Perfect Willpower

2024-05-08

I think people are really fallible in lots of way, I am perhaps more fallible than average. I really want to lose weight but I also ate some banana bread today which is going against my diet. My short sighted food impulse overrode my willpower in this instance. And there are a ton of other examples like this, willpower is not infinite dominant in my personal case and I think a lot of people are like me.

But I wanted to run through this thought experiment, what if I had unwavering willpower, how would my life look? Well I would be able to lose weight, actually I assume I would be in really good health, six pack, low BMI, a reasonable amount of cardio, etc. No frivolous desserts, no over eating, no abundance of candy. I think even with perfect willpower I would drink beer a little bit and eat very small bits of ice cream. I also think my house would be cleaner, I tend to put off cleaning but with perfect willpower I wouldn’t delay cleaning or procrastinate every thing. I would also have better control over my emotions, sometimes I get overly angry or annoyed, but with better willpower I wouldn’t let those emotions effect me. I would fight with Sneha less for sure and not get angry or frustrated with Shrey. I might also be a better worker, sometimes I get distracted because my willpower sucks.

Even with perfect willpower I do think some things would stay the same, I would still lie sometimes, I am still bound by 24 hours in the days and my time would be crunched. I would still feel my feelings, have fun drinking, hanging out with my friends, and spend time on TV sometimes. Most parts of my life I dont think would change, just some smaller parts.

If every single person had perfect willpower what would the world be like? It would be interesting. Less obesity, less bad habits, less drugs, and less rape. I hope there would also be less DUIs, less murders, less crimes of passion, hopefully some extra will power would help prevent those things. Blind rage and emotions wouldn’t get the best of people in this fantasy world. There would still be some murder it would just be more cold, more calculated. Also there would still be lying and calculated risks, those aren’t affected by willpower.

I my willpower is limited and is much stronger in some areas than others. I am pretty good at cooking every day, cleaning, and taking care of my family and friends. I am much less good at dieting, managing my anger, and keeping up with my journal. All of those things take will power but my natural tendency makes some of these tasks much more easy to focus on than others and I think it is the way for most humans. No one is perfect, no one has perfect willpower. I will do my best to focus on the things I care about and let the other things slide.