For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:18-25
Human nature does not change, not with time, from one generation to the next, or with place, from culture to culture. Saint Paul affirms this same reality, using a theological language appropriate in his time, that any human person can experience. A new year, a new life or, as the Americans like to say, a new resolution for the New Year is nothing more than good intentions; and of good intentions, as we say in Portugal, hell is paved with them. There is a long way to go from thinking or wishing to actually doing.
How different our lives would be if we could do everything we set out to do: we would not have vices, not to alcohol, tobacco or drugs; we would avoid many diseases because we would not be overweight, we would not eat what tastes good but what does us good, we would exercise regularly, we would meditate more, pray more, spend less, save more money for retirement, we would overcome laziness and not put off to tomorrow what we can really do today.
We would also get along better with others, because we would be more proactive and less reactive. We would not say everything that we are thinking, but would think about everything that we are saying. We would master anger and other instincts so we would be at the service of good and not evil, of the community and not against it. We would be less selfish, because we would realize that in both the short and long term, it is not to our advantage in being selfish or self-centered.
It does not take much intelligence to see that all this would improve our lives, both individually and socially, and we would be happier if we were able to put into practice all these ideas, which are not a utopia, but they can become a reality well within our reach. Where then is the problem that prevents us from putting into practice all our good plans, goals, dreams and desires?
INTELLIGENCE
Within the scope of this article, we view intelligence as the ability to think rationally, seeking information to a given problem and coming to a decision or solution to it.
In this sense, we also understand intelligence in terms of emotional intelligence, the knowledge we have about ourselves, our talents, virtues and faults, and the use we make of our emotions or the balanced management of them.
Where willpower can be dispensed
It is said that Rossini, the famous opera composer, was so indolent, so lazy that while lying in bed one day composing the overture for one of his operas, the paper he was writing on fell to the ground. Rossini, instead of getting up and picking up the paper to continue his work, gave in to laziness and stayed in bed; instead of continuing the work he had already started, he composed a totally new and different one on a new piece of paper!
This story shows that many times a good inspiration accomplishes what hard work and strong willpower cannot. Creativity does not obey willpower, so at least when it comes to creative work, intuition, willpower or motivation is of little help. Willpower and motivation are more capable of helping in logical and deductive work, but not in work where intuition is required. The latter comes when it comes, it does not depend on our will or motivation.
Unconscious decisions
The aim of our study is not in this area, but the one described above, which focuses more on life in general than on a specific profession. To be successful professionally, all three factors are needed and they interact with each other. It is hard for us to see that although we consider ourselves intelligent people, most of our choices are made on autopilot, without any real awareness of what motivated them, and certainly without prior serious reflection of their consequences. To top it all off, most of the time we don’t even realize that we have made this or that choice.
Our free will is somewhat limited, in fact, much more limited than we think. Most of the motivation for our decisions comes from feelings which we are only partially aware of: from repressed emotions, early childhood programming, the way we were raised, dogmas and irrational ideas of which we are not even conscious.
Conscious decisions
Our conscious decisions are made with our alert and conscious mind. Therefore, all healing and improvements in our living conditions begin at this level. This is where we have to take the first step, with a conscious decision that we want to improve our lives by following a proper program. If we see the progression of our life as a creative process, then we can see the mind as the architect of this same project.
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:22-23
It is certain that Jesus is referring to the eye of the mind, that is, to our ability to think logically in a reasonable and plausible way, and to our wisdom and mental openness. Part of our problem can come from our mind and the beliefs which it is addicted to, from prejudices to irrational beliefs. In human beings, action begins in the mind. A fanatic person and a dictator, for example, have a way of thinking and beliefs that are quite different from the rest of us; unfortunately, he acts in a way as to put these beliefs into practice.
Metanoia, the Greek word used in the New Testament to designate conversion, alludes to a change of mind in order to change behaviour; this is in fact, the postulate of cognitive therapy. When we change our minds, we change our attitudes and we change our action. We need, therefore, to identify the ideas that arise in our inner dialogues and confront them with reason, eventually replacing these false ideas or beliefs with true ones.
The power of the mind
Our mind is much more powerful than we think. In the book Remarkable Recovery by Caryle Hirshberg and others, a case is made on the theory of placebo effect. An elderly man was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, and his doctor gave him only three months to live. There was an experimental drug that was available, but he was not a good candidate for it because of the advanced stage of his disease. However, the patient insisted so much that the doctor ended up prescribing it to him outside the ongoing experiments involving this new drug.
In a short time, the cancer shrunk in size and then disappeared altogether. Later this man came to know that at the end of the experiment, the drug was found to be inadequate and that none of the patients who had taken it officially for the study had been cured. Shortly after he found this out, his cancer returned and his condition became as serious as it was in the beginning.
Completely amazed by the experience, the doctor decided to continue it and told his patient that the cancer had returned because he had been given an older version of the drug, and that he would now receive a new drug that would surely work. In fact, the doctor gave him this time an injection of distilled water and the results were baffling, as it had been with the relapse when he found out that the experimental drug was ineffective.
Invoking intuition to solve a problem
We said earlier that intuition arises without warning. But there are also ways we can stimulate or invoke it. Suppose we want to find the answer to a problem. This could be a health problem, the invention of a device or a spiritual issue. We start by finding out any relevant facts or information about the problem, similar to brainstorming. Subsequently, we analyze and examine the different perspectives and ways of seeing the same problem with our rational mind.
In this way, we can identify the central issue, the real core of the problem that requires a solution. This key issue, once found, must be kept in mind, but in the background, without us thinking about it directly. With this attitude, we should go into meditation, that is, without thinking about anything, or better still, sleep on it. Unexpectedly, intuition can bring out to our consciousness the solution to the problem.
Throwing stones at the moon
It is told that in a village there was a boy who every night when he saw the moon, would throw stones at it, while his companions had much closer targets. Of course he never managed to hit the moon with a stone, but it was him who could throw the farthest.
This story reminds us that the mind is elastic, that we can exercise it, and that instead of setting easy and short term goals for ourselves, we should set longer term and more difficult goals. We may not reach it like the boy who never hit the moon with one of his stones, but we will certainly get much farther than if we had settled for a nearer and easier goal, and minimize the risk of not reaching even this one.
WILLPOWER
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” - Mahatma Gandhi
“Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear.” - Dan Millman
Willpower, self-discipline, self-control, and determination are somehow synonyms. What characterizes willpower is the ability to implement the plans, projects and decisions that the mind has made, without being influenced or tempted by natural resistance, laziness, immediate gratifications, rationalizations, procrastinations and other enticements of the mind and of the “law of minimum effort for maximum gain”.
Willpower is the capacity for self-regulation or the regulation of oneself. It is the exercise of freedom and self-determination in the face of undesirable thoughts, feelings and drives as these would throw us off the path that the mind has paved. Willpower is the ability to remain faithful to what one has decided, no matter what happens.
Some psychologists even claim that it is precisely willpower and not intelligence that makes us authentically human as compared to other living beings. Apart from humans, no other living being has the ability to control its own drives, instincts and desires.
Survival has always been a social effort, a teamwork among humans. Group life, in community, demands that each individual be able to control his or her own impulses in order to collaborate with others. To be banished from the group means death; for this reason, over the centuries, through culture, society has exerted a pressure on the individual’s brain for the purpose of developing the capacity for self-reflection, self-criticism and self-control.
Since today’s society and culture exercise less power over the person, he is as a result more individualistic and paradoxically, less free. Theoretically, he should be freer to do whatever he wants, but the lack of self-discipline takes away his freedom to act, and without it, there is no freedom to act effectively. Never before have there been so much substance addictions and such a lack of control over anger with the resulting crimes of domestic violence, sexual promiscuity, resulting in an exponential increase in divorce rate, which in Portugal stands at seventy percent.
“Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die” – The society never had so many parasitic, lazy people without values or principles, for whom living is synonym to being alive. They live superficially, that is, they live to survive, they are alive without any design or plan, and they go from pleasure to pleasure as far as the body can take it.
In traditional society, social pressure was used to train willpower, it was like a gymnasium for it where people learned self-control and self-discipline. The lack of this pressure now leaves children and young people deprived of a good teaching. This false concept of freedom leaves young people to their own devices to face decisions that they are not yet prepared to make and a freedom that they do not have enough training to make good use of, both for their own benefit and the benefit of the society.
Kelly McGonagall, a lecturer at Stanford University, created a course called “The Science of Willpower”. According to her, there are three types of willpower, and each type is located at a different area of the brain’s prefrontal cortex:
• I won’t power – this is the capacity for resisting temptation; it is situated in the right region of the prefrontal cortex.
• I will power – the capacity for doing what intelligence has decided to do; it is situated in the left region of the prefrontal cortex.
• I want power – the recognition of the existence of a long term project; it is located lower in the middle of prefrontal cortex.
As proof of the finding that willpower has a precise location in our brain, most authors quote the case of Phineas Gage who before his work-related accident in 1848 was regarded as a calm and respectable gentleman, disciplined, self-contained and a great worker. On that dreadful day, a large iron rod went through his skull and completely destroyed his prefrontal cortex, surprisingly he did not die, but he became a completely different person – undisciplined, impulsive, impatient...
Growing in willpower
It is not clear if it is possible to grow in intelligence, but it is certainly possible to grow in willpower. Growing in willpower brings benefits to all areas and aspects of our lives. Self-control is the greatest of all empires, says a popular expression. A person who has self-control is healthier and happier, and the relationships he establishes with others are more secure and true. He is more successful professionally, emotionally and in family life, and he is more faithful to his commitments and true to his word.
Willpower can be trained, and we can make it grow. Just as one can learn to play the piano by playing it, the frequent practice of small acts that require willpower will increase it. Willpower is like a muscle that can be worked out, the more we exercise it the stronger it becomes. Let us look at some of these strengthening practices:
Delaying gratifications
“Watch what you eat, not what you do” – Portuguese proverb.
The psychic ability to postpone gratification or pleasure that one feels in having one’s needs met is an exercise that can increase one’s willpower, as the classic Marshmallow Test shows.
A number of preschoolers between the ages of 4 and 5 were each given the choice to eat one marshmallow right away or two marshmallows if they waited 15 minutes without eating the first one. Years later, following the path of these children, the research team found that the children who waited 15 minutes for the second marshmallow without eating the first one were generally more successful in life, scoring higher in SAT’s and had lower body mass index (BMI), than those who could not postpone gratification.
We are no longer children, but we can still practice similar exercises in our daily lives, and even use gratification as a reward for doing what we set out to do. For example, I feel like eating a piece of chocolate right now, but I won’t do it until I have finished writing this article. Many exercises of this kind will certainly end up strengthening our willpower: this increases our self-control and self-discipline, and finally, our self-esteem.
Meditation
To grow in willpower, we need to strengthen our interior world, strengthen the ‘I’. Meditation or prayer digs a void inside of us, as Pope Benedict XVI says. This emptiness is occupied by God, of course, but also by ourselves because God is, according to Saint Augustine, intimior intimo meo, that is, God is within us beyond our inner selves. So, meditation makes me know myself better, to know my talents and my weaknesses.
Advancements in neuroscience have shown that meditation strengthens the dorsal-lateral zone of the prefrontal cortex of the brain where willpower is located. Through meditation, we become more aware of our inner dialogues so we can differentiate the voice of laziness, minimum effort, or immediate gratification, and seek to divorce ourselves from it in order to identify with the positive and ideal voices.
Why does meditation make us grow in willpower? Because its practice increases the blood flow in the prefrontal cortex of our brain. In other words, the brain adapts to meditation in the same way that the muscle adapts to physical exercise. If the latter makes us gain more muscle mass in our legs, arms and chest, meditation makes the brain gain more neuronal connections.
Every time we overcome a temptation and triumph over the voices of weak willpower, we are strengthening it. The opposite is also true: each time we succumb to one of those negative voices, we become weaker. The prefrontal cortex is the zone in our brain that has grown the most in size and volume with evolution. Robert Sapolsky, an American neuroendocrinologist at Stanford University, believes that the function of this part of the brain is to encourage us to do what costs us the most but brings us the most benefits in the long run.
The way to meditate is simple: sit comfortably in a chair with your spine straight, close your eyes or have them half closed to avoid falling asleep. Focus on breathing, feel the air entering and leaving your nostrils, bronchi and lungs. Sweep the mind clean of all thoughts, whenever a thought tries to come in, invite it to leave, stop the thought the moment you become aware that your attention has wandered off from your breathing, and became attached to a thought. This seems difficult to do, but with time you’ll get there; it’s enough to start with 5 minutes a day, increasing gradually as you begin to notice results.
Fasting
Christians used to fast twice a week, nowadays they fast twice a year. This was a very important practice of self-control. In Ethiopia, this is still observed; in fact, as a people, they demonstrate much more self-control over their behaviour than us. We know from the Bible that Esau sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of lentil soup because he could not resist his hunger after coming in from working in the field. When you can say no to the food needed to survive, then you can say no to any substance that can take away your freedom.
In fact, in my years in Ethiopia, I marveled at the self-control of this people, at their self-control over all impulses, especially anger. They assumed that because we were priests, we too exercised this same self-control over ourselves and did not understand how a priest could not manage to fast, and understood even less how a priest could be addicted to alcohol and tobacco.
Exercise
Above all, running increases willpower and self-control, reduces stress, and keeps the mind more alert. I have noticed over the years that most of my ideas come to my mind while I am running. When I am stuck and don’t know how to continue a text, I go running and in the course of running, many times ideas flow into my mind like a spring. The problem is remembering them later, upon returning from the run.
Running in itself is an exercise in willpower because when one starts running, while the body and the cardiovascular and respiratory system have not yet become used to the new rhythm, one experiences what I call a false tiredness with a corresponding temptation to give up.
If a person stops, he can no longer run again afterwards; but if he resists this temptation to stop, he will get a point where the body becomes used to it and he can run without tiring; at that point, he feels he could run to the end of the world. Of course, after a few kilometers, the real tiredness appears, not in the breathing, but in the general lack of energy. The feeling of well-being after running is well worth the effort spent on it.
MOTIVATION
“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world” – Archimedes
Archimedes used this expression about force to praise the principle of the lever and not to boast about his physical strength. We all had this experience and we have certainly seen, for example, a construction worker lift a stone with the aid of a lever. The longer the lever or the further away from the stone we apply the force, the easier it is to lift the stone.
Motivation actually functions in our psyche like a lever, because it turns difficult tasks into easy ones, the impossible into the possible. It inspires our intelligence, it gathers our strength, motivates our action, and draws strength from weakness. Motivation gives constancy to willpower when it is about to succumb to adversity.
Of the three factors – intelligence, willpower and motivation – the latter is the most difficult to define. It has something to do with intelligence since it refers to a goal that the intellect has defined, programmed and decided upon, although it does not have the same nature as intelligence.
On the other hand, it also has something to do with willpower, since it is motivation that seizes the willpower and gives it a meaning and direction, and commands it in some way. However, in itself, motivation is not willpower nor is willpower motivation.
We have studied earlier that combustion has three components: fuel, oxidizer and igniter. We can use these three components as a comparison or metaphor for the components of success to explain the mechanics of our action, the fuel is represented by intelligence, the oxidizer by willpower the igniter by motivation.
Intelligence – It is the fuel, since it is the one that provides us with the raw material, the reason for our struggle, the motive for our battle. This is what decides where to apply the willpower, the project to follow, it draws the plan for action; it is the architect.
Willpower – It is the oxidizer, the oxygen that all combustion needs to take place: if the oxidizer is missing, even if there is plenty of fuel, the fire will be extinguished. Willpower is the engineer who is in constant contact with the architect and puts into action the architect’s plans.
Motivation – It is the igniter, it is what sets everything into motion, it is the spark, the fire and like it, it mysteriously appears and disappears. It is summoned and dismissed; in some way, motivation commands both intelligence and willpower, and is likely the most determining factor of the process, because it unites intelligence and willpower, and placed in the middle of the two it guides and maneuvers them.
We take as an example the worker who dislikes the night shift, but goes to work every night anyway because he can earn more money this way so that his children can have a higher education and a better life. The intelligence has decided, based on the salary that he will earn and on what he can do with that extra money; the willpower is what makes him get up every day at odd hours, what moves him and makes him endure all kinds of sacrifices; but the main reason is his love for his children, and this is the motivation that encourages intelligence to find solutions and seizes the willpower to perform a task.
We also have Hollywood movies that start with a horrible crime being committed against someone – a policeman who is left without a wife and children, killed by a gang. The rest of the film shows the revenge that this man carries out by killing each and every one of those who participated in that crime.
There are many hardships and sacrifices that require great willpower; it also takes a lot of mental work to plan to the smallest detail how to catch each one of the criminals, to set the mousetraps. But all this is nothing without the motivation, the thirst for revenge for the death of his wife and children: this thirst for vengeance is the spark that keeps him focused on the plan, no matter the cost.
I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. Psalm 119:113 – In life, the one who triumphs the most is not the one with the most willpower, or the most intelligent, but the one who has the greater motivation. The latter works in our lives like Archimedes’ lever, it makes the circle a square, or the square a circle, or the impossible possible, turns difficulties into ease, and makes ideals feasible, dreams a reality, and utopias plausible.
No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62 – A motivated person stays focused on his goal, like the donkey with a carrot in front of him, and almost like an obsessed robot, he does not look either to the right or to the left, he is fixated on the goal and does not get distracted by anything; failure is not an option, it is not a possibility.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. Psalm 91:7 – The motivated person possesses great courage, does not fear taking risk, does not think twice about it, does not let himself be influenced or tempted by the environment, however adverse it may be. His motivation comes from within, only he has it, only he know it, it is what makes him go on, oblivious to the hardships along the path.
To want is to be able, no pain no gain – The wish or the desire is the motivation, to be able is the intelligence that devices the plan, the willpower is the price, what this plan will cost, it is the cost of the operation. Using the human paradigm described in an earlier article, intelligence makes us aware that we are living in an Egypt and devices a departure plan; the desert is the willpower, and the Promised Land is the motivation.
The one who is more motivated triumphs over the one who has more willpower or intelligence. The stronger the motivation, the greater the chance of success. The same cannot be said of intelligence and willpower. An unmotivated person is like a dead body, without the spirit that gives it life.
As the word itself indicates, motivation is what makes one move, it is the motive, the reason, the factor that binds the other two. Therefore, some authors understand that the engine for action is not intelligence or willpower, but motivation which kicks off every type of action.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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