Willpower and Habituation

Willpower is a finite resource. It can be expanded upon and developed through incremental practice (not by accident, several of these practices are included in the Class because of their beneficial effect on growing willpower in a Trainee). However, Willpower is always a finite resource.

When establishing a new behaviour, more Willpower is required to establish it initially that it is to develop and maintain it later on. Think of Willpower like rocket fuel in the Space Shuttle. It burns more fuel in the few minutes of the flight getting off the ground than it does for the dozens of hours of travel afterwards. Same with teaching new behaviours.

Over time, less and less Willpower is required to sustain and develop a Habit - particularly if it is well designed, like using Environmental Cues - effectively. This frees up Willpower for other things - for relaxation, for learning new behaviours or expanding upon and polishing old ones, and so on.

Because the initial exposure to a Habit is crucial for developing confidence in a Trainee, this gives us another of the Principles of Training - "Always set your Trainee up to Win".

Expressions of BEHAVIOUR and ATTITUDE flow naturally downstream into the BODY (These are the 3 Powers).

These observations lead naturally to conclusions about effective training timings and principles of success in outlining your Training Program.