Eat Your Way to Willpower...Sort Of

Ever heard of glucose? Maybe in connection with diabetics? Well, as it turns out it's not just important for them, but for all of us. So what exactly is it? According to the authors of Willpower, Roy Baumeister and John Tierney it is "...the simple sugar manufactured in the body from all kinds of foods, not just sweet ones." (p. 44) And as research has recently shown, it's vital to practicing self-control. Here are a few things you should keep in mind if you want to make sure you have enough glucose in your organism:

1) Feed the beast.
Meaning the potential demon inside you because of glucose depletion. Have a good breakfast, especially on days that you're stressed. Don't argue with your boss several hours after having had lunch. And I especially liked the authors' last example: "When you're on a romantic trip across Europe, don't drive into a walled medieval town at seven p.m. and try to navigate to your hotel on an empty stomach. Your car can probably survive the cobblestone maze, but your relationship might not." (p. 57) Nicely put.

One Step At A Time...

There are some things in life that take time; developing and improving your willpower is one of them. Most of us have at least one bad habit we would like to get rid of, but we keep making the same bad decisions, showing a lack of self-control and willpower. Why does this happen? There are probably several reasons, but let's start today's post with something called "ego depletion". Here's how John Tierney, one of the authors of Willpower. Why Self-Control is the Secret to Success describes it:

"Thus was born 'ego depletion,' Baumeister's term for describing people's diminished capacity to regulate their thoughts, feelings, and actions. People can sometimes overcome mental fatigue, but Baumeister found that if they had used up energy by exerting willpower (or by making decisions, another form of ego depletion that we'll discuss later), they would eventually succumb." (p. 28)

Uncovering The Secret To Success

That's what we'll be doing in the next few weeks, where we will be taking a closer look at a book entitled Willpower. Why Self-Control is the Secret to Success by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, a psychologist and a science writer who have teamed up to show the importance of self-control in all of our lives. Their subtitle is a pretty bold proposition to make, but the authors are not ashamed to state their case right in the introduction to their book. According to them, psychologists all over the world

Failure Is Not The End...

...In fact it can be the beginning of success if you react to it correctly. At least that's what Tim Harford would have you believe, author of the book Adapt. Why Success Always Starts With Failure. It is mainly written from an economic point of view and talks about helping the poor, climate change and financial crises. But in the very last chapter, Harford applies it all to you and me. And he basically identifies three possible (and negative) reactions to failure: denial, loss-chasing and hedonic editing. Here's what they each mean in a nutshell:

Please Stop Neglecting Me!

That's what some of my posts are saying right now. It's nice to have a list of your most popular posts (on the right hand side, if you haven't noticed yet), but what about the ones that have been somewhat overlooked by a lot of you? Well, I thought they deserved a second chance :-) And that's why today I present to you the four most neglected posts:

It's All Up To You...Well Almost (on being great)

Why Loneliness Is Worse Than Smoking

Have You Been Brandwashed?

Of Bottles and Mugs

Why Sunshine Is (totally) Overrated

Sunshine is great. I love sunshine. I've recently moved to Spain, where I get to enjoy more of it than I normally would in my home country of Germany. And it's healthy too, providing the body with the important Vitamin D, which keeps our bones healthy (among other things). But as humans, we tend to overrate the importance of sunshine (and climate in general) in our lives when it comes to rating our own happiness.

In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman relates an argument he had with his wife, in which she claimed that people in California are happier than those who live on the East Coast. He tried in vain to convince her that her intuitions about the importance of climate when considering someone's happiness were wrong, citing the Scandinavian countries as an example for some of the happiest people in the world. So what does a psychologist like him do when his wife won't listen to him? Of course, he sets up an experiment so he can prove it to her.

When Memory Trumps Experience

Ok, tell me this: have you ever shared an experience with someone (a friend, a family member, etc.) and afterwards had different memories of it? It was the exact same thing, but one of you thought it was amazing while the other still liked it, but maybe not as much. Why does that happen? I'm sure there are several reasons for it, but I'm only going to talk about one of them here: The truth of the two selves.

Now before you jump up and yell: "Hey, but I'm not schizophrenic!" (of course you're not), allow me to explain what that means... or you know what? I'll let someone do it who actually knows what he's talking about. Daniel Kahneman, author of the bestselling book Thinking, Fast and Slow talks about these two selves in the context of experiencing pain: