By Chris Parsons
Following routine we are going to begin to shape our will. If you're anything like me, you have struggled for the past week with implementing the routine that we touched on last week. How are we to get ourselves to do something that we just don't want to do? (Workout, Get up early, or Whatever) How can we have the willpower of a character like Batman? Look, I'm not even a fan of the caped-crusader, but I have to tip my hat to anyone who fights alongside godlike characters like Flash, Superman and Wonder Woman. He is basically a regular guy, just like us... What makes him so different? I would argue that it's his will. There are several methods to improve on an individual's will power, but seeing as you're reading this, you're going to get my way. Believe it or not, I have a similar method to the above mentioned Batman.
A crucial element in shaping Batman was fear. Not so much the fact that Bruce Wayne was afraid, but how he dealt with it. Jordan Peterson, a professor and clinical psychologist said "You don't make the world and it's horrors smaller, you make the person and their capacity to deal with horror larger." It's important to think of outcomes that we would like to avoid; truly and deeply observe them. Get a pen and some paper and write down these abysmal horrors and write what you are doing that could inevitably cause them. We want to use this to instill a sense of necessity. It's necessary to avoid this fate therefore it is necessary to take a particular course of action. It's in this way that we will begin to build ourselves up, by building on to and sticking to the routine that we had previously started.
Image by DC comics
This week it is crucial that we continually observe and revisit our fear and failure and see what we can do to improve upon the foundation that we are building.
Stay geeky!