will you?

there's two versions of you.

there's the person that you are, and the person that you want to be.

you might think that to go from one to the other is a fairly easy process. that you can make a list of all the things the person you want to be does or is, and simply accomplish those things.

yet who we are is quite often the result of years of patterned behavior and ways of living. disrupting such activity is quite the challenge.

in fact, trying to change in to the person you want to be is usually a very painful, strenuous process.

your mind will trick you into continuing old habits.
your heart will keep you tethered to ideas or people that are harmful.
your body will scream in pain if you break it down to make it stronger.

so from where, then, can the driver of change originate? the will? perhaps, if such a thing indeed exists. yet what it is, anyone can say. willpower is, quite notably, undefinable and varying from person to person.

for what do you do when your brain tells you stop, your heart tells you to keep going, and your body tells you no more? what force within you enables you to do so? logically reaching a decision is the easy part. acting on it requires mustering vast quantities of some vague, unknown force that pushes us -- compels us -- to keep going.

it is this capacity, perhaps, that gives us all the capability to reach our fullest potential as individuals. to stare our faults and shortcomings in the face and resolutely accept the challenge of overcoming them -- of refusing to be a slave to our own selves.