The Willpower instinct (self-control, willpower)

Here are some of the classic sentences I've been reading over the course of the book "Self-Control" by Professor Magniggel at Stanford University. Helps us to better understand ourselves.

00 Introduction: Welcome to the Willpower entry

Willpower: The ability to control your own attention, emotions, and desires.

Lack of willpower is the biggest stumbling block to accomplishing a goal.

In order to succeed in self-control, you must know why you failed.

It is very common for people to focus on their attention, resist temptation, control impulses, and overcome procrastination.

"I want to Do", "I Want", "I don't" willpower challenge.

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01 I want to do, I don't, I want: What is willpower, why is it important?

You have to learn to "say it," and willpower forces you to "do it today," as you plan to drag it to tomorrow or next life.

Willpower is the three forces of "I want to Do", "I Want", "I don't".

Willpower distinguishes not only people from animals, but also everyone.

The main role of the prefrontal cortex in modern human brains is to make people choose to do "more difficult things".

The challenge of willpower is two self-confrontation.

The first rule of willpower: know yourself.

Sticking to the decisions in the record helps reduce the time to make decisions while distracting, while enhancing your willpower.

Train your brain to enhance your willpower. Willpower experiment: 5 minutes of brain meditation, "exhale" and "suck" in the heart, this part can exercise your self-consciousness and control ability.

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02 Willpower Instinct: People are born to resist the temptation of cheese and cakes

We always feel that temptation and trouble come from the outside world, but self-control tells us that the problem is in ourselves, that our thoughts, desires, emotions and impulses are out of the question.

Willpower instinct: Three or four and then.

Measurement of the body's willpower "reserve": "Heart rate variability", people with high heart rate variability can focus better, avoid the idea of instant gratification and better coping with stress.

Willpower experiment: Reduce the frequency of breathing to 4-6 times per minute, so that after a few minutes of training, you will feel calm, have a sense of control, be able to restrain desire and meet the challenge.

Scientists find the willpower medicine: Exercise!

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03 Tired to powerless resistance: why self-control and muscle have the same limit

Self-control is as extreme as a muscle.

Train willpower muscles, boost the strength I don't want, enhance the strength I desire, enhance my self-monitoring ability (quantify self-movement).

We always feel like we can't hold on until the willpower really runs out. You have more willpower than to give up the first time you feel tired.

As long as you want, you have the will.

If we want to strengthen our willpower, we need to think about how to support the most exhausted self, rather than hope that the best of our own sudden appearance to save lives.

Like muscles, our willpower follows the rule of "either use or disappear."

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04 Tolerance of Evil: There will be malignant after He Shankong

Not every time the self-control failure is due to the real loss of controls, sometimes we are consciously in the face of temptation to choose to surrender.

Every time we find that giving up resistance is a choice, not an inevitable one.

"Progress" may allow us to abandon what we have struggled for, as psychologists call "goal release."

We often think of what we need to do as we have already done, which will give us a false sense of satisfaction. (Some people like to take an efficiency seminar because it makes them feel efficient-they don't actually do anything).

No credit to tomorrow!

We continue to hope that tomorrow we can make different choices today, but this expectation is wrong. This spirit of optimism will allow us to indulge ourselves today-especially when you are sure that you will make different decisions next time.

Don't let the cycle of "Today's indulgence, Tomorrow Change" begin.

We mistakenly believe that tomorrow will have more free time than today.

People make predictions for the ideal world, but show the world for two weeks.

If we are behaving badly now, and hiding it with optimistic expectations of the future, we might as well not set this goal in the first.

Willpower experiment: There is no difference between tomorrow and today!

Reduce behavioral variability and ask yourself if you have to bear the consequences of being dragged down.

For better self-control, we need to forget the virtues and focus on the goal itself.

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05 The brain's big lie: Why do we mistakenly desire to be happy?

Dopamine

When the reward system is active, they feel anticipation, not happiness.

A large amount of dopamine will magnify the pleasure of "instant gratification", and leave you no longer concerned about the long-term consequences.

The dark side of dopamine: the primary function of dopamine is to let us pursue happiness, not to make us happy.

We do not realize that what we desire is both a source of happiness and a source of stress.

We mistakenly take the feeling of longing as a guarantee of happiness.

The pursuit of rewards is the main goal of dopamine.

When we are wrong we are in trouble when desire is a pleasure.

With the promise of reward, we will succumb to temptation, without the promise of reward, we will lose momentum.

Desire is the brain's action strategy, he may pose a threat to self-control, we must distinguish between desire and happiness.

If you are always procrastinating on not doing something, try to relate it to things that can make your dopamine neurons burn, prompting you to do it yourself.

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06 and how is it that depression causes people to succumb to temptation,

The promise of rewards and the commitment to relieve stress can lead to a variety of illogical behaviors.

The goal of "wanting to be happier" always overcomes the goal of self-control.

Willpower experiment: Try an effective decompression method, such as exercise, listening to music

Formal fear will help you make a rational choice.

Spend 24 hours away from TV news, talk shows, magazines and Web pages that will make you fearful.

One of the greatest threats to willpower: "So what?"

Guilt can prompt us to correct our mistakes, but this is just another way of expressing our "low spirits let us succumb to temptation."

Self-understanding, not guilt, can help us get back on track.

For most people, determination is the easiest part of the process, but it becomes more and more difficult. That's why many people are willing to give up and start over, rather than really trying to find a way to change.

We must avoid the common willpower trap of improving our mood with "change of promise" rather than "change".

When we encounter setbacks, we need to forgive the failure of the past, do not use them as a pretext to surrender or give up.

Optimistic pessimists are more likely to succeed.

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07 Selling the Future: Economics of instant gratification

We, who have huge prefrontal cortex, will succumb to the satisfaction of being satisfied.

"Limited willpower": we always have willpower before we really need willpower.

To get a cool, sensible mind, we need to arrange for 10 minutes of waiting time in front of all temptations.

Use the 10-minute delay rule to enhance your self-control when you feel you can't do "no next time".

Willpower experiment: Lower your discount rate

When you encounter temptations that are incompatible with long-term interests, imagine that this choice means that you give up a better long-term reward for instant gratification.

Willpower experiment: Make a commitment to your future self.

Meet the future of their own: we idealize the future, hope that the future of their own can do what they do now. We sometimes abuse them and let them take on the mistakes they have made now.

When we come to the future, the ideal of "the future of their own" is gone, the final decision is still unchanged in the past of their own.

When we think of ourselves in the future, our desires will not be as urgent as they are now, and the emotions will not be as real as they are now.

When we think about ourselves in the future, the activity of the brain is the same as when we consider the characteristics of others.

Higher "future self-continuity" will make people do the best now.

Willpower experiment: Foresee the Future of yourself (1, create a future memory; 2, a more futuristic self-winding message; 3, imagine yourself in the future)

We need to remember that what seems to be the future of our actions, in fact, is ourselves. The future of our own will be grateful for our current pay.

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08 Infection: Why will willpower infect?

Mirror willpower failure: unconscious imitation and contagious emotion.

Target infections can work in two of a side--immediately infected with self-control, and can infect ego-indulgence.

Thinking back to your goals strengthens your goals and avoids your ability to infect other people's goals.

The effective strategy to make your own determination is to open your willpower challenge. , make full use of the basic needs of the human being recognized.

Self-control receives the influence of social identity, which makes both willpower and temptation contagious.

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09 Do not read this chapter: "I do not" the limitations of power

The power of "I don't" is used in the inner world of thoughts and emotions, and he becomes ineffective. The more the insomnia people want to fall asleep, the more sober they find themselves.

The subconscious mind is constantly thinking of forbidden content.

Avoid the irony of the rebound--appropriate to give up self-control, to think about what they think, follow their own feelings, give up control of the feelings of the heart, but can let us better control the external behavior.

Trying to suppress anxiety can backfire.

If you want to keep yourself away from mental pain, people need to get along with these ideas peacefully, rather than push them aside.

If you do not confront anxiety, anxiety will naturally leave.

Remind yourself of the "white bear" phenomenon and the "rebound" theory.

Willpower experiment: Don't turn me into "I want".

When we are strongly tempted, we want to imagine that these impulses are only waves of the sea, though it may be strong, but eventually it will run into a rock and become a bubble.

Willpower experiment: Harness impulse.

The three ways of knowing yourself, caring for yourself and reminding yourself of what is really important are the cornerstones of self-control.

We need to realize that it is impossible to control our own thoughts.

When you have unpleasant thoughts, turn your attention to yourself, and then focus on breathing, imagining these thoughts fade away like clouds.

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10 Conclusion

We are born with self-control, even if sometimes we are not able to use it. Human nature includes not only the self that wants to be satisfied, but also the self of the goal. The strongest self-control is not from self-control with my ego, but to learn how to accept the conflicting ego and integrate these self into one.

The promise of reward may not be fulfilled, and you are not a superhero or a stranger in the future.

Keep an open mind about unexpected ideas and learn from failures and successes.

The Willpower instinct (self-control, willpower)