Improvement pill here welcome to lesson 9 of the team course in our previous lesson we spoke about three Biological factors that affect how we recharge our levels of willpower throughout the day now I'm sure a lot of you guys were under the assumption that these factors are responsible for the majority of our willpower and this was in fact the Assumption of the entire scientific community for a long period of time However recent studies are point to the fact that these Biological factors may not be as important as we once thought they were instead of being responsible for something like 70% of our willpower throughout the day it's likely that these factors are only responsible for something like 30% Chances are what goes on in our head plays a much bigger role in regards to our levels of willpower And that's what we're gonna talk about today five psychological factors that will make you more motivated and increase your levels of willpower and keep you out of a state of ego depletion The first is something called CHUNKING, one of the best examples of chunking comes from one of the world's greatest magicians David Blaine, Blaine is well known for his stunts of endurance he once spent over 63 hours encased in a block of ice and you can only imagine How much willpower that required Blaine managed to pull this off by using chunking to create a constant supply of willpower? Chunking is when you take a large task and you break it down into tiny tiny pieces for Blaine instead of focusing on the total amount of hours He wanted to spend in this block of ice which was at least 60 hours. He broke it down to the hour He would tell himself okay I just need to make it through the next hour Over and over again the reason this works is because our brain is designed to be as efficient with our willpower as Possible in order to conserve energy We actually have an almost unlimited amount of willpower But we all have a point in time where our brain says nope you've used enough That's all you're getting for today so when presented with a momentous task your brain says.
Nope we can't do this task It's way too big We don't have enough willpower to do it But when you're using chunking and you focus your attention on one small piece at a time then your brain says hey You know we could do this. Here's some extra willpower, and that's why in one of our previous lessons I mentioned that we need to set a low bar when creating our routines by setting a low bar which is the minimum? Amount of work.
We're allowing ourselves to do. We're basically using chunking to get a little bit of extra willpower Just enough to force ourselves to stick to our habits So how can we use this in our day-to-day lives? Well instead of telling yourself that you're gonna finish that five page paper right now You're actually gonna get more willpower feel more motivated and get more done if you tell yourself you're gonna finish a single paragraph at a time on top of that chunking also increases the amount of confidence we have CONFIDENCE is the second Psychological factor that influences our levels of willpower the more confident you are about a task the less willpower it will require Let's say that you want to lose 20 pounds if I asked random strangers on the street how Confident they were about this most people would say that they weren't confident at all however if we use Chunking and we cut this down to just one pound most people would say yeah I could do it confidence is all about the small wins by paying attention to small milestones you actually become more and more Confident towards your end goal you start believing that you can actually do it a great way to build confidence Using small wins is by tracking your growth for example if you're someone who wants to lose weight It's very effective to download an app like My Fitness Pal that allows you to track your progress by tracking your weight and slowly Watching your weight drop this boosts your confidence And it requires less and less willpower to go back to the gym or stick to your diet The third way we can influence our levels of willpower is by changing how we view willpower itself now I know in our previous lessons I stressed the importance of things like avoiding ego depletion And I taught you about ways in which our willpower levels are depleted these things are real and serve a purpose But a study conducted in 2010 by a professor Job V found that how we view willpower can severely affect Our levels of it for example if you believe that willpower is limited then you actually lose willpower faster than someone who believes willpower is unlimited so what can we do about this well let's Establish the truth about willpower once and for all the truth of the matter is our levels of willpower Far exceed the amount we use throughout the day our brain just likes to set a limit on it However, if you've been studying the same course you've gained some knowledge about how it all works and knowledge is power Which means you have more control over your willpower, so I like to believe that by studying willpower I actually know how to tap into my Unlimited willpower more than the average person and by adopting this very belief you'll find yourself a more willpower in the long run The fourth way we can influence our levels of willpower is by changing our Identity when you have an identity that aligns with your goals and the habits that you're trying to build this Decreases the amount of low power required to stick to it now This is easier said than done.
How can we change our identity? Well the best way to do so is by being very careful with our language The way we phrase things will affect how we view ourselves for example if an urge arises to smoke instead of thinking I can't smoke. I told myself.
I was gonna quit We should be thinking I am NOT a smoker the person in the first example still Identifies as someone who smokes who's trying to quit while the person in the second example Identifies himself as someone who doesn't smoke to begin with over time you'll start believing this new identity Which in turn will reduce the amount of willpower? Required to stick to this habit another good trick to keep in mind is to replace words like I can't I have to I must With I want to the first three phrases are phrases that you would use if you still Identified with the old you that you're trying to change But if you use the phrase I want to then you're agreeing with your new Identity the fifth and final way We can influence our willpower with our mind is by doing what's called high level thinking a study conducted in 2006 by Professor Fujita found that people who spent more time thinking High-level thoughts would have a significantly higher. Level of willpower throughout the day than those who had low-level thoughts now What's the difference between the two well low level thinking is when you think about the short term and you think about?
Specifics for example you think about how you're gonna get to the gym you think about how you're gonna lose your weight you think about What foods you're gonna eat high-level thinking on the other hand is when you think about more general and long-term ideas So it's when you think about why you're going to the gym when you think about why you're trying to lose weight when you're thinking About why you're changing your diet now? There's nothing wrong with thinking low level thoughts because they are needed in order to plan ahead You can't make dinner unless you think about what you're gonna cook But it's best to spend more time thinking high-level thoughts High-level thoughts create a sense of purpose and meaning if you think about why you're changing your diet enough you start to truly believe that Changing your diet is what's best for you a great exercise that I recommend all of you to try is to take the keys don't Have it then you're trying to build in this course and fill out an entire page with why you want to stick to this habit Sum it up There are five powerful ways you can increase your willpower and get more motivated by changing the way you think number one is by chunking Breaking up your big goals into tiny tasks Number two is by increasing your confidence so that you start believing that you can actually accomplish your goals number three is by changing how you view willpower that you're someone who can tap into their unlimited well of willpower by studying and Practicing how it all works number four is by changing your identity? It's easier to quit smoking if you don't identify as a smoker and number five is by spending more time thinking High-level thoughts and just to clarify something the biological factors.
