Willpower Archives — NIMBLE FOUNDATION BLOG

Five Ways to Break 10 Bad Habits

Bad Habits
Nearly everyone has a bad habit that they should break. Some people have less than others and some people’s bad habits are more grating than those of others. Bad habits like excessive drinking, smoking, biting the fingernails, etc., starts slowly and gradually. They jeopardize your health — both physically and mentally thereby wasting your time and energy.
Bad habits are hard to give up, they are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out off. However, you can achieve anything with the right amount of willpower and a realistic plan of action. With persistence and right mind-sets, it’s possible to break your bad habits.
Here are some ideas for breaking your bad habits
1. Change one thing at a time
It is most important that you don’t try to break all your bad habits, at once. You’re not a superhuman and trying to quit all your bad habits at the same time is probably going to be hard to achieve. Instead, prioritize and choose the habit that you need to change most urgently and then focus on that accordingly.
2. Prepare for weak moments
A positive mindset is significant but if you’re not prepared for those weak moments this can be a biggest mistake. Try to remove temptations as that can help you prepare for those weak moments. For instance, clear the cupboards of junk food, keep some distance from friends who encourage you to smoke/ drink and avoid stressful situations.
3. Set regular reminders
Bad habits are often so deeply ingrained in us that sometimes they can catch us unexpectedly. To help prevent those accidental slip-ups, try setting yourself regular reminders to resist those bag habits.
4. Reward your success
The key to breaking bad habits is to make the process as rewarding and enjoyable, as possible. If you are facing difficulty focusing on the long-term benefits of breaking bad habits, then arrange small rewards for yourself as you go along to help keep you motivated.
5. Remind yourself why you’re breaking those habits
In order to successfully break a bad habit, you have to be sure of your reason for breaking those habits. Find a solid reason for breaking your habit that really means something to you – such as improving your health, relationship or appearance – and keep your goal in sight. This will help you to carry on and stay strong in moments of weakness.
10 habits you must quit to be happy
When you quit doing the bad things, you make more room for the things that make you happy. Aristotle, a great philosopher once said, “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit”. However, here are 10 habits that you need to give up in exchange for your happiness.

Quit procrastinating on your goals
Quit talking down to yourself
Quit blaming others and making excuses
Quit trying to control the uncontrollable
Quit criticizing others
Quit trying to avoid change
Quit running from your problems and fears
Quit trying to be someone you’re not
Quit living in another time and place
Quit being ungrateful

Thanks for reading.

Four Factual Feature of WILLPOWER

A Chinese Proverb says “Great Souls have wills ; feeble ones have only wishes .”
What exactly is meant by the word willpower or ‘will’?
Willpower is the ability of a person to decide and execute the course of action in detail to fulfill one’s wishes. It is the strong determination by which a person continuously strives to achieve one’s goals with dedication, especially, when caught in difficult times.
Psychologists have also termed this mysterious phenomenon called willpower as self control exerted to shrug off the inner resistance in the form of discomfort or laziness in order to hit the long term targets. Lack of strong willpower is one of the reasons for failure. Whether it is the goal to reduce weight , to quit smoking or to complete an arduous project, stupendous willpower is the key secret to achieve it!
The beauty of willpower is that one can work over it and increase it with a resolve. Let us see the essentials required behind cultivating and developing a strong willpower.

Clarity of Thought : Clear thinking is vital for setting specific goals in life. When we know our particular destination and our purpose to reach there is well defined, we chalk out a plan accordingly. Without clarity of thoughts, we tend to get diverted as we have no focus and are devoid of specific goal.

Napoleon Hill – There is one quality that one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants ,a nd a burning desire to possess it.

Discipline : “ It is fatal to enter any war without the ‘will’ to win it” -Douglas Macarthur

In order to cultivate a seed of willpower and to develop it further, it needs to be supplemented with the essential power of self discipline. Self Discipline is the strength to work towards one’s goals with perseverance and tolerance in order to accomplish those. Without self discipline one tends to give up to the temptations, inconvenience, hardships or obstacles which may come in the way to achieve your goals.

Strong desire : “Strong desire is the starting point of any achievement.”

Any successful accomplishment stems from the strong desire . Strong desire to fulfill one’s mission manifests itself into a disciplined plan and approach to achieve it. It increases one’s willpower to achieve one’s dream and fulfill wishes. The wishes remain wishes if not backed up with the fire of strong desire.

Great Emotional Intelligence : Emotionally intelligent people don’t lose course of action even in phase of extremely challenging circumstances. They are focused and thus, the willpower to achieve goals increases. They respond to the hurdles, obstacles and the difficult times in the same way as if there aren’t any. Emotional intelligence enables one to think logically when one encounters a pressure cooker type situation.It doesn’t let the odds interfere in your way towards success. Thus, with a great emotional intelligence one is always power packed with strong willpower . Success, then, is certainty.

James Gordon has quoted “ Its not that some people have willpower and some don’t . It is that some people are ready to change and others are not”.
Indeed! Willpower is a by -product of how much one can change oneself .
Your willpower is like a muscle. When you use it , it gets stronger. It is a habit when inculcated can lead to several success stories and vice versa. Every success story is an expression of strong willpower.
Henry Ford, who is known for his one of the successful car brands in the world , could achieve so given his firm grit and willpower.
Now let us see how strong willpower is a boon for a person.

It enables strong perseverance:- It enables one to continue the needful course of action decided upon at the beginning of the mission. Most importantly during difficult times. Persevering the goal is crucial to attain it.
It increases the focus:- With Strong willpower comes the focused attitude. One sticks to the plan even in case of odd circumstances. It is wise to starve your distractions and to feed your focus. With great focus comes a accomplishment.
It wards off the hesitations and the doubts if any:- When the willpower is augmented one tends to visualize the goal and hence there is no space left for the hesitations and doubts.
It enables to take calculated risks:- When one is backed with strong willpower, one takes calculated risk.

” If you risk nothing, then you risk everything”. -Geena Davis

It is the most essential ingredient to the most successful life:- With a strong and

positive willpower one can move mountains. But without the same one is helpless.
So, give the bird of wishes , the wings of magnificent willpower . You will definitely visualize the success soaring high.
Thank of Reading.

May I invite your comments on my forthcoming book?

Introduction
“Life is a race. If you don’t run fast, you will be trampled”!
Yes! Indeed, once one starts toddling or even before that the race begins and one keeps wondering “What made me lose and the other one win, the same race?”One questions oneself amidst the darkest deep nights until one gets no answer and finally blames it up to the destiny. One often becomes uncomfortable when one thinks about the failures one had especially when one doesn’t get valid reasons for the same.
But we tend to forget these monologues – thanks to the mundane activities of one’s life. But if we dig deeper, the exercise has the power to take us closer to the solutions. This book aims to give you an insight into life which is a mixture of ups and downs, failures and successes. Once we understand this and accept the reality, it no longer remains a jigsaw puzzle. Life is journey. All our goals are but milestones, and we need to enjoy the journey.
At a certain stage of life, one tends to compare oneself with others. It is indeed a natural tendency wherein one often measures one’s success, joy or happiness by comparing these with those of others’. And then confronts a battery of questions like below:-
“Why am I not rich like him? Though we studied together and are best friends how come he/she has achieved what I could just think of? What makes him/her so very desirable? In short, one tends to become jealous of other’s success. Jealousy, certainly, is best avoided but if nailed properly could give us the desired results like success, happiness, prosperity and also peace of mind.
Through this book, I have tried to help the reader understand themselves better to ward off various negative influences and personality development needs. These hinder your chances to succeed. The book addresses the personality issues, and shows the path towards improvement. It will help to elevate your self confidence to an untapped level.
The book also throws light on important habits, skills and behavioral traits which successful people possess and practice. The contents have been divided into following chapters.

Attitude:

“A bad attitude is like a flat tyre! If you don’t change it, you will never reach anywhere”!
Attitude defines the major part of your personality. It makes you who you are. It is the way you respond to what you face in your life. Thus, a positive person seeks opportunities in the various hurdles he/she encounters whereas a negative person finds faults with every situation. This book will help you identify your attitude and learn the ways to correct the flaws by adopting certain procedures.

Communication:

Today’s world is a shrunken world. Globalization has brought us closer but you should have a knack of able communication with the world around you. Both, verbal and written communication skills are a must you to understand others and to express yourself effectively. This book aims primarily at pointing whether you lack these skills and, if yes, the various ways to improve on these. We, also, look forward to hone your existing communication skills through this book.

Interpersonal skills: – Man is a social animal. We continuously interact with the family, colleagues, friends and society around us. We have to work with those around and seek harmonious relations with all. Interpersonal skills come into the picture when we need to build and maintain cordial relations with the society. Through this book we take you to the various methods which would help you imbibe the necessary interpersonal skills.

Continuous Improvement: – Stagnation doesn’t breed success! Is it not true? Today’s fast changing world demands dynamic people who keep abreast of latest information and the changing advanced technology. Successful people, often, have a quest to explore more, learn more and thereby, pursue excellence. But one cant be directionless in exploration. This book is a must have guide so that you know what are you heading towards.

Willpower: – Willpower is the strongest virtue which successful people possess and which helps them achieve distinguished success. It is the ability to perform consistently under the testing times and the ability to withstand the difficulties. Willpower, alone, often defines one’s success. This book sheds light on the way to focus your physical, mental and intellectual energies and to build strong willpower. Success, then, is just a few steps away with strong willpower.

6) Habits: – Power of good habits are vital to success. The book intends to inculcate all the basic formal good habits like humility, understanding, and empathy for others. It will also help you develop a sense of humor which is a rare trait these days. This book will enable you to enhance your self esteem be the best of yourself.

Time management: – Time and Tide wait for none. This might sound a cliché, but it is the hardcore truth. One needs to effectively manage this very resource which is equally distributed to everyone on this planet. This book will hold your hands and guide you to use time in the best possible manner.

How to use this book?
Well, before using this book one needs to have undergone a self analysis. An analysis helps in the long way to identify one’s strengths and weaknesses. One needs to retrospect about the successful times and identify what contributed to those distinguished events. Was it your sheer talent, initiative or a group effort? Once you get answers to this question, ask yourself again whether you still use those elements in your endeavors? If you encounter a negative answer, ask yourself again “Why not?”After all why should happy history not repeat itself?
It is equally important to ponder over the failures of life as it is to dwell over success. Failures are the major lessons to be learnt in life. Ask yourself,” When did I fail and Why?” Is it because of some shortcomings? If the answer is yes, note down the shortcomings and counter them with the methods in this book.
This book can be used as a reference manual for developing a desirable and successful personality. Of course, you need to answer all the questions tabulated in the self assessment form.
Happy personality development ahead!

Four formidable pillars of success

It is often said,” Nothing succeeds like success!” It is indeed the truth. Once you are successful there is no looking back. Many success stories are a testimony to this statement.The success story of Steve Jobs who was fired from his own firm is one to get inspired from.Stories like this have inspired us and keep motivating us to achieve success. We all desire success. Who wants to fail? We all have dreams and wish our dreams could come true. We often wonder ,” What will make me successful in my endeavor”?
Well, we here discuss the mantra for SUCCESS.
There are four formidable pillars wherein lies the foundation of success viz. courage, desire, direction and hard work. All these four essentials pave the way to success and work in cohesion to make your dreams come true. Remember success is never an accident. But it is a choice which one constantly makes. The choice of emotions, feelings, attitude and above all a discipline which one practises everyday until he meets success.
“You are the masterpiece
of your own life.
You are the Michelangelo
of your own life.
The David you are sculpturing
is you
(Dr. Joe Vitale)” This is the quote from a famous book ” The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne.
Definitely who else can turn your fate towards success? It is only one, who has to be successful, should work out courageously in his life to realize his dream and his desires with relentless hard work in a particular direction. This, alone, could turn the tables to success. No one else can be held responsible for a failure and no one else can enjoy the sweet success than the one striving hard for it.
Let us discuss these “must haves ” which can lay a strong foundation for success as one can’t buy success- It needs to be built!
1) Courage:- ” Courage is not the absence of fear but the acquired ability to move beyond fear.”
Courage is the ability to take up what sets you on fire. Courage is to pursue one’s passion and attain success. But many times the fear of failure takes one away from following one’s passionate dreams.
As the quote by Marc Anthony goes,” If you love what you do, you will never work for a day in your life! When you work for something you love, you tend to put heart and soul into it and the result is a fruitful outcome. So why not be courageous enough to achieve success by doing what you love? Michael Jordan , renowned Basketball player is the leading example of courage. He was courageous enough to pursue his dream of being a football player in spite of several failures..
Indeed, courageous terrains are the risky ones. But it is often said,” No risk is the biggest risk”. One needs to take calculated risks and foresee hindrances while one takes the path of courageous behavior.
Take up your passion as an adventure and go ahead with the well chalked out plan to achieve success without any delay!
It is true that Success is not final and failure is not fatal. So what is that differentiates between the two? Well, it is a continuous courage one possesses to overcome the failures and to convert those into success which really counts.
2)Desire- “ A desire is the starting point of all achievements, not a hope,not a wish but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.”….Napoleon Hill
Indeed, one has innumerable desires throughout one’s life but to realize those desires one needs to work hard in a certain direction. If one desires something quite passionately, one finds a way and is ready to work hard to achieve it with commitment and dedication. If the desire is weak, one often ends up with an excuse. Many people desire to be millionaire, and many others to be a film actor. But why all of them can’t fulfill their desires while only a few carve their niche?
Well, one needs to have strong willpower in order to support the equally strong desire.
For eg:- If one fat person wants to lose his extra pounds, he should wilfully exercise and control his diet, or sweet tooth. Thus, exercising and controlling his dietary habits are entirely dependent on his willpower.
It is often thought that the desire is a product of will but rather its converse is true. Will is a product of desire. The more your desire to attain some height, or achieve something in life the more is your will to help achieve it.
Thus, we can also say that the distance between the success and failure is measured by power of one’s desires. A person who has unsuppressable desire is sure to walk the distance towards success sooner when compared to the one less desirous. This also leads to the fact that the stronger the desire the sooner the achievement. One should always dig into one’s desires and build a strong will to materialize the same.
Bill Gates has been desirous of the success his company enjoys today. Nothing can be achieved without a strong desire.
Let us now come to the most important of all the pillars:-
3) Hard Work:- For All your days prepare
   And meet them ever alike
   When you are the anvil, bear-
   When you are the hammer, strike!
                                                                                                                            ….Wings of fire by Dr A.P.J
The power of hard work can never be underestimated. Hard work always bears sweet success. There are proven stories which lead to the fact that determined hard work never gets unrecognized. Consistency in hard work leads to the sure destiny of success. There is no elevator to success and thus, one needs to climb the stairs. One should not only work hard but one should work in silence and let the success roar, eventually.
Hard work goes hand in hand with patience. One has to be patient enough to enjoy the success after one’s hard work. The best example is of the farmer. Farming is no joke. One has to toil hard to sow the seeds in the fields and be patient enough to reap the harvest. The crop doesn’t grow in a single day but takes its own time. The seeds of hard work needs to be nurtured with patient care.
It is nothing but disciplined hard work throughout the years which has produced the stalwart legends like Abraham Lincoln or Nelson Mandela . It may be asked whether hard work guarantees success! It might not guarantee success but it helps in improving the chances towards success. It is often said that if hard work becomes one’s weapon then success is bound to be one’s slave.
One might encounter bad luck or bad moments in life but relentless hard work works as a alchemist which transforms into great success.
The Indian freedom Struggle led by M K Gandhi is a testimony of his hard work towards achieving independence.
And we now come to fourth pillar of ensuring success:-
4) Direction:- Direction of efforts plays an important role when striving to achieve success. Hard work should always be accompanied with right direction. Remember :-Hard work without correct direction leads nowhere.
Swami Vivekanand was guided by Saint Ramakrishna in his pursuit of higher self. A mentor is the one who provides for the correct direction and guidance so that one often reaches one’s goals without wasting time in futile ways. When one desires of something one needs to specifically chart out the plan, detail in the timeline within which one needs to achieve it and finally search out for a mentor who can guide accurately guide him onto the path of success.
Dr A P J has rightly quoted in his book Wings of fire
” When the student is ready, the teacher will appear!” With mere talent one can’t dream to achieve success. One has to get the ship guided in the proper direction else it will be drowned or may not reach its successful destination.
Acquiring success is not so difficult. It is merely when your desire meets a courageous and well-directed hard work that leads to success. Success is 99% perspiration and 1 % inspiration. Success comes to those who believe in the power of their dreams and desires. These people work hard towards achieving those desires with relentless conviction, dedication and discipline even at the cost of risking their lives. No denying the fact that hard work is indeed a two way street. You get back what exactly you have put in!!

Introduction to the forthcoming Self-help Book: ‘PowerPacked Personality’

Yes! Indeed, once you start working or even before that the race begins and you keep wondering “What made me lose and the other one win, the same race?” You question yourself amidst the darkest deep nights but get no answer. And finally you create one. You blame your destiny. This is the only way to find comfort.
One often becomes uncomfortable when one thinks about the failures one had. No one likes to own the responsibility especially of the failed endeavor. One tends to forget these unhappy monologues; thanks to the mundane activities of life.
But these monologues if dug deeper, have the power to take us closer to the real answers we seek. This book is aimed at giving you an insight into your life, its challenges and the answers you desperately want to find out. If the principles propounded are followed in true spirit, life will be no longer an irritating jigsaw puzzle but an enjoyable and successful journey.
Though comparison is odious, yet at a certain stage of life, one tends to compare oneself with others. It is indeed a natural tendency to measure one’s success, joy or happiness. And then the person confronts a battery of questions like: “Why am I not rich like him? Though we studied together and were best friends? Once close buddies, why am I shy of even reaching out to him? How come he/she has achieved what I could just not think of? What makes her so very desirable?
In short, one tends to become jealous of others’ success. Jealousy, certainly, is best avoided but if dealt properly could give us the desired drive that will take us to our desired destination, our sought after goals. Success, prosperity, peace of mind and happiness just follow.
This book will help you understand yourself, leverage all natural human emotions through simple step-by-step forward movement. Simplicity of understanding and ease to follow practices and procedures are the principal features of this book.
The book will work as a reference manual describing how to handle difficult situations. It could work as a catalyst to bring out of the shell and make your existence as lively and as colorful as that of a butterfly.
Further, the book addresses the other personality issues that keep you away from achieving the success you always dreamt. It shows the path towards improvement and elevates your self-confidence to an untapped level. The book throws light on most of the important skill set and behavioral traits which successful people possess as listed below:
1) Positive Attitude: “A negative attitude is like a flat tyre! If you don’t change it, you will never reach anywhere!” Attitude defines the major part of your personality. It makes you who you are. It is the way you respond to what you face in life. Thus, a positive person seeks opportunities in the challenges they encounter whereas a negative person finds faults with the situations or the people.
This book will help you identify your attitude and help you learn the ways to correct the flaws adopting certain simple procedures to be followed consistently.
2) Effective Communication: Today’s world is a shrunken world. Globalization has brought us closer. Good Communications has become more important than ever before. Both, verbal and written communication skills are critical to understand others and to express yourself effectively. This book is your guide to develop these skills. Simple exercises easy to follow offer you powerful technique to improve on these. There is no limit to improvement.
3) Interpersonal skills: We continuously interact with the family, colleagues, friends and society. We have to work with those around and maintain harmonious relations. Good interpersonal skills are, therefore, crucial to our success and happiness. Through this book we take you through the various methods which would help you imbibe the necessary interpersonal skills.
4) Continuous Improvement: Stagnation doesn’t breed success! Today’s fast changing world demands dynamic people who keep abreast of latest information and the changing advanced technology. Successful people have a quest to explore more, learn more and thereby, pursue excellence. But one can’t be directionless in exploration.
This book provides you a direction. It can act as a personal guide so that you know what are you heading towards.
5) Willpower: Willpower is the strongest virtue which successful people possess and which helps them achieve distinguished success. It is the ability to perform consistently under the testing times and the ability to withstand the difficulties. Willpower, alone, often defines one’s success. This book sheds light on the way to focus your physical, mental and intellectual energies and to build strong willpower. Success, then, is just a few steps away with strong willpower.
6) Habits: Power of good habits are vitals to success. The book intends to inculcate all the basic formal good habits like humility, understanding, empathy for others. It will also help you develop a sense of humor which is a rare trait these days. This book will enable you to be the best of yourself.
7) Time management:- Time and Tide wait for none. This might sound a cliche but it is the hardcore truth. One needs to effectively manage this very resource which is equally distributed to everyone on this planet. This book will hold your hands and guide you to use time in the best possible manner.
How does one use this book?
Well, before using this book one needs to have undergone a self analysis. An analysis helps in the long way to identify one’s strengths and weaknesses. One needs to retrospect about the successful times and identify what contributed to those magnanimous events. Was it your sheer talent, initiative or a group effort? Once you get answers to this question, ask yourself again whether you still use those elements in your endeavors? If you encounter a negative answer, ask yourself again “Why not?”After all history repeats itself.
It is equally important to ponder over the failures of life as it is to dwell over success. Failures are the major lessons to be learnt in life. Ask yourself, –
“When did I fail and Why?”
“Is it because of my shortcomings?”
If the answer is yes, note down the shortcomings and counter them with the methods in this book.
This book can be used as a reference material for developing a desirable and successful personality once you have done with the self questionnaire presented above. Happy personality development ahead!