Developing Willpower

Developing willpower begins with a question: is it reason that governs a person, or emotions and passions? Let us consider the answer to this question together with a saying attributed to Pascal:

“As a person’s mental power increases, so do their passions.”

Having a strong mind does not necessarily mean being able to control emotions and passions. Here, passion means desires so strong that they amount to an addiction. At times, reason works to find justifications for our desires. At other times, it sets limits on them. Reason draws on willpower to govern passions and emotions.

One of the most important traits that sets human beings apart from other living creatures is the ability to exercise their will. Will is the power to make conscious choices and direct one’s behavior in line with those choices. Unlike other living creatures, a person can manage impulses if they wish. At other times, the pressure of those impulses may prove too much, and they give in. Training the will enables us to make the right choices and act as human beings should.

Training the will means learning to manage our emotions, desires and passions so that we can act in ways we believe to be right. How is this ability gained? Why do we sometimes fail to control our impulses even when we know what is wrong? Is willpower something we are born with? Such questions have occupied thinkers and psychologists concerned with moral philosophy for many years. The general conclusion is that both inherited traits and education, environment, habits and experience shape our willpower.

Individual differences reveal themselves at the very beginning of life. The abilities we are born with may develop or become dulled through the education we receive. From early childhood onward, our ability to exercise our will develops over time, becoming stronger or remaining weak according to our education and environment. The family environment plays a major role in raising a child who is self-controlled and has acquired positive habits. Children take the behavior of their elders as examples and want to resemble them. A disordered family environment and negative parental behavior can hinder the development of children’s self-control. Excessively authoritarian upbringing can prevent children from making their own decisions. Giving children everything they want immediately can also make it harder for them to learn patience and cope with disappointment.

Developing willpower through habits

To keep the will strong, it is important to develop habits that align with goals and values, to delay gratification, and to be able to master impulses. We must also look after our physical health and the body’s basic needs, including sleep, nutrition and exercise. Nor can we ignore the everyday influence of our social circle and the people we spend time with. As the old saying goes, “Moods are contagious”: emotions and behaviors pass from person to person.

According to Prof. Dr. Mehmet Dinç, “…being able to regulate emotions, keeping a clear mind, knowing ourselves, and being aware of our talents, skills, and capacities are among the skills one must have in order to strengthen the will.” Regulating emotions does not mean suppressing or denying them; it means recognizing the emotion and choosing the appropriate behavior, ensuring that will works together with reason. Keeping a clear mind means not filling it with random, useless information.

So far, I have tried to outline what I have learned about developing willpower through conscious effort. There are many publications that examine the subject from a technical angle. Jules Payot’s “İrade Terbiyesi” and Dr. Ethem Bakar’s “İrade Terbiyesi,” to which Cemil Meriç said he owed his work discipline, are among the books recommended to university students. Bakar’s book can also be read with a critical eye.

Developing willpower matters for more than achieving personal goals or keeping daily life in order. Willpower is also essential to acting on what we know to be right and developing moral maturity.

Through training, human beings can teach even the wildest animals certain behaviors that do not come naturally to them. Yet they sometimes cannot rein in their own rebellious or wild side. Why? Because they do not fully know their inner world. Our knowledge of the multilayered structure of the self, which Necip Fazıl described as “intertwined architecture, intertwined selfhood,” is very limited. When we speak of the unconscious, according to Freud’s and Jung’s descriptions, the lower layers of the unconscious come to mind. In other words, we keep trying to recall only evils, repressed desires, impulses and traumas. People assume that bringing the wounds buried in the unconscious into conscious awareness will put everything right and end their distress. Science does not say exactly this, but such an idea has taken hold.

So how can we rein in the rebellious or wild side within us? First, we must question ourselves to understand why our wild side behaves this way. The Sufi practice of calling the self to account is one way of doing this. But even if we understand an emotion, does that mean we will stop reacting in the same way when a similar situation arises? Of course, habits ingrained in our character will not be easy to abandon. We will turn to Allah, knowing that He sees His servant at every moment, and ask for His help in improving ourselves. After our mistakes, we will try to make up for them by doing something good. In this way, we can work to manage the emotions and behaviors we dislike.

In accordance with the verse, “Be with the truthful,” being together with people of good character, conversing with them, and taking their counsel makes it easier to learn moral values and put them into practice. We can also find examples from our cultural heritage that we can adapt to the present day. Take Âhi Evran’s valuable approach to education. The benefits to individuals and society speak for themselves: remaining engaged in life, practising a profession while learning to understand and master the self, learning generosity, and belonging to a mutual-support organization.

I think we need to strengthen our willpower now more than ever. Our surroundings are so full of temptations that pull us toward addiction that it may be impossible not to be drawn in. Experts recommend drawing on the protective strength of faith and spirituality to move away from all forms of addiction.

Finally, developing willpower is necessary not only to resist our desires, but also to live by our values. Mastering the self and building good relationships with others also depend on our willpower.

Ayşegül Ünal

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