WILLPOWER

“Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties – and confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” — Vice Admiral James Stockdale

The past weeks this blog has been spending time recognizing and discussing the military forces that as the last post will attest, we need desperately in order to maintain order and ensure the environment where humans can flourish. Turning away from that subject, this post will highlight a post today by Steve DeAngelis, Enterra Solutions blog.

Steve addresses The Importance of Willpower, something that every single person on this planet can relate too. Steve starts out by noting how important willpower is to a successful business. He goes on to illustrate it's importance to our everyday lives. By linking an article in the April 2nd, New York Times by Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang, entitled,"Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind."

The brain’s store of willpower is depleted when people control their thoughts, feelings or impulses, or when they modify their behavior in pursuit of goals. Psychologist Roy Baumeister and others have found that people who successfully accomplish one task requiring self-control are less persistent on a second, seemingly unrelated task.

Steve's dissection of the article is masterful and serves to give the reader ample substance to consider. He adds sparse comments as he includes larges swatches of the Times article to strengthen the reader's willpower to take the time to read the whole article and then spend time thinking about how it relates to their busy lives.

Many days we all feel overwhelmed by the Black Swans, those unexpected things that alter our lives either by a degree or a whole compass heading. Having the willpower to be prepared to weather the unexpected is crucial to survival.

The past few months this blog has written about many who have demonstrated willpower, people like Michael Monsoor, John McCain, LT G, Tom Barnett, the men of the USS Russell, and those who are nameless, except by the description of their talent and perseverance. We all know people around us who are focused and dedicated to achieving their goals against difficult odds. It is important to encourage them and share all the tools of life in order to prepare them for the future.

It is to those nameless people, this article is posted as a reminder to maintain faith in yourselves. The distance of time and location does not dim the hope I have for your futures.