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How to Utilize Will-Power Effectively · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Most people have very little idea about how to utilize
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  willpower effectively because they don't fully understand what
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  willpower actually is and how it needs to be focused and
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  concentrated. Essentially, willpower is the
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  function that concentrates the signal while reducing the noise
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  in a transmission of energy. It is like the difference
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  between a laser beam and a light bulb.
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  Using this image, we find that most people fail to fully focus
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  the energy they are putting out and thus it is diffused and the
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  energy is dispersed without a strong functional effect.
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  When they put their full attention and concentrated force
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  into the will, it becomes like the laser beam, capable of
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  accomplishing things that the normal light bulb cannot do.
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  Learning how to concentrate in this way involves regular
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  practice, an actual exercise of will, until it becomes a
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  palpable force capable of achieving its aim, the mother
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  notes quote. But one doesn't know how to will
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  it. In fact, 1 doesn't even want to.
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  These are valiaities. Well, it is like this.
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  It would be good if it were like that.
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  Yes, it would be better if it were like that.
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  Yes, it would be preferable if it were like that.
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  But this is not to will. And always there at the back,
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  hidden somewhere in a corner of the brain is something which is
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  looking on and saying oh, why should I want that?
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  After all, one can as well want the opposite and to try, you
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  see, not like that, just wait. But one can always find 1000
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  excuses to do the opposite. And, ah, just a tiny little
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  wavering is enough. The thing swoops down and there
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  it is. But if one wills, if one really
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  knows that this is the thing and truly wants this, and if one is
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  oneself entirely concentrated in the will, I say that there is
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  nothing in the world that can prevent one from doing it, from
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  doing it, or being obliged to do it.
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  It depends on what it is one wants.
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  Yes, one wants like this. Gestures one wants.
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  Yes. Yes, it would be better if it
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  were like that. Yes, it would be finer, also
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  more elegant. But after all, 1 is a weak
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  creature, isn't that so? And then one can always put the
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  blame upon something else. It is the influence coming from
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  outside. It is all kinds of
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  circumstances. The breath has passed.
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  You see, you don't know something.
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  A moment of unconsciousness. Oh, I was not conscious.
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  You are not conscious because you do not accept.
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  And all this because one doesn't know how to will.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
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  Mother powers within Chapter 5. Willpower, page 49.