It takes a kind of mental will to persist towards something.
Day-3 of our detox cleanse; there are times during this process where I have felt great. Today I feel awful. I want to just quit drinking the smoothies and eat something crunchy, meaty, anything really...and lots of it. But, I suspect this is a trained response...an impulse I have learned. I tell myself, "this is only 3 days of your life...you can handle it. And, after all, you're not starving!"
Today, I can tell myself at each moment something I believe, like "you can do this...it is only 24 more hours". I have told myself similar things at times when I don't feel like I can finish a run, "you have done this a thousand times before...you can do it again now" or "it is only 6 more minutes and then all this pain will be gone".
Mental will is a kind of trust in something. I trust that the outcome I desire will happen, despite how I feel. Most of the arguments that challenge my will seem designed to attack either the validity of my belief or the likelihood that something will happen, which seems to borrow quite selectively from the past -- remembering times when I failed to continue or persist at something. To put it differently, the future seeks to influence the present. But, I really only have the current moment...to act, to decide, to believe something. I can learn to trust that today's actions, the decisions of this moment, will impact the future more than the possibility of the future not coming true (or coming true, if that's what I'm afraid of).
It all comes down to trusting...at this particular moment. ...whether that be something being over in 24 hours or that God is in control and will provide for me whatever I truly need in the future. All I have is the choice to trust, in this moment.
