Willpower Wizardry: How-to Hack Your Discipline to Stay Fit--Even When You're Lazy

[GIGAJONES]

Full text, images, + Willpower Cheatsheet can be found at: www.gymhackers.com/willpower-wizardry

Back when I weighed 265lbs, I got banned from six flags.The lap bar came down over my legs, and the park attendant’s face dropped. He gave the bar a good push to fit me on, but I knew what was happening. His face had said it all. Then he uttered the magic words…


‘you are unfit to ride this rollercoaster’.

You would think that after that I would’ve gotten in shape. I tried ALL of the programs–paleo, low carb, the ‘Insane’ workout DVDs, and a bunch more. Still–a year later, I had GAINED weight. Ever try to lose and then 6 months later no progress?

What’s the deal?

I knew there had to be a better way than trying a few days and bombing miserably–and discovered a huge problem with most fitness programs.

They tell you what to do (eat these foods, do these exercises), but they don’t tell you how to stick to it for the long haul. And that’s the most important part!

It didn’t matter what diets said I should eat--when McDonald’s is playing puppetmaster with your appetite it doesn’t matter what you ‘know’, you’re getting those fries.

But there’s something you can focus on besides the actual programs. It’s like a pyramid.



Your 6-pack is on top, diet programs are in the middle–but willpower & discipline are the bottom tier. The FOUNDATION! without it, you can’t build on the other levels. And very few programs and magazines will tell you this. It’s not their concern. Once you bought the diet/workout program, they tell you ‘seeya’.

I’m going to show you how to dig into your willpower and supercharge it–using hidden hacks.

So what the heck is willpower?
Ok–so willpower is what we use up when we resist things we’re trying to avoid, but also when we have to do hard things. It all starts in the prefrontal cortex, a piece of your brain that controls the ‘executive decisions’.

The only problem? Willpower is like a battery. Think of your phone. If you’re using it a lot, you might need to plug it in for a charge a few times a day. If you barely use it, it might last a while.

But in today’s hectic world, chance are you’re using your willpower WAAAY more than expected–so you NEED those refuels. Everything you do drains it — forcing yourself out of bed in the morning, doing hard stuff at work or school, or avoiding junk food. Most people start off strong in the morning, but then cave as the day progresses. But when you see it as a battery that gets drained, it makes perfect sense.

Even choosing what to eat for breakfast, or to wear in the morning has an effect. Each thought, decision, and action zaps a little bit more willpower.

President Obama knows this, which is why the leader of the free world only has two suits, something we’ll talk about in a bit.

Willpower Throughout the Day



6 Willpower Hacks: Your ‘Unfair’ Advantage When Getting in Shape
Keeping your willpower consistent throughout the day and refueling will help avoid that crash and burn that most people experience. Here are 6 willpower hacks to jumpstart your discipline, even when you’re feeling lazy.

1. FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT, NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO

Now, most people say ‘I want to exercise more!’

…Do you really? You really want to go to the gym more? I don’t. In reality, what people want is a 6 pack, or to be in shape, or to not feel embarrassed in how they look or when they order ‘bad’ food at a restaurant.

The problem is when you focus on what you trying to do, you lose sight of your end goal.

When in reality, if they thought about how they’d feel when they got in shape, that would be a more powerful motivator. If you lose sight of your end goal, the idea of working out this one time will lose out. See the bigger picture.

Next time you go to the gym, tell yourself that you are going because of your specific reasons and goals. It will make this one session more meaningful

Give yourself a date with a specific goal in mind.

2. Use the Bumper Strategy to Make Your Goals Automatic

I was out bowling and it was a Glow-In-The-Dark themed alley. Couldn’t see much, except the bright pins. So I go up to bowl, and it’s going straight for the gutter–until it hits a bumper that the last person must have left up!

It was too dark in the alley to see before I bowled. First thing I thought–’Some scrub must have left these up!’ Second thing I thought–’Maybe no one will notice if I don’t take them down…’

I realized then, we can use ‘bumpers’ in other places in our lives, like to get in shape or beat procrastination.

For instance, let’s take going to the gym more.

Some ‘bumpers’ you can put in place to help guide you to the goal are:

• Packing your gym bag at night–and placing by your front door so it’s impossible to miss
  Choosing a gym that’s on your route to/from work
  Working out with someone–so you’d be too embarrassed to flake out on them, and vice versa
  Scheduling the time in your calendar with the specific thing you want to do–so instead of saying ‘I’ll workout today’, it becomes ‘I’ll workout today at 3pm to 3:30pm doing these specific exercises’. Having a concrete plan can jump start you into action.

These examples were positive ways to add bumpers to get you to do something hard that you might not want to. Let’s talk about removing things your life to add bumpers to do the right thing.

A popular Youtuber, FouseyTube, was trying to eat better, but ended up eating Pop-Tarts late at night. He said ‘If the Pop-Tarts weren’t in my house, I wouldn’t have eaten them’.

It’s so painfully obvious!

But how many of us lie to ourselves about what we will or won’t do? We convince ourselves at the grocery store that we’ll be fine buying snacks, and we’ll eat them in moderation, but one of two things usually happens:

We end up eating more than we should, sometimes all
We have one and then we are ‘off’ our diets, derailing us for sometimes days, or even weeks.

Here are a few ways you can remove things in your life to keep your sanity

• Junk food in the house — If the Pop-Tarts aren’t there, you can’t eat them. What if you actually lived this idea? How much faster could you get to your goal?
  Vending Machines at Work — I was constantly running to the vending machine at work. A Snickers here, a Reese’s there. What I realized was, I could try everyday to avoid going, or I could remove the temptation entirely. So I broke in my office after hours, and destroyed the machines. Kidding. I actually started leaving any single dollar bills I had in my car. If they weren’t at my desk with me, I thought twice about going out to my car to get them.
  This can apply to anything. If you want to be more productive, but find yourself surfing the web instead of doing what you say you will, you can install a program like Freedom or Anti-Social that blocks out what distracts you the most.

Full text, images, + Willpower Cheatsheet can be found at: www.gymhackers.com/willpower-wizardry