A wealthy friend of mine is fond of saying, “its true money does not buy happiness but it is good for solving problems.”

For the most part having money means having options but it doesn’t determine what option you will choose.  But I think we can agree that having options is better then not having options.

It is the same when it comes to Will.  Having more affords us more choices in how we act but it does not determine which of the more choices we will opt for.

All of the traditions have in them practices, some times called disciplines, that are about exercising (strengthening) our Will.  There may be other reasons or benefits from these same practices as well, such as moral development, health, vitality, social bonds and more.  But we are focusing on the cultivation of Will.

Sample practice:

Choose an action, speech or thought you want to work with.  Something you want more of or less of.  i.e. I want to eat fewer cookies, I want to give more complements to people at work, I want to think fewer self judging thoughts.

Having chosen the behavior you are going to work with set an intention to shift that behavior and begin.

Keep in mind the goal here is cultivating our Will not changing the behavior.  To use the money analogy again the focus in on our ability to generate wealth, not what we spend it on.  (that comes later!)