I love chocolate and if there is any in the house I might make short order of it. In fact I may keep an unopened box of chocolate for six months but when I open the box I gobble all pieces in half an hour. If I never buy any I do not miss it that much. This behavior pattern is true of many things that may tempt us. The best way of using one’s will power is to make life as easy as possible by avoiding the temptation at the source.

Thus if you are concerned about your weight and nutrition, go to the supermarket when you are full. If you are hungry, just buy whatever you need for a single meal and return later for your main shopping. Look at the labels of the foodstuff you buy examining them for the calories, amount of fat, chemicals and other ingredients, which you may want to avoid.

At the same time look for foodstuff which is good for you. Nature abhors a vacuum, but if you fill up your life with good things there is no room left for the temptations.

I wrote the above about food as temptation but this article is a metaphor for all the temptations in your life. Move away from the temptations and replace bad habits with good habits. Many in the motivational field say that it takes 21 days to form or lose a habit. I think in reality that’s just an approximation. Sometimes a week may be enough and at times it may take a whole month for the new better habit to be established.

So my suggestion is that when developing a new habit or moving away from temptations do it at least for thirty days. Also note that many habits are masked by the new better habit but it is easy to go back to the old habit if you place yourself in the same tempting situation. The most radical example of this is alcoholism, which is a major physiological addiction. In this case and other physiological addictions once one is free of the addiction it is best to never again indulge in the addiction since doing so can easily revert one back to full addiction.

When you overcome your liabilities by avoiding temptation you will be able to control your life so much better that you’ll achieve much more and Feel Good.