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257 reviews for:
The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It
Kelly McGonigal
4.1 AVERAGE
257 reviews for:
The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It
Kelly McGonigal
4.1 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
As someone struggling with self discipline, I found this book extremely helpful and encouraging.
I’ve always been fascinated by behavioural psychology. In this work, the author invites us to look at the concept of self control and willpower from a scientific perspective. I feel like it could have been shorter, but still I enjoyed the idea.
It’s not only theoretically feasible but also offers a multitude of practical solutions. I’m sure anyone can find at least some applicable experiments and see how it goes. I’ve highlighted so many things for future reference 📚
Personally, I found that The Willpower Instinct gave me a lot to think about. Hopefully, I can get a little more mindful about my own behaviour and put what I learned in practice.
I’ve always been fascinated by behavioural psychology. In this work, the author invites us to look at the concept of self control and willpower from a scientific perspective. I feel like it could have been shorter, but still I enjoyed the idea.
It’s not only theoretically feasible but also offers a multitude of practical solutions. I’m sure anyone can find at least some applicable experiments and see how it goes. I’ve highlighted so many things for future reference 📚
Personally, I found that The Willpower Instinct gave me a lot to think about. Hopefully, I can get a little more mindful about my own behaviour and put what I learned in practice.
Es un libro súper potente, con una teoría muy interesante, pero que tiene un gran problema: su estructura.
El libro está basado en un curso de 10 semanas que la autora imparte y la adaptación de curso a libro les ha salido más bien mal. Además, cada capítulo está lleno de cosas a poner en práctica, que mezcladas con la cantidad ingente de ejemplos que nos facilita, abruman bastante a la hora de leer.
Creo que es un libro para leer una segunda vez o para, una vez leído, crear una lista de deberes por orden y aplicarla, a capítulo por semana, para así cumplir con las 10 semanas de curso y aplicación.
Me ha dado mucha rabia, porque es un libro muy bueno y con una teoría potente, por lo que le podría haber puesto mucha más nota, pero cuando la estructura interrumpe o perturba el aprendizaje y la lectura, entonces es algo que no se puede pasar por alto.
Lo dicho: gran teoría con una pésima ejecución.
El libro está basado en un curso de 10 semanas que la autora imparte y la adaptación de curso a libro les ha salido más bien mal. Además, cada capítulo está lleno de cosas a poner en práctica, que mezcladas con la cantidad ingente de ejemplos que nos facilita, abruman bastante a la hora de leer.
Creo que es un libro para leer una segunda vez o para, una vez leído, crear una lista de deberes por orden y aplicarla, a capítulo por semana, para así cumplir con las 10 semanas de curso y aplicación.
Me ha dado mucha rabia, porque es un libro muy bueno y con una teoría potente, por lo que le podría haber puesto mucha más nota, pero cuando la estructura interrumpe o perturba el aprendizaje y la lectura, entonces es algo que no se puede pasar por alto.
Lo dicho: gran teoría con una pésima ejecución.
Everyone should read this. This book looks at willpower, why some people have lots of it and others don’t, as well as impulsive behaviors and why some people give in to them more easily than others. Through the lenses of psychology, neuroscience, politics, business and economics, I learned a ton and reflected on my own habits and behaviors.
I listened to it and probably would have absorbed better in written format. Some parts were contradictory - the power of shame, but the danger of shame? The last chapter seemed to contradict a lot of the earlier material - we spent significant time talking about NOT doing things just to be told later, that this method can be ineffective. I can’t count the number of times weight loss is mentioned throughout, then in the conclusion, we debunk restrictive eating. Some good ideas and exercises. But I understand why it was taught as a class first.
"The Willpower Instinct: How Self-control Works, Why It Matters, And What You Can Do To Get More Of It" by Kelly Mcgonigal is a well-written self-help/science book about self-control. McGonigal wrote the book from a course she developed at Stanford University called 'the science of willpower". Unlike many self-help books, McGonigal doesn't prescripe what to do to get more self-control. Rather, she explores what is scientifically known. Willpower, she defines as being summed up by "I will", "I won't", and "I want". That is, to say yes when you need to say yes, and no when you mean no, and to have the motivation to set a goal, to want something. The reader therefore is invited to take insights from the latest evidence and, perhaps, apply it to there own self-control goal: weight-loss, exercise, etc.
As someone who listens to a lot of Skeptic podcasts and follows a lot of the research about cognitive biases and the ways in which our minds don't work the way we think they do... I already knew about a lot of the studies in this book. If you think this sounds like you, just keep that in mind before buying. There isn't likely to be much new here for you.
However, There were a few interesting suggestions and ways of looking at things, so I feel like I didn't waste my time reading this book, and can definitely recommend it for someone who hasn't read much on the subject before.
It is a lot shorter than you think it is because of an extensive bibliography which kicked in at about 78% on my kindle copy. I'm glad the sources are all listed here, but annoyingly, they weren't cited in the text itself at all, and it's rather inconvenient to sift through the cites after the fact. This might not bother some at all, though.
However, There were a few interesting suggestions and ways of looking at things, so I feel like I didn't waste my time reading this book, and can definitely recommend it for someone who hasn't read much on the subject before.
It is a lot shorter than you think it is because of an extensive bibliography which kicked in at about 78% on my kindle copy. I'm glad the sources are all listed here, but annoyingly, they weren't cited in the text itself at all, and it's rather inconvenient to sift through the cites after the fact. This might not bother some at all, though.
Can't recommend it enough. I'm a big believer in research and this book both presents a ton of research and sets you up as your own research project. Scientists don't judge (as good or bad) the outcomes of a study, they objectively observe and experiment. That's what this book invites you to do - observe your behavior without judgement and experiment with different strategies.
I really enjoyed this book. It was full of interesting concepts that referenced research done in the field of Willpower. It would be interesting to have a chance to take her class. The one issue was that some of the concepts could be contradictory. Don’t focus on progress, but don’t be negative. There were some good concrete examples of things to try and it has made more aware of some of the willpower challenges. Good examples from research, but very readable.
Really nicely structured as a book. Brings in lots of interesting experiments around willpower and how we can learn from them to more easily reach our goals.
I did find that there were a few contradictions within the findings of the experiments that I was hoping McGonigal would address - i.e. how some experiences have found that feeling bad (guilt and shame) to lead to a reduction in willpower, but then other studies have found that feeling positive (proud of yourself for doing good things) can ALSO lead to a reduction in willpower. The book addresses it in a slightly more nuanced way than that, but I still think some more critical commentary on the limits of planning our lives based on the findings from these studies could have been helpful.
But yeah... overall, very practical and accessible for a book on the science of willpower.
I did find that there were a few contradictions within the findings of the experiments that I was hoping McGonigal would address - i.e. how some experiences have found that feeling bad (guilt and shame) to lead to a reduction in willpower, but then other studies have found that feeling positive (proud of yourself for doing good things) can ALSO lead to a reduction in willpower. The book addresses it in a slightly more nuanced way than that, but I still think some more critical commentary on the limits of planning our lives based on the findings from these studies could have been helpful.
But yeah... overall, very practical and accessible for a book on the science of willpower.