Walt Hampton, J.D.

Creating the Work & Life You LOVE

Mind Matters
December 1, 2011

Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, youre right.

— Henry Ford

“It’s not my fault.”

Parents, how many times have you heard that one?

As a defense attorney, I’ve heard it countless times.

It’s a pervasive cry across our societal landscape; a pandemic failure of individual responsibility.

It’s easier to blame someone else for a problem than to brainstorm a solution. It’s easier to complain about politics than to get involved in the process. It’s easier to complain about economic inequality, than to innovate and risk.

“It’s not your fault,” wrote Linda Bacon in her 2008 book Health at Every Size explaining why diets fail.

Biology trumps will, she said. It’s the genes that make you fat. (And yes, those jeans probably don’t help.)

But I’ve got some bad news. Or maybe it’s good?

There’s “startling new research” that suggests an astounding proposition:

Will power matters. How we set our mind, how we think, actually affects outcome.

In their book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, reviewed this past week in The New York Times, Standford professors Greg Walton and Carol Dweck establish convincingly that those who believe in the strength of will are far more likely to overcome life’s challenges than those who believe that will power is a limited and exhaustible resource.

We actually have the capacity to will our way to success. If we believe we can, we much more likely will.

Now, of course, this is not exactly new.

Will has been around since man first roamed the Garden.

In every moment, we get to exercise our will. In every moment, we get to choose.

We can choose to be angry at the telemarketer; or grateful that we have a phone. We can choose to be frustrated by the line at the register; or grateful that we have the resources to shop. We can choose to be depressed about the economy; or grateful that we live in a free society.

To be sure, the exercise of will is not always easy.

I know this all too well: going out the door on a dark morning run in the rain; or going to the gym on a cold winter’s afternoon; or when I face an unpleasant battle in the courtroom.

I know too from my experiences in mountaineering and distance running that my body has the capacity to push far beyond what my mind thinks it’s capable of; that a failure of will is far more likely than a failure of strength.

Victor Frankl, in his shattering death camp memoir, reminds us though that even in the most desperate of circumstances, we have the power to choose how we will be.

Happiness is a choice, says Gretchen Rubin. And Joel Osteen reminds us of our our capacity – and our obligation – each day – to choose joy.

The exercise of will – our power to choose – is our greatest gift.

May we use it well.

 

Journeys on the Edge: Living a Life That Matters.  Click HERE to get your signed copy today!

 

 

 

 

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