There is a stark difference between resilience and willpower.
And if you know how to use both: you will be on the right path to self-mastery and success.
So what’s the difference?
Let’s start with willpower.
Willpower is a reaction.
It’s a reflex we can’t control.
It shows up in dire circumstances.
And when those circumstances dampen? It disappears.
For example, we go to the gym and we quit or set halfway through because it feels really uncomfortable.
Or we hit snooze when we actually want to get up.
On the one hand…
When the circumstance suits and it gets us to follow through on an action in the short term, something that might align with our long term goals…
Willpower works.
But most of the time, it’s rolling the dice.
Sometimes it lands.
Most of the time, it doesn’t.
Because it relies more on the external circumstance.
We don’t have control over what our reflex chose for us.
So this begs the question:
If willpower, although a short-term tool, is not effective long term, what is?
The skill that we’re developing…
One that stays with the body:
Resilience.
Resilience is our capacity to stay with things that are really heightened – not unsafe, but safe enough.
Or things that are a little bit uncomfortable or things that feel quite heavy.
So how do we manage these two?
We don’t react to the reflex (willpower). We regulate it.
It’s still an important tool.
A mechanism for safety.
It’s there as a response to and a solution for a threat.
So how do we regulate willpower?
How can we master resilience?
The major skill behind this is interoception & self-soothing.
It’s one of the things we practice in the Sports Model Project.
It’s our ability to notice internally when a reflex is showing up and stay with it until it settles.
It’s our ability to notice externally the resources we have to support us through feeling of emergency.
You can learn these too.
Our heart coach @tigerandthemonk will guide you through his Mindfulness project so you can stay connected to your own experience.
You will also learn to regulate your system, and have a deeper sense of unity and compassion with yourself, with your spirit, with your vision through the guidance of our neuroscientist @michelle_baty.
Would you like some help?
SMP is only for the hardest worker in the room.
Love and light,
SMP Coaching Team
