Will Power and Mind Power – What is the Difference?

Which Do You Think is Most Powerful? Will Power or Mind Power?

You’re probably well acquainted with Will Power. You may even have a turbulent relationship with him. But are you well acquainted with his boss, Mind Power?

Mind Power and Will Power are not the same thing. Mind is vastly stronger than Will.  So what is the difference between the power of mind and the power of will?

Well… we could attribute this all to semantics. But will and mind are more than that. We’re going to do for this article what it is that mind power does for the will. Deepen it.

Mind Power Can Be Destructive or Constructive

Mind Power is stronger and wiser, and brings consciousness, depth and strength wherever he goes… so long as he’s going in the right direction.

Like any boss, Mind Power can be good or bad. When it’s working for you and your best interests, it’s powerful. When it’s tripping you up and detracting from your goals, it’s detrimental.

Will power is like money, It is simply energy that can be used for good, or for bad. The more you use it constructively the more it benefits you and the more it grows.

Mind power can be used to transform our lives, or it can inhibit and impair them. The habit of thought can be a powerful force for good through optimism and positivity. Or it can become destructive if we allow it to get lost in negative thoughts, worry and fear.

Table of Contents

• What is the Difference Between Mind Power and Will Power?
  • Audio Article
  • Will Power Research
• Will Power is an Employee
• When You Commit
• Mind Power is the Manager
• You are the Owner
• Habit Creates Structure for Progress
• Habits are Like Having a Personal Assistant
• Mapping Mind Power in 4 Steps
  • Personal Creative Systems Include
• Consciously Employ Consciousness

Audio Article

Next… meet the Powers!

Will Power is an Employee

An employee shows up for work daily at the predetermined time and does the work assigned.

Without clear instruction, Mr. Will Power is distracted, unfocused and unclear on what you—the owner—wants. Without vision and mind power, Will Power is an unsupervised employee without a plan to work toward.

Will Power is your employee waiting to do your bidding. If you equivocate, your employee is uncertain and will almost always choose the easier path.

Employees show up and do the work prescribed by management. Mind Power is the manager ready to implement your commands as the owner… the CEO of your life.

“Your willpower is your employee… there to work for you. Your job is to help Will Power do his job.”
~LeAura Alderson, writer, editor, creator iCreateDaily.com ®

Will Power Research

Research has shown that willpower is depleted throughout the day. As we grow mentally and emotionally tired through suppression or the “decision fatigue” of too many decisions to make, our will power is depleted.

The Good News

Studies show that a good attitude and mood can actually increase will power.
SOURCE: APA.org

The good news is that—like most things in life—you can improve your will over time through regularly exercising the willpower muscle. And like exercise, there are numerous personal development tools you can employ that increase your capacity and abilities.

Strategies and tactics aside, there is another—even simpler way—to accomplish your goals and put both will and mind power to work for you. It’s not easy, but only at first.

Once you establish a positive habit, it becomes effortless.

“Will power is about making a decision.
Mind power is about creating an outcome.”
~LeAura Alderson, creator iCreateDaily.com ®

When You Commit

Commitment is clear. When you commit to whatever it is that you want to accomplish and create a plan toward that, you begin to put your mind power and will power to work for you. With commitment comes the determination to set  the plan.

The plan becomes the decision and the tool to keep you on track and accountable. You create it and do it. No decision required to snag you.

When you set the plan and work the plan, you become unstoppable.

This brings to mind a portion of a popular quote that is also our favorite:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.”
~William Hutchison Murray, Scottish mountaineer and writer, 1913-1996

All Desire is Energy

All desire is energy. When it comes to changing habits, we deflect the energy from the negative and redirect it into the positives. We’re the traffic cop seeing that energy and directing it where it needs to go.

If we’re creating a path in the woods or meadow, we walk that same path everyday and it becomes well worn and easily accessible without effort. Meanwhile, the path we need to ignore becomes overgrow with lack of use and ceases to be seen as an option to traverse.

“If the mind is powerful enough, anything is possible.”
~Andrew Grant, Founder of DigitalArtiste.com

Mind Power is the Manager

Entrepreneurs are familiar with the phrase: “Work on—not in—your business.” Another one is, “Be the owner, not the manager.” Until entrepreneurs are able to replace themselves in their business, they have created a job for themselves more than a company.

If you’re an artist creating the content of your business—your creations—is a large portion of what you do. Beyond that, you may have created your own platform for selling and promoting your work, such as website or social page.  But if you’re at that place where you still need to wear all the hats and do all the work, then you are still working in your business.

You may prefer to work in your business and to have that as your job. Many people love their work and that’s what they want to do. Or, you may want the freedom to choose to do when you wish to and not when you don’t.

When You Want to Do More

In our entrepreneurial family, we have so many interests, ideas and aspirations, that in order to do more we need to become the owners working on and not in all of the day to day operations. We want to be free to create more businesses and help more people.

To become more free in your work and your life, is to become the owner, not the manager of your business.

Ownership, in this analogous article, equates to awareness and the conscious mind. Awareness is consciousness, and to apply your conscious mind to developing your awareness is to develop a greater consciousness.

Consciousness and Awareness are also twins. They have a great relationship where each expands the capacity of the other.

One of the ways to develop consciousness and mind power is through the visioning process. Visioning develops your mind in the way that painting develops your art… in the way that writing develops your novel… and goal setting increases your productivity and success.

Visioning is a practice worth developing. Add daily action and your results will soar.

Visioning is a skill that becomes a tool for crafting your future.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily.com

You are the Owner

Every good owner and manager knows that the better the systems in place, the more productive the employees can be, even if unsupervised by the manager, Mind Power. The more hands-off the manager and owner can be, the more they can go on to higher and more expanded tasks, and the more you and your business can grow.

The more good habits we practice, the more they become the operating system that functions without taking our time, energy and will power. Good habits free up energy for creativity and productivity

Habit is the Internal System that directs your employee, Mr. Will Power.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®

Good Habits Creates Structure for Progress

A painter can’t paint without something to paint on. That something, becomes the structure and the paint brushes and paints, the tools.

A writer cannot write without a keyboard and computer, or a pen/pencil and paper. The “paper”, be it digital or tangible, is the system of parameters within which the writer can craft and hone words into something.

The systems for your work are the goals you set and the daily habits you perform to achieve them.

Setting systems in place frees you to plug into a structure in which you are free to create.

Good habits replace effort. Daily doing creates effortless flow.
LeAura Alderson, iCreateDaily.com®

Good Habits are Like Having a Personal Assistant

The thing about creating daily is it becomes a habit. If you struggle with getting started, creative prompts can help and a goals journal is a powerful tool for setting goals and staying on track.

It’s the daily habit of showing up and doing your work that moves your goals from something you need willpower to do, to something that happens without effort from you.

Recording your habits as goals, such as on a list or goals journal, is like having a personal assistant to remind you of what you need to do and when. That frees you to plug in and go, rather than tax bandwidth with trying to decide at each point throughout the day.

Creating Daily

Many creators have found participating in 30 day challenges to be a tremendous help in establishing daily creative habits. Creating daily for 30 days secures that rhythm as a habit. In fact we’ve created 30 day intuitive art journals to help foster intuitive and creative growth.

These other prompts may help as well, depending on your creative interests.

Creative Prompts

• Art Therapy Prompts
• Conceptual Prompts for Intuitive Art
• Daily Art Prompts
• Creative Writing Prompts
• Drawing Prompts
• Story Prompts

You are the Owner. Mind Power is the Manager. Will Power is the Employee.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily.com

Mapping Mind Power in 4 Steps

The way to make your life and your business easier, is to establish the systems that support Will Power and Mind Power in performing their tasks. Their tasks? Implementing your vision. You (the owner) have created the systems (habits) and direction (vision) that set the pace and course of each day.

So there are just four things above all else that enables Will Power to do his job and Mind Power to manage it all:

Personal Creative Systems Include

1. VISION: Set your vision of where you want to go as a 3 month plan (for starters).
2. DECISION: Decide you are committed to doing the work to get there.
3. GOALS: Set daily, weekly and monthly goals on the journey to your vision.
4. ACTION: Work on it daily.

Visioning, committing, planning and doing are the scaffolding for building the structure of your dreams.

This isn’t an “if I feel like it” kind of thing. This is a “show up daily, no matter what” kind of thing. Even if it’s just 5 minutes on a given day, because… (fill in the blank for the reason you couldn’t do the creative work that’s important to you). There are always the interruptions… the “becauses”, and yet you must persevere because your dreams matter.

Success isn’t an ‘if I feel like it‘, kind of thing. Success is a ‘show up daily, no matter what‘, kind of thing.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily.com

Consciously Employ Consciousness

You as the creator of your work are the consciousness behind it. Consciousness is not a feeling. It is intelligence, life, awareness, and joy. Consciousness doesn’t have a “feel like it” mode. It is dynamically awake, aware and poised for manifestation.

Consciousness (you as ‘owner’) moves into being and doing whatever is needed. The more you apply conscious thought and effort, the more mind power you develop. And vice versa, the more mind power is available to you.

So as the creator of your work… and of your life, you simply envision what you want. Decide that you are committed and what’s needed next, then do the work.

Your job is to assign Mind Power the management of your vision. Mrs. Mind Power employs Mr. Will Power, and gets stuff done. Daily doing is the habit that creates effortless flow.

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