chris Cornell to Mozart.

Honestly, if you’re just listening to romantic R&B numbers and not giving a chance to all the epic movie scores and TV series soundtracks out there, I don’t what the fuck you’re doing with yourself. No wonder your state is at an all time low, if you’re still reading this. Start digging. If you need some help finding the best of the best, hit me up with an email or DM on Instagram.

You’ll be doing your cells a huge fucking favor.

Why? Didn’t you hear? Vibrations that come from musical notes influence physiological and psychological function on a cellular level. Look it up. Positive vibrational frequencies have been shown to cure shit like cancer. Not sure if this is something the marketing team of 13 Reasons Why would want you to know.

Step 2: Compile that shit up into a playlist.

There’s not much tutoring needed for us on that part. You know what to do and where to go.

Step 3: Play it. Anytime you like.

Got a meeting with a large group of people? Got to make a presentation? About to go on a road-trip? Duty calling? Heading towards the boss’s office to make deadly eye-contact with him and demand a raise like the cold-blooded awesomeness you are? Your personal soundtrack just might help you.

Hey, works for me at least.

‘Just tryin’a make up for last time, I guess.’

Remember. Willpower is not a destination. It is a process.

Like everything there is in this universe, if you’re gonna resort to ‘trying’ to achieve that certain state of relentless enthusiasm and work ethic and drive and restraint, it’s not going to be as effective as it will be when you focus on long-term change rather than short-term.

Habits take a good amount of time to form. And even lesser time to break. So along with the undeniable red-pill of discipline, you’re gonna have to have a glass full of patience with you.

Start with the perfect morning. Then follow through to other practices.

But none of it is in any particular order. All of them complement each other.

There are other equally effective and complementary ways too, but apparently I don’t have the willpower to mention them all here. Or, like I mentioned earlier, I’m no expert. Just a man who thinks he knows what’s best for mankind.

And it’s better to stick to a few full-assed ways than several half-assed ones.

One ring is enough. The fvck is this.

But there is one that I’d like to mention though. Another way of charging your willpower battery. It’s something (unrelated to willpower, but everything is interconnected anyway) mentioned by Mark Manson in his pretty well-known book. You should know which one. If not, seriously, you gotta start applying one of the first hacks effective immediately.

It doesn’t matter what it is you do. To get yourself motivated, you can put your hands on anything and just start doing it. Do anything, as long as it’s productive and constructive and creative. That’s all your system needs for a kickstart.

Must say, I agree. My testicles agree too.

Why else do you think I’m writing these free articles?

Pastime hobby? Perhaps. Practice? Perhaps. Willpower charging hack #5? Perhaps.

Or maybe just tryin’ to find my groove before the big games, baby. ;)

-PB

Image Courtesy: Unknown

Prince Baruah

Written by

Part-time superhero, full-time visionary. Personal-transformation junkie. Mindfulness expert, almost. Author of ‘Outcast: A Transformation Memoir’ (2018)

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