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Nov 28, 2011

Lee rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Oct 10, 2011

Parker rated it:

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...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2012

Stuardo rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Barb rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2011

Michelle rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like

Dec 09, 2011

Annie rated it:

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 More...

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Oct 17, 2011

Hdmsisk rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 05, 2011

Emily rated it:

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 strengthe More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

Jason rated it:

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 Baum More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 02, 2011

Nathan rated it:

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 More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 30, 2011

Lara rated it:

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 Greates More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2011

Leo rated it:

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 tha More...

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Sep 06, 2011

Clara rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 03, 2011

Richard marked it as to-read

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 rea More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2012

Jesse rated it:

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 More...

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Jan 24, 2012

Kristianne rated it:

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 m More...

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Oct 04, 2011

Greg rated it:

I am a big fan of this book. The authors (one research psychologist and one science writer for the New York Times) start by describing the famous marshmallow experiment (kids who were able to resist eating a marshmallow were generally more successful in life) and say that willpower is one of the only traits that corresponds well to success (the other is IQ, which we don't really know how to improve).

Willpower is an idea that was very popular in the Victorian era, but in more recent t More...

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Oct 01, 2011

Shelley rated it:

The general gist is this: we each have a pool of willpower that we use for choices and for self-control; when that is depleted, we stray from our goals. We become depleted by exercising control and by making choices, by not having decent blood sugar or by not getting enough rest.

The authors offer strategies for strengthening willpower and for successfully meeting goals. There's a chapter for parents on how to help kids develop self-control (for me, worth the price of the Kindle edit More...

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Feb 21, 2012

Nefficus rated it:

The book has some interesting research on self-control and presents some practical ways in which one can improve self-control. Anecdotes provided throughout are entertaining as well. The book's practical suggestions are helpful both for individuals and parents seeking to raise children with better self-control. The practical solutions were a little disorganized and scattered throughout, leaving the reader without a specific bullet-pointed list of takeaways, which would have been helpful. The More...

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Feb 08, 2012

Jon rated it:

This is a great book. It has a ton of useful information about how to get things moving in your life. It was also very well written. I liked how grounded it was in research, but it didn't feel overly pedantic or academic. I've already used a number of the concepts I learned from it in therapy sessions with clients. I would recommend it to anyone.

There was one thing about the book that I found interestingly questionable. The chapter on parenting seemed to be written in a different way More...

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Dec 12, 2011

Leslie rated it:

I rated this book highly because, like its jacket, it's simple and self-explanatory. The authors won't be winning any Nobel prizes in literature but the mountains of research presented in bite-sized chunks is impressive. I love a book that provides a promise and delivers. They are rare in all genres. I chose this book to gain a better understanding of what willpower is and how/why it is both strengthened and weakened. This information was provided in layman's terms along with much more. My More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

Thomas rated it:

Great book summarizing a lot of recent psychological research into the concept of willpower. However, I got the feeling that they were rather one-sided in their treatment of the subject.

A lot of talk about healthy eating and rest, self-monitoring and social support, conserving willpower and formation of habits but very little, in comparison, to motivation, goals and purpose. All these are mentioned, yes, but not enough I felt, given that they seem to me to be essential to willpower. More...

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Feb 15, 2012

Bruce rated it:

Interesting is perhaps the best way to describe this book. Unlike most self-help books, it's main proponent is that difficult work is absolutely necessary to lead a better life - that the instant gratification culture we inhabit will ultimately leave us feeling hollow.

It's dramatically refreshing, and in-between summaries of thousands of psychological studies, it offers useful advice for how to apply, ration and ultimately improve your willpower and hopefully your life. I'll certainly More...

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Jan 24, 2012

Elizabeth rated it:

I thought I would need a lot of willpower to read this, but it turned out to be a fun read. It's a bit meandering, and I'm not sure all the science holds up. It is thought provoking and informative on many fronts, though. The anecdotes of historical and celebrity figures add to the fun (if not the science). I love learning about what makes us tick. Especially fascinating is how glucose levels in the body affect our ability to make decisions, face temptations, etc. Also, willpower can be in More...

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Nov 18, 2011

Megan rated it:

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 reserves of willpower, and now I couldn't seem to muster it up to save my skin.
How could I have so much willpower and then suddenly, none?

Enter this incredibly fascinating book, at a time when I wanted to know the science of what willpower was and how More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 11, 2011

Maureen rated it:

I thought I would find this book interesting but it was so much better and more readable than even I expected. Based on well researched current science the authors make the point that willpower has a strong physical basis and that it can be strengthened like a muscle with practice but also fatigued by overuse. The notion that willpower can be strengthened by the most obvious things - sleeping enough, eating right, having realistic, manageable goals rather than overloaded, grandiose expectation More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 19, 2012

Jacobi rated it:

Honestly, about half way through this I was kind of wondering what the point was. It felt like the authors were throwing out a lot of ideas about how willpower works, how we diminish it, and how to enhance it. The problem I was having was some of the points felt a little contradictory, but then the end of the book wrapped everything up in a nice neat applicable bow, and all was good with the world.

The pop-science stuff was interesting (although I am dubious of some of the claims), a More...

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Nov 04, 2011

April rated it:

Months before I read this book, I read an article on how they tested MIT students' brains while multi tasking and found that they were actually less productive than if they only focused on one task. That is why when reading this book, I did not find anything that was new or outstanding. I enjoyed reading about the lab tests and about dieting. Other than that, I felt that most of the information they give about willpower is common sense. Hungry? You can't make good decisions because your gluc More...

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Dec 24, 2011

Eleanor rated it:

I'm a huge fan of applied psychology and cultural studies. It's what I do. But, as with any popularization of a scientific field, and one that is often under scrutiny for the very real conundrum of quantifying our daily and historical existence, this book too often minimalizes remaining questions that orbit much of the work it cites. Often, the read comes off as a marketing pamphlet for lifestyle products, strategies, and applications that currently saturate the self-help market (ones that may q More...

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Jan 08, 2012

T. rated it:

Better than The Secret, Dr Phil, Homeopathy - Willpower is the new hot psychology topic thats going to save humanity.

Ok comparison is a little harsh, Willpower has a strong emperical background, and all the information you need to diet (or not diet as you'll read) raise children, prevent procrasination (when its bad for you) and freeze yourself in a block of ice.

Despite having some heavy knowledge and strong science Willpower is an easy read and celebrity anecdote helps k More...

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