Why Weakness of Will Leads to True Strength

It’s not the prowess of our problems keeping us from living our dream lives. It’s weakness of will.

There’s this inherent human pursuit to overcome difficulties. Our ancestors were voyagers who discovered new lands, only having curiosity and malnourishment as their companions. We always had to overcome mother nature, yet there is a much greater foe right in our backyard. It followed our ancestors wherever they went. And it has never been stronger than in our modern world: the greatest obstacle we must overcome is ourselves. And this wall we need to demolish is made out of bricks known as Akrasia.

Akrasia stems from ancient Greek philosophy. It is something we do (or not do) that would lead to a better life. But because there is this mental barrier, we can’t engage with it. An algorithm failure from the biological computer between our ears.

Before writing the paragraph above, I was walking around in circles, knowing I should write. Akrasia to the highest degree.

It seems Akrasia has only a negative impact on our lives. There is no inherent value to it. But what if the complete elimination of Akrasia doesn’t lead to the best life possible, but the process of overcoming it? Can there be value in weakness of will?

Great for answering this question (but horrible for humanity) is the ability of the digital age to test our willpower daily. Especially social networks such as Tik Tok.

Tik Tok is the digital equivalent of cocaine, only much more addictive. Using it eradicates the one finite resource in life: time. Stopping to swipe after hours feels like waking up from a dream, and then realizing the nightmare of having lost valuable time doing nothing but sedating your brain. Here we are, the descendants of great conquerors and explorers, bested by the dopamine dealers in our pocket.

This platform was created by some of the smartest people to be as addictive as possible. So if you can kick your Tik Tok addiction, you can do just about anything. This is exactly what overcoming Akrasia does: building confidence in the ability to change your life for the better.

The skill of changing yourself profits from the most powerful force in the universe: compound interest. It creates a loop of improvement:

• You stick to the plan and start changing the negative behavior
• Because you stick to the plan, your confidence increases
• Your increased confidence lowers the barrier of tackling other difficult pursuits
• Tackling difficult pursuits leads to more confidence

Repeat.

Yet if the process of overcoming Akrasia is such a potent potion for a better life, then why is it so difficult to engage in it?

Ego.

The ego likes to obscure Akrasia. It rationalizes it away, making you believe you don’t have to do something. The rules don’t apply to you. It’s much easier to look away than to face it head on. Admitting to weakness of will is connected to pain. It attacks the identity the ego has built. For example, let’s imagine part of your identity is having your finances in order.

For all your life you believed you were the person who only buys the things they really need: the avatar of frugality and the nemesis of modern-day consumerism. Yet, upon closer inspection, you notice leaks in your wallet. You spend much more money on trivialities. Such a realization is a turning point, because a new fork in the road of self development just appeared. Do you minimize your realization and keep on believing you’re the messiah of frugality or do you face reality? The former lets the ego win while the latter gives you the chance of becoming a better version of yourself (here, “better” means having a greater chance for better situations for yourself in the future).

Then the great realization comes: in order to change, you need to see reality as it is. And that is painful.

“Though one may conquer a thousand times a thousand men in battle, yet he indeed is the noblest victor who conquers himself.”
— The Buddha in the Dhammapada, verses 103–105

Yet there is also a dangerous pitfall when hunting down Akrasia. It can become seductive searching for all the aspects of life where you suffer from Akrasia without actually doing anything about it. Figuring out what to do is productive, but only if you actually start doing it. Otherwise you suffer from a form of analysis paralysis. Akrasia disguised as productivity.

This can have a reverse effect on your confidence. You now know how flawed you are. You also see some of these flaws you might never overcome. Even though you’ve given yourself so many reasons to believe in yourself, all of the sudden the foundation starts to waver a little bit. Peering into the darkness too long can make you blind to all of the great things you’ve already accomplished.

This makes Akrasia the raw oil of willpower. It’s difficult to see, sticky, and needs drilling down into your deeper parts. But overcoming it is the refinery. It turns it into jet fuel propelling you towards the person you always wanted to be. But don’t go looking for all wells of inadequacy at once. Just start drilling if you find one. Overthinking won’t help. We already know what we must do most of the time anyway. Gratitude for the difficulties of life seems like a ridiculous concept. But they are exactly what we need to turn weakness of will into true strength.