Rediscovering the
Greatest Human Strength: WILL POWER
By: Roy F. Baumeister & John Tierney
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I chose this book, because the title caught my
interest. Though I do not remember specifically why, I know that willpower was
actually on my mind at the time; so the whole entire idea of rediscovering
willpower in humans intrigued me. I think this book was an excellent choice and
I genuinely am glad I chose it and read it. It
was not just a boring text book of all this factual information, this book
was interesting to read; as it combined popular media with known celebrities with
interesting stories and ideas with actual research.
The authors of the book are Roy F.
Baumeister & John Tierney. Baumeister is a psychology professor and a
well-known social psychologist who has done work involving the self, social
rejection, self-control, self-esteem, and overall I feel he is an expert on
human self-control and willpower. He has
written mostly academic books designed for the academic minded and for academic
purposes. Tierney is Baumeister's co-author and is a journalist for the New York Times as well as an author, coauthoring in a few parody 'self-help books). In my judgment this book is credible. I feel it is well-written and enjoyable and understandable for everyone who is interested in reading it. I would not consider this book a strict academic or scholarly book though, I feel it is well researched and well backed up, but is not a pure academic book. If someone wanted to read a purely research or scholarly book on willpower this book will be a great gateway toward those readings (through its references-which were very well organized based on chapter). It is a great read, very informational and powerful, bu not what I personally consider and academic book. I think this book could be read by anyone though and will be enjoyable and useful; I think having some psychology background information would be useful, but not necessary to understand the book.
History
I liked how the book
started out with the short history of the ideas of will-power; and how the idea
of willpower has been thought of as nothing more than avoiding public disgrace,
to a moral virtue, to a kind of force, and even to an energy. The idea of
willpower started to decline (due to the ideology of willpower in Nazi Germany)
and the fact people were more concern about what their neighbors thought they
did, rather than what they actually did or were capable of. The ideology of ‘believe
it, achieve it’ became quite popular and the beginning of self-help or guru
books of willpower began. Eventually popular culture began idealizing
self-indulgent behavior in the 1970s and ideas of what people thought of
willpower was mostly a thing of the past. People were more interested and more
comfortable with looking for external factors rather than human ability to consciously
control themselves, which most psychologists have been rather suspicious of.
Baumeister in the 1970s was working on research involving self-esteem and
discovered that people who had higher self-worth and a self-image were happier
and more successful, though that seems rather obvious now, it started a wave in
popular culture of bestselling books talking about improving self-esteem and self-empowerment.
It was not until the 1980s when some researchers became interested in an idea
of self-regulation-which led to Baumeister’s own work.
Though to be honest
this little short history in the first few pages was not necessary to the
overall book, I really did enjoyed it and I thought it was a great way to start
the book, as I never really thought of the history of the idea of self-control
or willpower, nor have I ever thought that what I think or what people think
today about it, is completely different than what has been thought of it.
Unconscious Self-Control
Self-Control is very useful and is a vital key for success
in life. This book shows that self-control is
a better predictor of college grades than the student’s IQ or SAT
score.
Why?
Students who had visible self-control went to class, did their homework,
started their homework earlier, watched less TV…… I mean I’m a college student
and though before reading this book I never thought of myself as having great
self-control, but I have a decent GPA of 3.22 and I go to class regularly, do my
homework-though not early, and know when I have to shut of the TV or computer
to do my work.
One thing this book brought to my attention, was how many
things that I and so many other people don’t do things out of social norms, but
yet we never really consider not doing things as a form of self-control. I
mean before reading this book I always saw self-control or willpower as a
conscious effort of doing something.
I consciously try do my homework, but find myself watching
my favorite TV show, going on Tumblr, listening to music, or going on walks,
instead of doing my homework. I never really saw the fact that I actually at
one point stop procrastinating and do my homework and hand it on time some form of self-control.
I always look at the fact that when I set up my alarm early
I don’t wake up until the third alarm, not the fact that I set my first alarm
earlier than I actually have to wake up-because I know I will shut my alarm off a few
times before I actually wake up.
I feel that this is applicable to everyone. We always focus
on the stuff we consciously fail at and never the stuff we unconsciously do all
the time-that are actually acts of some daring degrees of self-control.
I go to class even when I don’t want to and never go over
the above allowed absences. I do my homework, I hand it in on time, and overall
I do fairly well.
Everyone focuses on the fact that if there was
cake in the room we would eat it (‘losing our self-control'), but we never
focus on the fact that most adults have a means of transportation, ten dollars
to spare, and quite literally as adults have the ability to walk into a bakery
and order a birthday cake anytime we want and eat it by ourselves. I mean that’s completely possible and most people love cake,
but no one does that (or at least I don’t do it and the people I know don’t do
it).
So why not?
Because we never have thought of doing it
Well clearly I have thought about
it and I have yet to buy a cake other than for a special occasion and
I have certainly not eaten it by myself.
Health Conscious
I know
I’ll get sick if I eat whole entire cake,
but I mean it’s not like I can’t save it. And even if it’s just the whole
entire idea of I don’t want to eat a whole entire cake because it’s so many
calories, and though that it is true, it certainly doesn’t stop me when I’m a
near a cake.
Social Norms
I mean
honestly who is going to know other than me. So why would that matter?
Despite all of that and how many times I can rationalize to
myself of how I can go and get a cake any damn time I want to, I’m still not
going to do it. It’s not a difficult choice for me to make-but does that make
it any less self-control?
Does that fact that going to class is habitual and natural
for me-make the fact I get up to go to class any less self-control? Does it show that I have no self-control, that right before
writing this sentence I was on Tumblr, or does it show that I actually do have self-control
by the fact instead of staying on Tumblr I left to continue working on this.
I feel like a lot people will not see me continuing to write
this paper/blog as self-control, because it’s something I have to do. But
really is anything we really do, really something we HAVE to do. I mean sure
there are consequences if I don’t write this blog, but my life is not on the
line here. I still conceivably could pass the class (though that’s debatable)-but
yet I’m still writing this blog and aiming to do a good job on it.
For example let's take something where there is no consequence, or no loss
of money, grade, or ect.
Take Saturday, April 6, 2013—It was the Big Event
Though I signed up for the afternoon shift, I was assigned the
morning shift, but I still went. I went to bed at a reasonable time of 12:30am
and I officially woke up at 8:00am, went to register in and I went-whacked some
weeds, painted a sign, and cleaned up the yard area of a community center for
three hours. Is that self-control?
I mean
I wanted to continue catching up on my favorite TV-show that I’ve been missing
since of all my homework, but I stopped and went to bed. I set my alarm around
7:30, because I knew it was going to take me awhile to get up. Yet, even at
8:00am I was still tired and didn’t want to leave my warm bed-I still
physically got up and got ready. I went to the community center and that was
it.
No one forced me to go and there would have no severe or
even little consequences of me not going.
I still went, yet 3 out of the 7 people who were supposed to
go to the community center didn’t show up. One who I know went to a party the
night before and though he set his alarm still didn’t get up. So I feel there is
some self-control and will power for the people who (two of the girls in the
group-were the hosts of the little party) physically got up and went, despite
not wanting to.
One thing I love about this book, is it it makes me feel
good about all the stuff I have never really thought of. I think in many ways
this book really inspirational and motivational, because it doesn’t put fault
for you not doing something, it encourages you to reset your goals and try
harder, and it also praises you for the
stuff you have done.
I mean if I have chips in my room, I am going to eat them,
and yes that is something I should work on and reset my goals from not eating the chips to measuring out a cup of chips and then putting the chips away (Which I actually did when my roommate offered me chips and it worked out.
But I should also commend myself
for the fact that I go pass the chips aisle in the grocery store all the time,
but never buy any. In fact I rarely buy any junk food while in the grocery despite
having the ability to do so, so though that may not seem like a big thing for some
people it is something to note and think about.
Positive
Procrastination
Is basically a very successful
technique in avoiding doing something in the promise you will do it later. It
overall works better, because you are not completely denying yourself. I never
really thought of this technique as having self-control, as I do it all the
time, but I always thought of it as a ‘cheap’ trick to get my self to do
something.
I generally promise
myself after I write a page or two pages of a paper I can watch Community or
Psych afterwards. Or I tell myself after I complete these two things for tomorrow, I can catch
up on Game of Thrones.
Overall this
technique works for me, but sometimes I reward myself more than I deserve. So I
should definitely work on that, by setting myself more realistic goals and
goals I know that I can do.
People
One thing I really liked about this book was how it related famous people (all of who I knew and most of who I liked) to research. One person I like was Amanda
Palmer
A musician who I enjoy, but when she was brought up in the
beginning of the book, my first thought was not will power or self-control, but
her music video of Runs in the Family
Which honestly doesn’t give the image of a self-control. But I like how the book went into her days as a living statue and how the act of doing nothing was more difficult than anything. The book related Amanda's story to the Radish Experiment, where college students had to resist the urge to eat chocolate chip cooking after they had been fasting (which just seem impossible), but no one had any. Some smelled or were close, but no ate the chocolate chip cookies. The college students then had to solve puzzles (insoluble) and they were observed to see how long until they gave up. The students who were suppose to resist the cookies had less energy to do the puzzles than the students who were allowed to have the cookies.
This showed that will-power is like a muscle, it gets weary after it's been in a conscious, heavy work out, but like any muscle it can be worked on and it can be strengthened.
Overall
I really did enjoy this book. I thought the techniques, stories, and research all worked together and I could apply them to my studying techniques and even in my attempts to lose some weight. This book while your reading it really does make you want to do something and be active, which in my case was bad because I had to read the book so doing something else was my procrastination.
One thing that inspired me from this book was procrastinating with other work. Which I have actually done before, but I have never really focused on. The basic idea is while I'm procrastinating doing work, I can focus on other work that is less demanding, but still work. Even though I am not doing what I am supposed to be doing, I am still get work done.
I think the best thing about the book is that it is realistic. It recognizes doing stuff and putting conscious effort is sometimes really difficulty, so the book emphasizes on working up to big goals and setting realistic and small goals at first and build yourself up.
Another good thing about this book is it does show you all the stuff you don't do out of laziness or whatever, but at least for me it never made me feel bad about it. It also makes you realize all the stuff you can do and have actually done, and it makes you feel good about them
One thing I did not like about the book was at times, though rarely, it did kind of come off as another cheesy self-help book. Once or twice in the book I thought it was honestly going to list me 10 top ways do 'this' or 'this', or the 15 top reasons why you don't do 'this ' or 'this'. Overall though the book never did that, or if it did, I clearly overlooked it and it was well done, because I tend to notice those cheesy lists.
I think the take home from this book is that willpower and self-control is real and it is a usable 'muscle'. It is there and you do you use it, like all your muscles, but you need to work on it and put effort into it so you can easily 'lift 50 pounds'. You need to build yourself up slowly and realistically so you can accomplish what you want, it's pointless to start off with pointless giant goals you know you're not going to do, and it is better to start with small goals you add to your daily life and are doable and continually add upon until you are doing that big goal that was once impossible.
We are all capable of having self-control and will power, because it is a human aspect, and it is important to us in our everyday lives.
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| Rating: 4/5 Stars |
Word Count-2709
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References:
Baumeister, F. R., & Tierney, J. (2011). Rediscovering the greatest human strength: Willpower.
Penguin Group, New York City, NY.
Images/Video Links
http://aminaalhalawani98.wordpress.com/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/willpower-roy-f-baumeister/1100482735
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i0o3JRaF2g
