When we think of the importance of will power, we can’t help but think of the adage that has been drilled into us — where there is a will, there is a way.
Will power as a quality, wields such a strong influence on the one who possesses it that he/she can stretch boundaries of capability to any extent to achieve the set goal.
What is will power?
It is not surprising that strong will power, therefore is the underpinning characteristic of a successful individual. Visionary leaders, world class athletes, noble laureates, eminent business personalities have all overcome obstacles, handled disappointments and coped with difficulties by virtue of their will power. And eventually, tasted success. How is this much talked about attribute defined?
Will power is the ability to control yourself: Strong determination that allows you to do something difficult; that pushes you to push the envelope.
Early reinforcement
As a quality, will power needs to be exercised and reinforced in early years. Take the example of India’s new pride, Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO. His 92-year-old grandmother, in an interview, recalls Sundar’s deep love for cricket during school days. However, his dream was to do well academically and succeed in life. Hence, he could overpower his love for the game and concentrate on studies, and eventually getting into IIT.
It takes immense will power to break an unhealthy habit. Hence many a new year/birthday resolution to quit smoking, avoid sleeping late, and give up junk food stop at being just desires. It takes will power to turn them into reality. Similarly, being physically fit with regular exercise or developing prudent financial habits through savings are examples of will power and sustained self-control.
The countless hours he spent in net practice during cold mornings while others slept, wrapped in warm blankets, resulted in Sachin Tendulkar emerging as the greatest cricketer of this century. It is no wonder then, that he is called ‘God of Cricket’.
In his bestselling book “Outliers”, popular author Malcom Gladwell repeatedly mentions the “10,000-Hour Rule”. He claims that the key to achieving world class expertise in any skill is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing the correct way — for a minimum of around 10,000 hours. There are a lot of debates in academic circles about this rule and it is for them to come to a conclusion. The key takeaway for us is that sustained practice over a long period of time is a guaranteed route to achieving mastery.
Marshmallow experiment
No discussion on self-control / will power is complete without mentioning the famous Marshmallow experiment. The Marshmallow experiment was a series of studies on delayed gratification in the late 1960s and early 70s, led by Stanford University professor Walter Mischel. In these studies, a child was offered a choice between one small reward provided immediately and two small rewards if the child waited for a short period (approximately 15 minutes), during which time the tester left the room and returned. The reward sometimes was a Marshmallow. As this is a longitudinal study, the researchers did several follow-ups over a period of time and found that children who waited longer for the marshmallows, tended to have better life outcomes as measured by SAT scores in educational attainment or financial strength and independence as well as better health as measured by standard medical tests. A small exercise of will power to resist short-term temptation and instead, achieve a larger goal of long-term reward, has far reaching impact.
Will power, developed by practise, is akin to weight training. You start with doing small weights and incrementally progress to doing rigorous exercises. As they say, Rome was not built in a day.
Perfect training ground
Business school is an excellent training ground for developing this skill. A graduate-level education is closely monitored and supervised by educationists and parents. But at the MBA level, it is mostly self-managed. There is no prescriptive approach and students are expected to make their own choices and own up consequences. In this scenario, strong will power and self-control are extremely important for success. It is important to remember Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous observation: “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect”.
Determination vs. obstinacy
While we maintain that one needs to possess the will power to work around struggles and succeed, we also need to apply discretion to change course if need be, and not go the chosen dogged way in the effort of “not giving up”. Will power, in other words, determination, cannot be confused with obstinacy. In spite of several hours of coaching and long study schedules, if a student has not fared well in say, Math, it does not demonstrate lack of will power but merely that he does not possess numerical intelligence. He probably has other type of intelligence like lingual, kinaesthetic, or spatial. It is good to identify interests as well as strengths, before embarking on the path to success.
When we talk about will power, it is Mahatma Gandhi who comes to our mind. He said, “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
For those who have elevated procrastination to a level of art, it is time to exercise will power to make determination a matter of habit.
Good luck!
To read more from the World of Work section, click here .