#531: How to Best Harness Your Willpower

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2019

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many of our goals in life -- from losing weight to saving more money -- require willpower. But what is willpower anyway, why does it feel like it fails us so often, and what can we do to make better use of it My guest today explores the answers to these questions in her book: The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It. Her name is Kelly McGonigal, and she's a psychology professor at Stanford. We begin our discussion discussing what exactly willpower is, how it can be described as an instinct, and what goes on in your brain when you utilize it. We also unpack the idea that there are really three different types of willpower: I won't power, I will power, and I want power, and how these powers can be increased. We then spend the rest of our discussion digging into the limitations of willpower, so we can avoid putting ourselves in situations where it's likely to fail us. We talk about how shame, the people who surround us, and even, ironically, making progress with our goals, can all lead to the sapping or loosening of our willpower. We end our conversation with Kelly's best tips for getting the most out your willpower. Get the show notes at aom.is/willpower.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Let's go.
0:07.4	Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.
0:10.6	Now many of our goals in life from losing weight to saving more money require willpower.
0:14.7	But what is willpower anyway?
0:16.2	Why does it feel like it often fails us and what can we do to make better use of it?
0:19.8	My guests say explores the answers to these questions in our book The Willpower Instinct,
0:23.7	how self-control works, why it matters and what you can do to get more of it.
0:27.0	Our name is Kelly McGonigal, she's a psychology professor at Stanford University.
0:30.6	We begin our discussion discussing what exactly willpower is, how it can be described as an
0:34.7	instinct, and what goes on in our brains when we utilize willpower.
0:37.9	We also unpack the idea that there are really three different types of willpower.
0:41.1	I won't power, I willpower, and I want power, and how these powers can be increased.
0:45.8	We then spend the rest of our discussion digging into the limitations of willpower so we
0:49.4	can avoid putting ourselves in a situation where it's likely to fail us.
0:52.6	We talk about how shame the people who surround us and even ironically making progress
0:56.9	with our goals can all lead to loosening our willpower.
1:00.2	We enter a conversation with Kelly's best tips for getting the most out of our willpower.
1:03.6	I have to show this over, check out our show notes at a.o.m.ias slash you know it willpower.
1:08.1	Kelly joins me now via clearcast.io.
1:10.1	Alright Kelly McGonigal, welcome to the show.
1:20.9	Thank you for having me.
1:22.3	So you are a psychologist that has spent her career, you spent your career researching,
	...

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