Over the summer I read an article about "decision fatigue" in The New York Times, easily one of the most "illuminating" science/behavior-related articles I'd ever read: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazi...

It turned out that my inability to refuse that piece of chocolate, the last slice of pizza, one more beer etc, didn't mean I had "no willpower" as I'd always thought. After reading the article, it was clear that my willpower (and related glucose supply) was consumed by waking up pretty e More...

This book has a few serious flaws. Almost all of the Willpower anecdotes involve B- and C-list actors and musicians. Are Drew Carey, the fat guy from HBO's Arli$$, and that British pop-star whom I've never heard of the best people to exemplify concepts of willpower management? The invocation of fMRI to provide a more solid biological grounding to some of the concepts in will power is trendy and useless. To all readers of pop-psychology books, take note that if an fMRI implicates a brain structur More...

I saw the man who wrote this book in Youtube. I liked his talk. One day at a bookstore, I just saw this book. I didn't plan of buying it but I bought it right away (I'm an impulsive buyer of books and perhaps I need self-control.) This book is terrific. It's not like any of those inspirational and motivational books that get a little tiresome in the middle. This book is based on several research done in the past, in his laboratory, and in other parts of the world. He is a scientist and I like ho More...

I just re-read this book for our book group on May 22, 2012. It's still great. I was happy for the review--especially about Drew Carey's organizational tips. Also the reminders about not making important decisions when you're depleted. Here's my original review:

After a year of successful dieting and weight loss, I suddenly hit a wall where no amount of willpower could see me through. I went through a solid week of inability to control my eating. I had previously prided myself on my great reserve More...

Lately, I’ve been struggling with my weight loss program – especially the so called detox dieting phase of it. For someone like me notoriously known for having a Devil’s Pit in his stomach, resisting gastronomical tendencies is reminiscent of the camel passing through the eye of a needle. While I genuinely marvel at those models gyrating themselves half-naked in those before and after photographs on weight-loss product advertisements – I seriously pondered on the universal thought – How is it th More...

I was a little disappointed because I spent a lot of money on this book, only to discover it was far from what I had expected. I expected a guide to exercise will power, but my expectations were based on an Amazon list so it would be unreasonable to fault the writers for not meeting them.

The book is the joint effort of a psychologist, Baumeister and a journalist, Tierney. More than a self-help book, it is a collection of hundreds of experiments on the existence and working of willpower. Indee More...

For a girl who can easily chew through a book a week without breaking a sweat, this book was a marathon.

It took me 3 months to meander my way through all of this somewhat interesting book.

I enjoyed reading about the research studies and a few human prodigies (like the amazing David Blaine) but this book proves once again that just because you are a NYTimes bestseller does not mean it is worth the money.

After forcing myself through this book with the promise of a really fun book to follow to re More...

This book posits that willpower is a finite and depletable source of mental control that spans across all aspects of ones daily interactions. The primary and well-cited experiment
which encapsulates this idea quite well is the famous "Marshmallow Study". In it, participants (generally youths from 4-9 or so) are given a marshmallow that is placed in front of them.
The experimentalists also inform the participants that if they are able to restrain themselves from eating the marshmallow, then they wi More...

This is a researcher/professor-turned author book about a subject each of us have intimate, daily experiences with: willpower.

The central premise of the book is that willpower is a finite resource that can be used up throughout the day. Similar to a muscle, it can be strengthened and weakened, and can tire out over time.

There is a lot of scientific evidence presented in the book. Most of it seemed legit, and lined up with anecdotal evidence from either my life or the lives of those around me. More...

This walks a tricky line. Arguing that there is an empirical way to think about your own behavior that is testable and disprovable is good. Arguing that your behavior is shaped by a quantifiable amount of X is bold but also testable. Arguing that the amount of X shapes behavior but of course doesn't exist is a problem.

That's where we start the book, and I expect many can't get past it, with good reason. The idea of 'Willpower' as a measurable, depleteable resource is intruiging. So when the auth More...

A good but simple book on self control/willpower/successful self reliance. The book has its flaws. The majority of the chapters focus on explaining something with the help of experiments performed on a group of people in a lab, or college students, or experiments done on bigger groups. I found the experiments/statistics part of the book a little unsettling, as I'm of the opinion that you cant really put a finger on behavioral features in a lab and come to a strong conclusion based on the statist More...

This book is a lesson in bad science. The authors routinely mistake correlation with causality, and assert that "willpower" is the magic force responsible for the seemingly positive experimental results, when 95% of the time the data is flawed in some way--the experiments are either pure garbage from a design perspective, or have their results misconstrued by the authors, or the authors make a fallacy of generalizing from a very specific laboratory setting to real world conditions that do not su More...

This is truly a book whose parts are worth more than their whole - and that's okay! It's kinda like reading a whole bunch of really interesting magazine articles in a row, or getting trapped into a late night of surfing Wikipedia.

Willpower offers a very interesting way to think about your capacity to do things - particularly things you don't want to do. The idea that there is a finite reserve of willpower actually explains a lot of my habits better than I would have expected. Best of all, merely More...

There are thousands of books on self-help, but I am averse to the kind of unsubstantiated mantras about thinking yourself into success that so many of them espouse. Baumeister and Teirney's book is different, it is completely evidence based. It cites results that have confounded experimenters and forced them to rethink their current ways of thinking about willpower and self regulation, and so to find new clarity. It speaks about the genetic basis of willpower but also the ways in which we can he More...

Loved this book! The research studies are fascinating and they cover everything from alcoholism to weight loss. After all the chapters which contain hundreds of ways to improve your self control and willpower, they offer a final summation chapter to solidify the ideas presented throughout the book. I'm normally not a nonfiction lover — especially not self help books, but this book was an engaging page turner. The authors also tied in real life stories and stories/interviews with famous individua More...

First thing first.
If you are reading this book ebook style, beware that the last 20% are bibliographies. The book is shorter than what it seems.

The book is an interesting read. I guess it can divided in three parts.
First glucose and its effect on willpower
Second self-control guides, tips, and examples
Third Conclusions and applications

Regarding the read. The first 25% where a fast read, the second 25% was a bit of a struggle, the third 25% was fast and the last was a breeze.

If you are looking More...

Having read Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty by Baumeister and Beck (1999) many years ago, I expected this book to be heavy on research. It is -- although Willpower is much more readable, using simple language and celebrity anecdotes to capture and hold the reader's attention. For those who want more science and less self-help-happy talk, there are plenty of references to check out. For those who want more step-by-step guidance, perhaps other self-help books in the workbook style should b More...

I remember being surprised when someone asked me during college "if I was always trying to improve myself?" since it never occurred to me that some people would not be trying to improve themselves. Those of you who know me can laugh now. That said, if you happen to be trying to improve yourself, this might be the single most useful book you could read (or listen to, as I did).

I started it despite all the other books on my bedside bookshelf because the last part of my opera audiobook series wasn More...

I picked up this book as a way to increase my willpower for training for a marathon. Indeed, it did help - in very specific ways - train my mind to overcome the "wall" that I would encounter on my long runs. More than this, it helped me become more productive and organized in my daily routines, specifically as a mother and a graduate student. I have taken the practical and very applicable advice from this book and put it to work in my life, and noticed results almost immediately. What we think w More...

Fascinating book but the introduction is incredibly boring. Things that I learned:

Willpower is depleted as it is used even in decision making leaving one with lower willpower. To avoid this:
1. Feed the beast ie things won't go well, when low on energy
2. Sugar does not help since it causes surges and crashes
3. Eat food that burns slow ie nuts, protein, vegetables, good fats
4. When you are sick save your glucose for immune system
5. Replenish with sleep

Best sign to recognize when low on willpower More...

This book reveals counterintuitive research results about willpower, and I'd probably give it five stars (for being "perspective changing") if I hadn't already been brought up with this perspective. This book explores self-control and willpower, as opposed to impulsiveness and the cult of self-esteem. It discusses how willpower is necessary for avoiding all sorts of damaging and distracting temptations that prevent people from being happy, and shows that that willpower can be strengthened. Most More...

Willpower was a great change from my normal reading. I have long had a fascination with the topics of motivation and self-control. I usually gravitate toward action-oriented self-help books. This work focuses on summarizing the psychological research related to willpower. It was refreshing to hear the research findings to try to glean my own motivation tactics rather than relying on the already-formulated tactics of gurus that don't work universally. It specifically details the work of Baumeiste More...

I picked up this book hoping it would give me some science-based tips for honing my highly-variable willpower. I have learned a lot from this book, but mainly to be careful about what I hope for from a book. "Some science-based tips" is ridiculous. Science is, as a friend recently observed, what is not yet proven false. In particular, the science of the brain and cognition is still in its early days: we have some disconnected "that's interesting" results, some overarching hypotheses, but nothing More...

After three weeks of my children being in school, it's clear that my willpower has been depleted.

I know this because I have forgotten about some important things, despite the many reminders and writing them in my new, awesome planner. Because I yelled at all three of my children last night while we were working on homework. Because I have no motivation. Oh, and because I haven't been to the gym since the second day of school.

In the book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy More...

This book was awesome. In recent years, there has been a lot of research on willpower. What is willpower? Can it be depleted? Can it be developed? If it can be developed, then how? The authors answer all of these questions while citing numerous scientific studies. One of the coauthors is a scientist while the other is a New York Times science journalist, and that’s a great mix for a book like this.

In practical terms, it seems like people have an exhaustible supply of willpower, and that everythi More...

Baumeister & Tierney's take on willpower is insightful and compelling, particularly with regard to the mechanisms by which religion serves to improve self-control. An irony I failed to appreciate until recently is that while the discourse of some organized religion purports to promote a "good outcome" after death, religious individuals in fact experience greater satisfaction (on the whole, compared with non-religious individuals) while living, because of the benefits of continual self-monito More...

Quite a few months ago I learned the term “decision fatigue,” and then I noticed it in action a few days later. I play boardgames quite often, and prefer strategic games. I was in the middle of a tough game, playing in a coffee shop, and during a break I ordered a slice of cake for a snack. Which is strange, because I’m usually very, very good at not going for those sweet treats. It immediately occurred to me that this was an instance of this new-fangled cognate.

Even though I’ve read quite a few More...

This book is about will power or self control, and in particular, showing that it can be developed. The book shows how people use will power not so much to constantly confront problems directly, but rather to arrange their lives to avoid problem situations arising, and to develop effective habits and routines. There are a lot of good ides in the book around planning, monitoring your behavior, having goals, your motivation and so on. I wasn't quite sure if these are necessarily the same as will p More...

Willpower is the best psychology book I've read. Possibly because it doesn't sound like psychology. At heart, Baumeister's book is a compendium of stories and morals, like Aesop's Fables or the Proverbs of Solomon. It uses narrative as a vehicle for truth, gripping the mind in tangible emotion while metaphysically improving the heart.

Along the way, the authors tie together seemingly unrelated disciplines. Willpower is equal parts history, psychology, comedy, and counsel. Few books, I would wage More...

What a gem! I picked this one up on impulse from the library and read it very quickly. The content covered in Baumeister and Tierney's piece on Willpower is very easy to digest and apply to your everyday life. It reads a bit like a smart self-help book. It's practical advice grounded in science and inspired by the way the brain functions.

So whilst I haven't miraculously started exercising like a maniac or gone on a crash diet, after reading this book I think I understand myself much better and k More...