“ The vision must be followed by the venture.  It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs. ” - Vance Havner

Crucial importance of willpower/self-control/conscientiousness/grit.  Mindset.  Mental contrasting, implementation intentions, wooping.  ‘Driving the bus’.

Note there are already a number of resources available on this website that are relevant for "Willpower & Making It Happen".  Look, for example, in the "Wellbeing, time management, self-control & self-determination" section in this website's "Good knowledge" area. 

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work"   Thomas Edison

In yesterday's post - "Power objects, power postures, power clothes, power prayers: all ways to facilitate change (1st post)" - I introduced recent research highlighting how we can use physical objects and the way we position our bodies to significantly improve our chances of following through on new ways of thinking, feeling & behaving.  In today's post I extend this discussion of ways to help ourselves change to what we wear and what we say to ourselves.

"I will love you like a wind,
like a man stitching a skin
together like a winter coat.

Like a man sitting in meditation
and repairing a cracking spirit.
Like a man in love with a leaf,
a cloud, a flame, a temple.

Like a man on fire
running in the wilderness
shouting for sheer joy."

From the poem "A blessing (the way)" in the book "A shaman's songbook" by Norman Moser 

(This post is downloadable as a Word doc or a PDF file).  

(This post is downloadable as a Word doc or a PDF file).  

I wrote yesterday about "Commitment contracts: another good way of helping us reach our goals".  In today's post I'd like to look a bit more at the practicalities of setting up and using commitment contracts.  I'll illustrate this by talking about my own personal exploration of this area, but I'd also like to highlight that I think these ideas and the associated web resources are potentially very useful tools for psychotherapists, counsellors, life coaches and their clients.  

(This post is downloadable as a Word doc or a PDF file).

(This blog post is downloadable as both a Word doc and as a PDF file). 

(this post is downloadable as both a Word doc & as a PDF file.)