Do you have a strong willpower?

Tweet

A friend of mine called yesterday and asked if she could stop by. Of course, I said yes, and she came by for a coffee on her way to run her errands. We had an enjoyable little chat, did the catch-up that good friends do, and she said she really had to go or she would never get her stuff done. I walked her out. At the door, she turned and said, ''I have to ask you something. Where do you get all of your strength and willpower?'' Oh, my. I told her my answer might take longer than she had time for, so she said when she got home again, she would call me. She said she had been wanting to ask me this for a long time. That gave me time to think--is it willpower, or just plain old determination? Maybe, it's some of both? I had to think of how to answer what she asked me. For me, the willpower runs strong and deep. And I don't think of willpower like everyone else does, I don't think. It's tied in with self-discipline, self-control, and a LOT of good old fashion determination. Most people with a goal, or several goals, have willpower. I looked it up, and I liked this explanation the best: ''Willpower is the ability to control your impulses, emotions, and behavior to achieve a goal, often by resisting temptation or enduring difficult situations. It is the self-control and determination to stay focused on a task, even when it's challenging or you're tempted to do otherwise.'' Willpower can be in so many forms. Most often you seem to hear of it concerning habits or foods, people saying they haven't enough willpower to stick to a diet, to give something up such as drugs or smoking or whatever, to control impulse purchases, to save money, to exercise. And some of the things we need willpower to resist are hard to do! Losing weight, giving up something we like or want, etc. The list is endless. But the decision to activate that willpower, and make it work for good, has to come from deep inside of us, if we want it to work. I think willpower is often a form of survival, of determination to see things through and come out on the other side, with positive results. In my case, I went through a few hard life kicks. I could either go down hard, or dive in and climb out. That's what I did, and I am still doing it. Of course, mine is now tied to helping my son get over all of these health issues so he can have a life. Having a strong faith was, for me, paramount in my decision to not go down without a fight. It doesn't make me special. Many people are very determined and have strong willpower in some way or another. I personally think that that saying ''what doesn't kill us makes us stronger'' is OH, so true. Pixabay picture.