Build a life where doing what’s best for you is the easy thing, the automatic...

Build a life where doing what’s best for you is the easy thing, the automatic thing. Willpower is only used to build the pattern. After that, it flows on its own.

Willpower is a precious and limited resource. Some people have more of it than others. Yes, you can train willpower within your genetic limits (like any strength). Or put another way, you can train to make use of the will power you have.

You can also lose your willpower or use it up trying to make yourself do things. It can be zapped away through trauma, stress, or illness. The Soviets studied this extensively in their mind control experiments. Anyone can be broken with enough time, what that means is their willpower is broken.

Some people stay in the new mindset they were forced into. Others break out, eventually.

But you can use the same principles in your own life, ethically, deliberately, and without destruction by using targeted suffering. Intentional pressure, directed at rewiring patterns and beliefs, overwrites the old so that once the new pattern is set, it’s easy to follow.

Why force yourself to eat healthy food when you can cultivate a desire for it? Why grind through a job you hate when you can shift into a better one, or reshape your attitude toward the one you have? Why battle your morning routine every day when you can architect a life where you want to get out of bed?

The problem with relying purely on willpower is that it eventually leads to breakdown. But if you construct a life that automatically leads you toward what’s healthy, you get stronger and stronger over time.

Habit and rhythm of life >>> willpower.

Save that precious willpower for when you need it most. Use it to build the system, not to fight it every day.

And, I can explain the strong connection between high conscientiousness and the belief in willpower, they’re basically the same thing. Yes, we can change our personality somewhat. We can increase conscientiousness to a degree. But the range is genetically determined, and we have to work within it.

It’s unlikely that someone in the bottom quintile for conscientiousness will ever reach moderate levels, and it’s impossible for them to reach high conscientiousness.

The only exception is when someone’s conscientiousness was temporarily suppressed by trauma, illness, or another external factor. In those cases, recovery is possible, because the capacity was there to begin with.

But expecting someone with low conscientiousness to power through life on willpower alone is like expecting a blind man to become a painter. The capacity just isn’t there. They need to focus on system building and rhythm instead.