Most people know what they should do to create the life for themselves they want. Sadly, most people don’t do what they feel they should. They do what’s easy.

People who want to lose weight keep eating chocolate cake. People who want to build muscle skip going to the gym. People who want to manage their time better still indulge in wasting time.

Sound familiar?

A necessary ingredient to improving your life is being able to choose to do what you think you should when your emotions say otherwise–to skip the chocolate cake, go to the gym, and do the important non-urgent task, in the examples above.

You need willpower to do that. This series describes willpower and how to use it. As the next post shows, overwhelming research shows how skill with willpower correlates with success.

• Willpower, part 0: The value of willpower
• Willpower, part I: what is it, when to use it, and how
• Willpower, part II: what it is
• Willpower, part III: when not to use it
• Willpower, part IV: when to use it
• Willpower, part V: how to use it
• Willpower, part VI: examples
• Willpower, part VII: what to do with your old motivations
• Willpower, part VIII: images of temptation
• Willpower, part 9: an image of how to use willpower

• ← Eisenhower, D-Day, and keeping teams strong while making hard choices
• After a difficult decision affecting your team: Eisenhower and the paratroopers before D-day →