Personal Power
Most of the time, ordinary people believe that the events of their life are determined by factors that are out of their control—because the events are physically removed from them, or because they are supposedly characteristic, intrinsically part of the person (ego). Thus we frequently hear people speaking of their bad luck as though it were something happening independent of themselves. They feel that events (especially those that are unpleasant) are against them because “someone” is doing something to them. Or if they assume the problem stems from themselves, they will speak of the things they can’t control: “That’s just the way I am.” “I have no will power.” “I have an explosive character.”
In the same way, the enormous expenditure of energy involved in making unrealistic decisions, and in feeling despair when they are not carried out, is a phenomenon difficult to understand.
If I was so sure yesterday that I would get up and exercise, why don’t I have the slightest desire to do so today? It is though I am dealing with two different people. In a case like this, a person will usually say, “The trouble is, I have no willpower.” And this explanation would not be so far from the truth if we understood “will” as it is understood by a sorcerer: an accumulation of available energy. An ordinary person nevertheless believes that “willpower” is a characteristic of personality that one either possesses or not, which cannot be developed “at will.”
The Teachings of Don Carlos - Victor Sanchez
