A Crash Course In Will Power Economics

Will power is an idea that is commonly brought up during nofap activities especially when talking about relapses. What if someone had more will power, then they wouldn't relapse, right? That idea is partially correct, but will power or a lack of will power is not going to produce a relapse by itself.

What is will power exactly? Starting with the first word, "will" is the intent to achieve a goal or purpose. Will power is an important piece of the process. The word "power" and what it refers to is energy, the fuel that makes the engine run.

Will power had three important components:

- Production
- Application
- Waste​

You can think of will power like it's money. Imagine your goals as houses, cars, boats, or clothes (if that's not what they are). If you save up enough money you can buy a car or a house. It is also easier to buy expensive things if you make money faster and the same concept applies to will power.

The way will power is produced varies from person to person but not by a lot. The main sources of will power are food, rest, and activity. Will power is a lot like physical energy, the more you use it the more you can get back. If will power is overused it can result in physical ailments or illness, emotional and mental breakdowns, and in some cases crippling trauma or death. This idea may be shocking, it is accurate and very real. Will power is the secret sauce that powers successful CEOs, bigtime celebrities, as well as any and all occult practices (if you're interested in the subject, privilege is another factor but we will not dive into the subject here because it does not aid in addiction recovery).

How will power is applied determines the efficiency of ones' will or intent. For example, if you are trying to avoid watching porn and decide to cut out all your screen time (phone, tv, computer) you will likely spend a considerable amount of will power especially if you use electronics a lot. Anyone in recovery either on Nofap, NA or AA (Narcotics anonymous and Alcoholics anonymous) can tell you that quitting multiple habits at the same time is extremely difficult. An alternative that can spend less will power is substitution. You can substitute porn for something else you enjoy like reading, walking, listening to music, playing music, drawing, cooking, making pottery, writing, writing music, singing, exercising, hackeysack, soccer, football, tennis, gymnastics, mathematics, anatomy, philosophy, cleaning your community, tidying up around the house, decorating your house, writing about will power. Bottom line there are a lot of things you can do instead of what you are trying not to. The more you enjoy the things you are substituting for the activity that is being quit the less will power you will use to quit. There is much more to will power than the decisions we know we are making.

People are complex. You are complicated. We make hundreds of thousands of decisions a day and we don't know it, not really. Babies took months to learn to walk. Think of walking on a busy city street watching out for people and cars, driving on the highway, working a cash register, making a sandwich. These basic tasks can involve thousands of decisions especially when multitasking, tiny adjustments you don't even notice. Without these countless little choices we would not be able to function. The reason we don't notice them is skill. The more you practice a task the less energy you will need and your ability to perform that task will improve as well as the output or product of the task in question whether it's driving more effectively or making a tastier sandwich. Skill decreases the production of waste.

This idea of waste applies both to basic skills and every single part of you. Your thoughts, emotions, and every sensation that you experience on top of every atom that makes up your body. Factors like mental illness, toxic environments (of all flavors), and anxiety also play a big part. If you don't think you have anxiety and your head is on perfectly straight then good for you. Waste of will power is probably being produced right now, anxiety or no anxiety and that is a byproduct of a very simple fact nobody is perfect.
The pursuit of perfection can be a productive tool which when used in moderation boils down to efficiency. The efficient use of our resources involves synchronization of all the moving parts. These function of these parts includes physical coordination (exercise), emotional acceptance and understanding, and psychological awareness from a 1st and 3rd person perspectives (thinking of yourself and thinking about everyone, this idea can extend to a global or universal perspective if you feel like taking a deep dive but the purpose of this crash course is more of a knee deep soak). Efficiency enables will power production and its' application to be more effective.

The most popular activities to improve will power efficiency are:

- Physical Exercise
- Meditation
- Healthy Diet
- Sleep/Rest & Relaxation​

There are more but these four are excellent foundations and most of the other aspects of a well adjusted person branch off of these fundamental practices.

There is a tremendous of information that relates to and is crucial to understanding both one's individual will, will power, and simply living a healthy and fulfilling life. I hope that this post gave you a good picture and helped you look at the world differently. If you learned something useful that's great too!

Feel free to ask any questions.

 

Privilege is a factor in achieving success in any field.
Having more resources at one's disposal makes it easier to enact effective changes to reach specific goals.
As occultism is an abstract practice when compared with traditional methods to achieve goals it is not strongly linked to privilege.
Privilege relates more directly toward monetary, professional, and political success. Privileges' influence on occult practices is based primarily on it's impact on focus, determination, and tenacity. These aspects are not definitely linked to privilege through a causal relationship but there is certainly a correlation between household family income and subjective quality of life.