The Willpower Instinct

The Willpower Instinct – Kelly McGonigal

Whether we want to lose weight, save money, quit a bad habit, exercise more or stop procrastinating, willpower plays a central role in achieving our goals. Yet many of us feel we simply do not have enough of it. In The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It, Stanford University health psychologist Kelly McGonigal explains the science of self-control and how to strengthen it.

Based on her popular course at Stanford, McGonigal draws on research from psychology, neuroscience, economics and medicine to explore how willpower works. She describes self-control as three powers: I will, the ability to do things that are difficult; I won’t, the ability to resist temptation; and I want, the ability to remember what we truly want in the long run.

The book examines why willpower fails, from stress, fatigue and low blood sugar to the way our brains respond to the promise of reward, the tendency to give ourselves permission to indulge after being good, and the influence of other people’s behavior. McGonigal also explores why guilt and self-criticism tend to backfire, and why self-compassion can be more effective.

Each chapter includes practical exercises and experiments that readers can try in their own lives to observe their habits and build self-control.

Engaging, research-based and practical, The Willpower Instinct is a valuable read for anyone who wants to understand their own behavior and make lasting changes. Some studies discussed have since been re-examined by researchers.