Willpower
Everyone has it. The extent of ownership, however, runs the gamut. Some deal with the inability to resist the slightest temptation on a regular basis. Some are able to hold out beyond what seems to be reasonably sane limits. How is willpower generated though? That’s the question I’ve been pondering of late. Is it an innate gift possessed from birth? Is it a learned behavior? Is it a skill developed 
through training as any other? Likely some combination of these elements are the truth of it, but I often marvel at the varied responses to and perceptions of the concept of willpower.
Take pain for example. A rational mind understands that pain is merely the nerve endings conveying to the brain that the activity being experienced is considered suboptimal for continued bodily health. Once that rationale is in place, the concept of pain should take on a different tone. That tone however is still vastly different across the spectrum of minds experiencing the pain.
Why?
Willpower.
The ability to say yes or to say no and to mean it. The ability to bend your will to the forces which act upon it, whether they be internal or external. Willpower also fluctuates within the individual. Hunger is a wonderful example of this. Resisting food stuffs which tickle our biological triggers is a fickle dance. Ultimately it is the mind which must overrule instincts that have been etched in place through thousands of years of evolution. No small task.
We have all encountered the extremes in people, those with tremendous willpower and those with addictive personalities. Where along the spectrum do you reside on any given day and how often is your willpower put to the test? I believe that as we continue to overpopulate this tiny sphere in the cosmos, we will all find ourselves tested beyond the normal limits of our endurance. Then we shall truly see how willpower plays a role in shaping the human species.