In this episode, we discuss ways to give yourself more energy to accomplish those difficult tasks and use less willpower.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons that you can reflect on in your journal so you can grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and have a better career, better relationships, and better personal finances while you enjoy your morning cup of coffee.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
At the end of today’s podcast episode, I’m going to give you a prompt question to reflect on in your journal. The idea is to take one to five minutes to reflect on today’s lesson and write a minimum of one paragraph on how you can apply the lesson in your life. You can use an actual journal, a word document like on Google Drive, or your note-taking app like Evernote. The idea is that you’re actually thinking about how to process the information to help you improve your life.
In today’s episode, we are going to talk about how Willpower is a diminishing factor. When we wake up in the morning, this is when our will power is generally the highest. We are able to handle more and have more patience. But every time we have to practice restraint, we use up a little bit more willpower.
This is why at the end of the day, we tend to be tired and do whatever is the easiest thing to do. Unless we are night owls or have a strict routine, we tend to just scroll on our phone, watch tv, or do something else to distract us. This is because as we have to get ready in the morning, take care of our family, do task for our task, we have to do something that causes to use up our willpower.
Unless something is a habit and it’s something that you really enjoy or have a passion for doing, then doing those hard things at night are going to be tougher to do like working on your side hustle, doing your homework, or some other activity that will promote growth in your life.
Everyone is different when it comes to having energy for the day. Some people like to work in the morning, afternoon, and at night. There are four different chronotypes. There are lions who are morning types, bears who are middle of the road types, wolves which prefer night time, and dolphins that are difficult sleepers.
I’m not an extreme expert in identifying your sleep chronotype, but it might be wise to see which one you so you need when you have the most energy. If you’re a wolve that likes to work at night but trying to fit the schedule of a lion, you might not be operating at your peak level.
I thought I could wake up early and get stuff done, but I like to sleep too much in the morning. So I design my schedule so I do things later in the day. I find I have the most energy in the afternoon and early evening to get things done. So I design my life so I work on stuff when I have the most energy and have to use less willpower.
This way I have more energy and I get more stuff done because I’m not taking forever to get started on my projects. Then when I finish my projects, this gives me more confidence and joy, which then builds the habit that I should be working during these times.
If you work for someone else, this might not be possible, but if you know who you are, then you can tell people what works for you and you will probably get what you want. If you can explain to your boss or coworker that this is your chronotype and you work best under these conditions, then as long as you deliver good quality work, then things should be fine. Things are not set in stone and are up for negotiation if you provide good work that makes the other person look good.
So if you know what works for you, then you can use less willpower and get more stuff done. If working out for you is not perfect and working out in the afternoon is, then figure how you can convince the people who it’s in their best interest to have you operate your schedule in a particular way.
This way you use less willpower and you get more done.
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, realize that willpower is a diminishing factor and that you need to design your life in a way so that you use less willpower and do more what’s in your energy level. The most successful people don’t operate under sheer willpower, they get stuff done based on their energy level and doing the difficult things when it’s easier for them to do it. Sometimes you will have to use willpower, but you have to be strategic or be in the right situation So take a look at your life and see how you can get those tasks that can offer a big reward done and what will be the easiest way to do so.
So in your journal, ask yourself, is a high-value task that you need to get done? What are the obstacles in your way that are preventing you from accomplishing that task? What will accomplishing this task help you do in life? How can you get around these obstacles? To be successful in life, it requires self-reflection in your life to help you identify any bottlenecks in your life. In your life, you probably have a couple of bottlenecks, but if you can increase the efficiency by 10 percent in at least of those seven of those bottlenecks, then you can double your profits. So don’t focus on getting 100 percent better, just focus on getting better in a bunch of different areas, which should use less willpower and help you accomplish more faster.
Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
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