Restock your willpower; do what you enjoy

August 18, 3:19 PMFitness ExaminerStefan Pinto

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Brendan Brazier is an “organic” force many athletes aspire to be. As a professional Ironman triathlete and a two-time Canadian Ultra Marathon Champion, Brazier lives his life how he chooses; Brendan Brazier has found what he likes to do and does it. This inspiration expects nothing from anyone, but yet helps so many through his message, his actions and his spirit.

Here is an excerpt from a recent chat we had in Los Angeles. You may read the entire interview on PintoFactory.com

SP: I read in The New York Times, that Bill Clinton said, “great men only need five hours sleep.” It got me thinking… maybe I’m not great, ‘cause I need eight! Anyway, I know you talk a great deal about “delt sleep” and I was wondering, if you combine adequate, restful sleep with adequate nutrition, that helps your mental outlook, and once your mental outlook is–I prefer not to say “right,” let’s say more stable or balanced, I suppose–your ability to cope with stress is greatly increased. Stress, in and of itself, is our reaction to outside events. Essentially we are choosing to be stressed, whether we realize it or not and the foods that fuel our bodies do play a critical role. And stress predetermines our health and even aging. You wrote about this in your book, Thrive.

BB: Coffee is a drug. Sugar is a drug. They cause a chemical change in the brain and people become addicted to those things. It’s harder to stop consuming these things as they have such an effect on the brain chemistry. A lot of people have a great deal of difficulty breaking away from these things. It takes discipline, it takes an internal desire to want to break away and a lot of people simply don’t have that. You know, you can actually burn out your will power. It can become depleted. If you do things all day that you don’t like doing, like maybe in a job that you don’t like, then when you are faced with a challenge, for example switching over your diet, it is going to be very difficult if your will power is gone. There was a study, a long time ago, where they took two groups of kids, seven to eight year olds; Group A went to the beach, they built sandcastles, flew kites, had a great day.

The kids in Group B were in a classroom with no natural light, made to study their least favorite subject, with a teacher hovering over each student the whole time. A totally unenjoyable day. Both groups were then taken to separate rooms, each with a one-way mirror, so researchers could observe. In each room, a freshly baked bowl of cookies were placed on the table. The kids were told to not touch the cookies as they weren’t made for them. The kids in Group A, sat there and looked at the cookies briefly, and started talking, joking and looking around the room. Basically ignoring it. The kids in Group B however, smelled the cookies, sitting on their hands, getting closer and closer to the cookies. They wanted them. Their will power was gone. They were tapping their will power reserves all they long. They could not meet a challenge.  Whereas Group A was fresh, they could rise to the occasion. It’s tough.

Once people realize that if they restock their will power by doing things they enjoy, the odds of them succeeding when they try and take on a challenge will be greater. Just knowing that it will be hard, you’re having a chemical reaction to a drug, and you must allow yourself to slowly wean yourself off. Eventually you just lose interest. Slowly. Once it happens, it feels good, it’s a lifestyle. You don’t have to force yourself to do things you don’t want to do. You want to put in the initial work, the dedication, the investment and it’s done. Brendan Brazier's webiste: