"The Willpower Instinct" book report

    "The Willpower Instinct" written by author Kelly McGonigal is a book that details the many ins and outs of willpower, and the common pitfalls related to why people seem to falter when it comes to trying to suppress their temptations and urges to preform acts that they know better not to partake in. Each chapter tackles a different angle of willpower whether it be in a biological sense, a practical sense, or even our social circles we stay in have an effect on our abilities to be able to resist temptation. As the author breaks things down the most consistent theme of the book is that willpower should be seen in the light of "I will", "I won't", and "I want" power as there is more to improving one's willpower than being able to say no to the things you want but don't really need. the author also stressed the importance of practicing a consistent upkeep of reminding yourself why exactly you are working towards improvement in the first place which could be achieved through many means such as meditation, a support group that you have to report back to on a consistent basis with your progress, or even just recording yourself giving your future you some words of encouragement when times get rough. 

    Each chapter also features a section where an anecdote is given from the author detailing an experiment that has been performed on other individuals either by themselves personally or just another research group entirely and the reader is encouraged to try applying the experiment to themselves in order to better tackle their own personal temptations and hopefully kick them for good. This is exactly what I tried doing for myself as I read the book, one of my favorite personal challenges put forth by the book was that of creating a set of rules you must follow before you allow yourself to indulge in a certain temptation. In chapter 3 the author notes that like a muscle, self-control can "run out of energy" which usually leads to the person giving into temptation much more easily and we cannot expect ourselves to just quit an addiction so easily as the desire to indulge yourself will keep chipping away at yourself control bit by bit until ultimately you give into yourself. The challenge the author proposes in order to help circumnavigate this issue is to set smaller time frames where you are absolutely not allowed to indulge yourself and once that time has passed if you are so please you can indulge yourself for however long you give yourself time to rest until you start the timer once again. This Challege is illustrated by a man who wanted to eat a more vegetarian based diet but would constantly struggle and relapse into eating meat until deciding that he would try to regulate himself into being "vegan before dinner" as in he would absolutely swear off meat until dinner came around and that was the point of the day he would let his guard down and eat meat which in turn would help him better fortify his willpower as he could rely on dinner time to help him say no to meat before then. Along with a few other challenges I would say that this idea the author put forth had the greatest impact on my own personal improvement as before I would just try to quit my own temptations outright and would almost always inevitably fail without really understanding why. This chapter in particular really resonated with me and I tried my own schedule of sorts giving a 3-day time period where I am not allowed to eat sweets until the 4th day where I am allowed to eat as many as I please until I reset the 3-day timer. Not only have I been able to stick to that ruleset I made for myself I've also noticed that I crave sweets less and less on the days that I am allowed to have it so much so that it seems plausible for me to extend the days to try and further exercise my ability to resist temptations which I can thank this book directly for helping me understand and improve upon. 

    Tying this book back to our classes I believe that the lecture slides on Incentives and Self-control most directly relate to this book. Impulsivity and Self-Control are more obvious considering the context of this book is all about improving one's willpower, but it is still important to note that most willpower conflicts are a result of 2 separate outcomes fighting for dominance and in most cases the one that is more instantly gratifying to yourself is the one that wins out. This happens for a plethora of reasons according to the author whether it be on a biological scale of having low blood sugar or a lower HRV (heart rate variability) or on a more literal scale where the brain treats your future self like a complete stranger and will usually choose what benefits you in the short term and brings you the most happiness as soon as possible. This issue can be balanced out by certain incentives put forth for yourself with a notable one being the idea that our brains hate losing something much more than gaining something leading to the practice
of reminding yourself all that you have to lose if you end up falling into temptation to help you keep on the path you have set for yourself. 

    To finish things off today, I will leave you all with 2 videos I have found that both touch a little bit more on the idea of overexerting your willpower as seen in the video below "Willpower is for losers" and I have also linked a more comprehensive overview on "The Willpower Instinct" detailing each portion of the book and how it relates to our lives in general.