The Willpower Instinct

My first post in over a month is about willpower and it’s still early January.  You probably think it’s going to be one of those New Year’s Resolution posts, don’t you?

Well, it’s not that kind of post.

It is, in fact, a book review!  Of Kelly McGonigal’s newly released book The Willpower Instinct:  How Self-Control Work.  Why It Matters. And What You Can Do to Get More of It for the BlogHer book club.  Which to be honest, January is a pretty good time to read a book about willpower and self-control even though I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year. 

I read this book with some trepidation as I don’t normally read self-help books .  And, yet, as I read The Willpower Instinct, I found myself nodding my head in agreement, puzzling over a lot of the truths about self-control, dog-earing pages, and writing little notes in the margins like “my mom should read this.”  Ultimately, I determined that as far as self-help books go (and yes, it is a self-help book) it was pretty darn fascinating.  It reminded me of one of my favorite grad school classes.  McGonigal’s writing was insightful, engaging and relevant whether or not I think that I personally have willpower challenges.

While I read the book on warp speed since I was on a schedule for the BlogHer book club, the author, a Stanford University psychologist who teaches a course called “the Science of Willpower,” suggests that the book be read in in increments over a longer period of time and that readers gradually implement the advice she proffers and undertake the self-control exercises.  I think her advice is sound.  I enjoyed reading this books much that I think that I’m going to go back and read it again if I don’t pass it on to someone else first.    In spite of only reading it for what I shall call academic reasons, I found myself identifying areas where I fail at self-control (looking at boots on Zappos) and areas where I succeed (exercise).

 

Dr. McGonigal says that people love resolving to change.  If you're one of those people that loves making resolutions but struggle with the follow-through, perhaps taking a gander at The Willpower Instinct might help you make your New Year's resolution a true lifestyle change.  Or, if you want to just enjoy the fun of resolutions, you can join one of the Blogher Bookclub's discussions of The Willpower Instinct.  After all, you don't have to make a change to talk about changing.

 

And for the record while I was compensated by Blogher for this review, the opinions expressed are entirely my own -- always are and always will be!  Now that's a resolution that doesn't take much willpower...