The WillPower Instinct Report

Julianne Santos 

Motivation 

Professor Berg 

May 1, 2020

The Willpower Instinct Report

The Willpower Instinct is written by a health psychologist, Kelly McGonigal. Her profession entails that she helps her clients deal and cope with their stress and make positive changes. In this book the main focus is willpower in which she divides into 3 different categories i will power, i won’t power, and i want power. This book provides examples and ways to use your willpower to self improve and reach long term goals you may have. Because a majority of times will power is used in a negative matter if perceived the wrong way. She basically states that you are the only person that really holds yourself back from reaching certain goals if you allow yourself too. 

One chapter that stood out to me was when she explained that we tend to have some times where we do “good” and have great will power. Or there are other times where we don't have as much willpower and do “bad.” However what we tend to do is justify our bad because we did good. I resonate with that because a lot of the times when I work out afterwards I would eat junk food and remind myself “it is okay, I worked out today” or “i will work it off tomorrow.” When in reality I should be glad I worked out because it is something I want to do as well as tell myself I will not eat unhealthy and have self control and willpower.  I need to stop thinking of things as rewards and rather continue to have the same mindset every single day and remind myself constantly why I am behaving “good.”

Now although i just explained that thinking of bad behavior as a reward this next chapter uses rewards in a positive way. For example when you think of future goals the reward you will receive is a positive reward. Hypothetically speaking if your goal was to get a specific job, the reward may be financial compensation. Financial compensation will be a positive reward because there was no “bad” behavior done to receive the reward. These benefits that you will receive once you reach your goal can serve as motivation to do “good” and have enough willpower. 

The last chapter to really catch my eye was chapter 8. Chapter 8 describes that the environment around you and the people around can have an affect on your willpower. It basically states that if the people surrounding you don't have as much willpower as you then you won't feel the need to have willpower either. This was really relatable because if you have friends who don't have any goals or anything going for them at all chances are you're not going to try and reach your goals you will just settle. That is why personally I like to surround myself with friends who have aspirations and have the willpower to get there. It may not have to be the same aspirations but if we are constantly motivating each other to reach our goals then chances are we will both achieve it. 

This book teaches personal ways to better yourself and i think it’s perfect for anyone who feels like they do not have any willpower to reach their goals. I wish i would have tried more of the experiments but from the ones i have tried they definitely do help. And even though the book is very relatable and we know when we have self control or lack it. It helps to understand why we do the things we do.