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The Willpower Instinct Summary
About The Willpower Instinct Book
Based on Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal's wildly popular course "The Science of Willpower," The Willpower Instinct is the first book to explain the science of self-control and how it can be harnessed to improve our health, happiness, and productivity.
Informed by the latest research and combining cutting-edge insights from psychology, economics, neuroscience, and medicine, The Willpower Instinct explains exactly what willpower is, how it works, and why it matters. For example, readers will learn:
• Willpower is a mind-body response, not a virtue. It is a biological function that can be improved through mindfulness, exercise, nutrition, and sleep.
• Willpower is not an unlimited resource. Too much self-control can actually be bad for your health.
• Temptation and stress hijack the brain's systems of self-control, but the brain can be trained for greater willpower
• Guilt and shame over your setbacks lead to giving in again, but self-forgiveness and self-compassion boost self-control.
• Giving up control is sometimes the only way to gain self-control.
• Willpower failures are contagious—you can catch the desire to overspend or overeat from your friends—but you can also catch self-control from the right role models.
In the groundbreaking tradition of Getting Things Done, The Willpower Instinct combines life-changing prescriptive advice and complementary exercises to help readers with goals ranging from losing weight to more patient parenting, less procrastination, better health, and greater productivity at work.
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The Science Of Willpower
- To succeed at self-control you need to know how you fail.
- The best way to improve your self-control is to see how and why you lose control.
- Self-knowledge is the foundation of self-control.
- Theories are nice; data is better.
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The Three Power Challenges To Test Willpower
- An “I will” power challenge: What is something you would like to do more of or stop putting off because you know doing it will improve the quality of your life?
- An “I won’t” power challenge: What is the stickiest habit in your life? What would you like to give up or do less of because it is undermining your health, happiness or success?
- An “I want” power challenge: What is the most important long-term goal you’d like to focus your energy on? What immediate want is most likely to distract you or tempt you away from this goal?
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Motivation And Self-Control
- I will and I won’t power alone do not constitute willpower. To say no when you need to say no, and yes when you need to say yes, you need a third power. The ability to remember what you really want.
- To exert self-control you need to find your motivation when it matters.
- People who have better control of their attention, emotions, and actions are better off almost any way you look at it.
- Self-control is a better predictor of academic success than intelligence.
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I Will, I Won’t, I Want: What Willpower Is, and Why It Matters
“To say no when you need to say no, and yes when you need to say yes, you need a third power: the ability to remember what you really want.”
Giving a name to the impulsive/negative version of your mind will make it easier to identify your detrimental habits as soon as you engage in them. You can then call on the wiser version of your mind and correct those habits so you can achieve your goal and be productive.
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The Willpower Instinct: Your Body Was Born to Resist Cheesecake
“When you are chronically stressed, your body continues to divert energy from long-term needs such as digestion, reproduction, healing injuries, and fighting off illnesses to respond to the constant stream of apparent emergencies.”
Stress will cloud your mind and keep you from being productive. However, if you help rejuvenate your mind and body, you can get into the right mindset to do what you need to do.
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Too Tired To Resist: Why Self-Control Is Like a Muscle
“If you try to control and change too many things at once, you may exhaust yourself completely.”
We use self-control for many things all day long. For example, getting out of bed the first time the alarm rings instead of hitting the snooze button, skipping dessert at lunch, choosing which brand of detergent to buy from the store—we have to use our self-control for all of these things! It’s no wonder that we feel exhausted at the end of the day.
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