Reddit Reddit reviews Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

We found 19 Reddit comments about Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Books
Self-Help
Motivational Self-Help
Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength
willpower, strength
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19 Reddit comments about Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength:

u/fundraiser · 22 pointsr/explainlikeimfive

Humans have a cognitive need for [closure](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_(psychology); we strive to lessen ambiguity and "fill-in the blank" whenever we have the opportunity to do so.

The reason songs get stuck in our head is because a catchy bit or chorus gets played back in our mind over and over, while the rest of the song is neglected. While we may enjoy hearing that one part, our brain is desperately trying to solve the puzzle and complete the rest of the song. This is why if you have an earworm, you should listen to the entire song and chances are good you'll rid yourself of the endless loop.

This phenomena was explained in a fantastic book about willpower by social psychologists Baumeister and Tierney. I highly recommend picking up this book (link to Amazon), especially if you're attempting to make major changes in your life (losing weight, quitting smoking, etc.). It's not a self-help book as the authors aren't selling you their magical plan, just offering you years and years of data that shows how you approach your diet is wrong :)

EDIT: Just to clarify, there are many theories on why earworms exist, but the data that was presented in the willpower book had the most validity. Here's a link to some other theories and subsequent research so you can decide for yourself.

u/AmaDaden · 13 pointsr/askscience

According to Willpower:Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength it is. I read the book a few months ago. I'm a little fuzzy on the details but from what I remember it said some of the following interesting points on willpower

  • It can be fatigued. If you use your willpower to do one thing you will be less able to do something else later.

  • You can use an endless supply of tricks to conserve your willpower. (see the marshmallow experiment

  • As many people said it's linked to feel good neurochemicals like Dopamine (I forget what exactly they mentioned in the book). Also it's linked to blood sugar. Hungry people have less self control for everything even for things that have nothing to do with them eating.

  • You can strengthen it by excising it. Just ask David Blaine

    Over all if you have an interest in willpower at all I recommend the book. However don't expect any magic tricks from it that give you unlimited willpower, this list covers what I thought was most useful.
u/[deleted] · 7 pointsr/GetMotivated

For a scientific underpinning of what has been said multiple times in this thread, I HIGHLY recommend the book willpower by Roy Baumeister, a renowned psychologist (amazon link)

If you are like me and are a little distrusting of the "motivational speaker" type stuff that gets posted here a lot and would like to have a scientific understanding of how willpower works, how best to actually get some stuff to change and what pitfalls to avoid, this is the book for you.

This and getmotivated have really helped me better myself and become more productive and happy in the process. I'm far from there yet, but I see a lot of progress and will hopefully have the stamina to get good enough grades to get into a great phd program thanks to my hard work.

But I still have a lot to work on, I don't work out nearly enough, I still smoke and I'm still kind of messy. But pacing is key, I try not getting worse in those aspects while becoming less of a pathological procrastinator. starting in the summer, when the brunt of my classes is over, I will start focussing on other areas in my life to become the best me that I can be!

u/ShaolinGoldenPalm · 7 pointsr/aspergers

Sorry- that day got quite out of hand. (Not) incidentally, I have moderate-severe ADHD, with all the attendant issues with focus and follow-up. Though I don't have A.S., my husband does, so I've got a multi-faceted perspective on this issue.

I am learning to overcome the ADHD with a system I've designed for myself, from a few different things:

  1. The Pomodoro technique. Basically, you set a timer for 25 minutes, and begin executing a task / objective. When the time goes off, you stop- even if you're not done- and re-set the timer for 5 minutes. You take a 5-minute break. When the timer goes off again, you resume your task, or take stock to make sure that's what you should really be doing. Here's the website, or download a cheat sheet.


  2. Getting Things Done technique; I use the inbox / task flow / ToDo List methods. Combined with the Pomodoro Technique, it's a fail-proof system for ensuring I execute tasks in the order of highest priority, whether I want to do them or not. This system ensures I'm never wasting valuable time on inessential tasks, while elegantly preventing procrastination.

  3. I keep a journal of what I'm doing whenever the Pomodoro timer goes off, below by daily ToDo list. It helps me see when I'm getting off track. The most valuable skill I've learned over the few months I've been doing this is the habit of thinking, "what am I doing right now, and how does it help me achieve my objectives?"

  4. Also, an "Energy management journal:" I track my intake of food, sleep, water, and exercise. Though I don't do anything like graph the data, the act of writing it down holds me accountable, and increases the likelihood that I'll make wise choices. If I'm having an unproductive day/week, I can usually trace it to a preceding disturbance in one of the above habits, so I've learned to take care of myself, if I want to perform well.


    I recommend looking into whether any of the above could help with the challenges you're facing. My husband now swears by the Pomodoro technique; it helps him get started on larger projects, and also stops him every 25 minutes, so he's never hyperfocusing so long that he forgets to eat/sleep, etc.


    Speaking of body maintenance, the most important thing you can do for your overall well-being is exercise. Strength training is preferable, supplemented by cardio, but no matter what you're thinking right now, check out this book. Sticking to a regular weightlifting routine has improved my productivity far more than anything else ever did (even my Adderall prescription). When you feel physically better, far more things are possible. For further reference, check out these books, too.


    Tl,dr; Learn to manage your time & energy; you'll be better equipped to improve your own focus and follow-up. Meanwhile, your former therapist has no excuse.
u/akincisor · 4 pointsr/TwoXChromosomes

Maintaining a healthy body composition (for which weight is a poor, lagging metric), is important no matter what anyone else thinks. The problem is that a healthy diet is not a matter of (direct) self control.

Most diets lead to bad eating habits because you ignore your body's cues and eat by the clock. Please read this book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594203075/ref=oh_o01_s00_i00_details

It outlines how diet is directly linked to will power and how dieting is counterproductive. Use your will power to create healthy habits (like exercising and eating home cooked meals where you decide the ingredients). Don't go on a diet. When faced with temptation, tell yourself that you'll eat it later rather than cutting things out of your diet entirely. Never have a calorie limit. Just measure the calories and try to minimize.

Have your husband read the book too. It will help him understand your problems and give him ideas on how he can help. You need to work together since social support is the best correlated variable to weight loss.

u/throwaway7850 · 3 pointsr/NoFap

Science agrees with you on your thoughts about willpower: here is a great book that was extremely informative to me on the subject.

There is one thing I would caution NoFappers against, that I have learned personally and had reiterated by this book, is that self-control is a finite resource, so we should try not to create too many new habits at once. Meditation and cold showers are great for building willpower, but we shouldn't try to go on a strict new diet at the same time as starting NoFap; you will use all of your willpower avoiding the temptation of the doughnut shop down the street and then end up fapping like a maniac when you get home. I would say you should let NoFap get to the point where it isn't a day to day struggle (90 days?) before you make any other drastic changes.

u/OmicronNine · 3 pointsr/psychology

> What surprised me about this was that I'd tried doing this in my head many times, with no success. Somehow, externalizing my problems on paper has really helped me look at them objectively.

I've got another book suggestion that can shed some more light on that, if you're interested.

u/ceader · 2 pointsr/intj

I guess my place is a bit of an organized mess but I don’t let others even use my personal things and never have—one of the first things I bought as a kid was a safe for my toys.

If cleaning for others was one of my chores then there is no doubt it would be a problem. I got this book Willpower for this type as well as more important things I should be doing.

u/badmotherfuhrer · 2 pointsr/GetMotivated

If you're the science type, you should definitely check out Willpower. It's a collection of studies done by Roy Baumeister, a heavy hitter in the realm of social psychology. I've been reading it and it just gets me thinking about how I can use the scientific knowledge to change the world around me, making it difficult to do anything but accomplish my goals.

So, uh, yeah, check it out.

u/RockInTheSea · 2 pointsr/books

I recommend the book Willpower (
http://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Rediscovering-Greatest-Human-Strength/dp/1594203075/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341226157&sr=8-1&keywords=willpower )
In it, the authors explore the current scientifical knowledge about willpower, what influences it etc. It's mainly a book about research results, not a How-To-Guide, but there is a lot of interesting facts and I found it helps to know why one lacks self-discipline if you want to train it

u/asidowhatido · 2 pointsr/stopsmoking

i would highly recomend reading this book as you start your journey. it will give you a lot better insight into stopping then just white knuckling it... biggest advice is focus on one thing at a time. you only have enough will power to diet or stop smoking. overloading yourself will result in relapse. you are young and have plenty of time for self improvement. take small well planted steps and you will be amazed at how far you can travel. GOOD LUCK

u/mrlanious · 1 pointr/GetMotivated

If you are going to succeed at all these things simultaneously, you are awesome. By all means do this, be like a wolf ... but in case you fail (not to suggest that I expect you do), don't give all these things up at once. If you do not succeed with these high aspirations, do not be afraid to lower them somewhat.

So; what you should not do, I repeat, WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT DO, is use little failures as an excuse for total failure. Also, read this book and you'll understand why I'm giving the advice above.

u/quenta · 1 pointr/GetMotivated

Makes sense.

>A person really willing to quit would do things like only carry the amount they need each day, and employ other strategies that are proven to work.


I don't know why it didn't occur to me to read up on methods shown to work. Thanks for the comment, I've ordered a well rated bookon this very subject. Time to quit guessing my way to success and read up on how others have manged to be success full.

It's like what John of Salisbury said about learning from major thinkers:


""We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours."

u/mariox19 · 1 pointr/ADHD

You need to read this book on willpower. It doesn't work the way you think it does, and you need to cut yourself some slack and learn how to work with what you've got. Go get it at the library if you can't afford the 15 bucks.

u/plucesiar · 1 pointr/psychology

Baumeister's recent book on Willpower is an excellent read on this topic for the layman. Link

u/rogueman999 · 1 pointr/askscience

In addition to the links already posted, I'd add Baumeister with his excellent work on willpower (link on amazon)

Also probably the most useful piece of research I found was in Handbook of Self-regulation, specifically a piece by Alexander Rothman, Austin Baldwin and Andrew Hertel. (here's the link on google books - warning, it's not light). Some of it is also in the Baumeister book above.

Long story short, the most useful approach is to set up things so that you don't need willpower in order to work, and that's best done by creating habits. There's lots we know about the science of creating habits, easily enough to make it doable.

u/fuck_gawker · 1 pointr/pornfree

Gotta hack your own brain. I'm doing it now: Willpower

That strong temptation thing, yeah it's a bitch! Referring to the book, it talks about how your glucose levels are a big factor when fighting the temptation of giving in to feel good. Lot's of other stuff, but that blood sugar thing made the most sense (and biggest impact) on me.

EDIT: When willpower isn't enough: I have put a hosts file on my machines that prevents access to a list of sites I like (I know, it's easy to comment out shit, but still, it's an extra step that may give me pause before I get caught in the loop). I also set up my DNS server to route me to sites that can knock me out of the porn loop (and yeah it's easy to change the network settings on the local machine to use another DNS server, but again it's another step that gives me a chance to breathe and think!)