The Houseful Reads: The Willpower Instinct

Lucky for me, I was compensated for this BlogHer Book Club review. Lucky for you all opinions expressed are my own.

6

How Self Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It
~Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D

Okay, I’ll just go ahead and admit it. I am not really good with my willpower.
There.
I admitted it.
I have a bit of an issue when it comes to lots of things (not to be shared at the moment, maybe when I get better with controlling it.) and I know that I need to do better, yet I still don’t.

Enter the opportunity to give myself a virtual slap with The Willpower Instinct: How Self Control Works, Why it Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It by Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D

Enter another opportunity for me to get an even bigger slap in a chapter that starts off with McGill University, a rat, and the pleasure center of the brain, and ends with me realizing why seeing a new purse in Target sends me into a fit of glee.

My biology loving brain was engrossed so much in this book that it took me a while to realize that I might possibly be the only person with no sheer amount of willpower when it comes to shopping. All because of dopamine. The anticipation of a reward will send me over the fiscal cliff if I allow it.

>sigh<

Such a hard pill for me to swallow, yet I got it down.

She brings to light some other arenas that get the dopamine levels in our bodies heightened. Guess what? FACEBOOK is one of them. I’m pretty sure most of you know the main culprits:

Food, Alcohol, Shopping, Sex. But, FACEBOOK? Say it isn’t so!

McGonigal breaks down the how and why we are able to be seduced by big markets, and how we can go about practicing self control better than our elementary school teachers ever imagined.

So, tell me, how good is your willpower? Are there areas in your life where you know if you go to a certain place, or see a certain thing, you just HAVE to have it?

Let me know in the comments, OR come and join the conversation HERE. I’m pretty positive you’ll make some interesting discoveries about your willpower.