Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 2,400 ratings

Price: 15.75

Last update: 02-25-2025


About this item

One of the world's most esteemed and influential psychologists, Roy F. Baumeister, teams with New York Times science writer John Tierney to reveal the secrets of self-control and how to master it.

Pioneering research psychologist Roy F. Baumeister collaborates with New York Times science writer John Tierney to revolutionize our understanding of the most coveted human virtue: self-control. Drawing on cutting-edge research and the wisdom of real-life experts, Willpower shares lessons on how to focus our strength, resist temptation, and redirect our lives. It shows listeners how to be realistic when setting goals, monitor their progress, and how to keep faith when they falter. By blending practical wisdom with the best of recent research science, Willpower makes it clear that whatever we seek - from happiness to good health to financial security - we won’t reach our goals without first learning to harness self-control.


Top reviews from the United States

  • George Rodriguez - My Simple Press
    5.0 out of 5 stars Power Rules for Willpower
    Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2011
    Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney make mention of two facts in the beginning of "Willpower": One, the two personal
    qualities that predict "positive outcomes" in our lives are intelligence and self-control. Two, researchers have
    concluded that we spend a quarter of our waking hours resisting desires. This book is meant to improve the first
    (self-control) while making the second (resisting desires) easier. They achieve their aim with the use of solid research,
    effective story telling and varied examples to drive their points home.

    After an early examination of the sense of willpower through time, the authors use interesting studies like the
    "marshmallow" and "radish" experiments to show how researchers have attempted to prove brilliant theories that help
    us understand where willpower comes from and how to improve it.

    They give good, quick advice in recommending that we focus on one project at a time for the simple reason that our
    willpower can only go so far and it is better to give all our focus on changing one thing than a multitude. Hence,
    their specific instructions to never make New Years Resolutions.

    Showing the best ways to increase willpower - proper diet, setting clear goals and monitoring behavior - the authors
    give vivid examples as varied as Drew Carey getting organized, Eric Clapton getting dry or Lord Stanley shaving
    every day to make it out of Africa to show the different tools we can all use to increase our willpower.

    They go on to show how making multiple decisions affects our willpower (why do they put the sweets near the checkout line?)
    to willpower workouts and Bright Lines and other tricks to strengthen our willpower muscle.

    Raising children & dieting chapters end the book and give further stories and research into bringing willpower to bear
    on these most important subject areas.

    In sum, "Willpower" is chock full of valuable advice based on scientific research and actionable material that the
    average reader will surely find useful in some area of their life they are trying to improve through the application
    of willpower. A definite must read.
  • Warren G
    4.0 out of 5 stars "Self-regulation failure is the major social pathology of our time."
    Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2011
    "However you define success - a happy family, good friends, a satisfying career, robust health, financial security, the freedom to pursue your passions - it tends to be accompanied by a couple of qualities. When psychologists isolate the personal qualities that predict "positive outcomes" in life, they consistently find two traits: intelligence and self-control. So far researchers still haven't learned how to permanently increase intelligence. But they have discovered, or at least rediscovered, how to improve self-control. Hence this book."

    "The first step in self-control is to set a goal, so we should tell you ours for this book. We hope to combine the best of modern social science with some of the practical wisdom of the Victorians. We want to tell how willpower - or the lack thereof - has affected the lives of the great and the not-so-great. We'll explain why corporate leaders pay $20,000 a day to learn the secrets of the to-do list from a former karate instructor, and why Silicon Valley's entrepreneurs are creating digital tools to promote nineteenth-century values. We'll see how a British nanny tamed a team of howling triplets in Missouri, and how performers like Amanda Palmer, Drew Carey, Eric Clapton, and Oprah Winfrey applied willpower in their own lives. We'll look at how David Blaine fasted for forty-four days and how the explorer Henry Morton Stanley survived for years in the African wilderness. We want to tell the story of scientists' rediscovery of self-control and its implications outside the laboratory."

    Now, I hope these two quotes from the Introduction give a sense of what this book is about - it's one-half psychology and one-half self-help. It's a great read and I would think everyone would have something to gain because the subject matter is universally applicable - learning tricks to strengthen our willpower and recognizing the warning signs that our willpower is being exhausted. Here are some other practical quotes: "Ego depletion thus creates a double whammy: Your willpower is diminished and your cravings feel stronger than ever." "What stress really does, though, is deplete willpower, which diminishes your ability to control those emotions." "You could sum up a large new body of research literature with a simple rule: The best way to reduce stress in your life is to stop screwing up. That means setting up your life so that you have a realistic chance to succeed. Successful people don't use their willpower as a last-ditch defense to stop themselves from disaster, at least not as a regular strategy...people with strong self-control spent less time resisting desires than other people did."

    In sum, this is a very helpful book. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the psychology of human motivation, or someone looking for a practical self-help book. I would say that either Peck's book, The Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition : A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth, or Ellis's book, A New Guide to Rational Living, would make a fine follow-up of to this book.

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