Will = Power

Remember when I wrote three blog posts in a row that all had to do with the Green Lantern? So does this one. The primary, if not only, limit to the Green Lantern's power is his will-power. If he wants to do something badly enough and really focusses his mind on it, he can probably do it. However, if his desire to do something doesn't measure up to the magnitude of the task, or if he loses focus during the attempt, I wouldn't bet on his success.

In our case, we're frequently asked to do hard things, such as keep the commandments and resist temptation. The difficulty of those tasks isn't that they require a lot of strength or talent (Thank goodness!) but that they require strong will-power. With a strong will, we can resist strong temptations and keep tough commandments. Without strong will-power, we're going to have a harder time passing the tests of life.

With will-power being so important, and also an attribute I could stand to improve in, it may be important to define what, exactly, it is. Dictionary.com defines it as "control of one's impulses and actions; self-control," or, in other words, the ability to control yourself. How do we develop this attribute?

I did a quick search for LDS.org, and the answer that I found is something that I should have recognized right away: Practice. If you want to get better at anything, practice it. Of course, you'll need to learn the basics first, and you may want to pick up some helpful tips as well, but more than learning how to do something, you need to actually practice it, and I actually gave a Sacrament Meeting talk on a way to practice will-power a while back. Let's see, where did I put those notes? I know I saw them recently...

Here we are! The answer is fasting. Since our bodies have a strong, ingrained desire to eat, we can exercise our self-control by trying to go without eating for a short period of time. The more frequently we attempt to fast, the longer we'll be able to do it (though longer than 24 hours is probably unhealthy), and the better we will be able to resist temptation and keep the commandments. Not surprisingly, the more frequently we try to make difficult choices, the more capable we'll become of making difficult choices.

The only limits to how far we go in life are how far we try to go, and how hard we try to get there. I can achieve a level of self-mastery in this life, if I try hard enough. I can overcome temptation. I can overcome myself. All I need is to have faith in myself, and in God, and do my best. I may not feel like I have enough will-power right now, but if I practice my will to keep the commandments, my will-power will grow stronger until I become unshakable. It's hard to imagine myself being that strong, but it can happen. I can I will attain great will-power, and then I will be unstoppable.