The Willpower Instinct
def
the competition between two part of your self
a brain have actually 2 mind
sleep intervention
main intervention: help people sleep more or sleep better
mindfulness meditation is the training design help to improve their sleep and sleep more ( their : the person who use drug and want to recovery and quit drug)
do a little bit of meditation every day, breath meditation focus increase sleep time to just over 8 hours a day and control group(non-meditatior) had a little bit of deterioration to slightly less than 7 hours of sleep at night
meditation for a few minutes a day help to sleep better and get more sleep
the recovering addicts impervious to relapse, they were stronger against relapse
the increase in sleep time predicted resistance to relapse with a correlation of 70%
one more hour of sleep a night help to easier for addicts recovering
the number of minutes per day that people meditated also predict resistance to relapse
sleep and meditation give people more willpower for one of the biggest willpower challenges
less than 6 hour of sleep a night equal to sleep deprive
demonstrate
less than 6 hours of sleep a night => the brain are unable to recruit the systems of the brain to be better version of self
ability to remember who you are and what are the big goals depend on the ability of brain use energy well and sleep deprivation
small sleep intervention help people resist relapse to drug addiction because their brain have better fueled to remember goals to stay clean and sober
make brain a kind of willpower machine
sleep make prefrontal cortex better able to regulate systems of the brain the direct towards temptation and immediate gratification
meditation and physical exercise show that brain more efficient at using these self control systems and make these systems bigger and better connect to the regions that suppose to be controling
low-glycemic, plant-based diet
eating affect to the brain is able to be better version of seft or not. big spike in blood sugar level and big drop blood sugar level that really screws how to brain use energy.
failure intervention
the harder you are on yourself when you have a willpower failure the more likely you are the same failure again the it's bigger
one study of drinkers and keep them track of how much they were drinking and how bad they feel the morning after
the people who have critical and felt the most ashamed or guilty about drinking the night before wanted to drink more immediately when they wake up and also drink more that night and the next
self critical nature and the shame and the guilty drive people back to the very thing they felt bad about
when we are feeling stress out, and guilty and ashamed, that is the sate that put us into of the version of ourself, mindset that is much more susceptible to immediate gratification, temptation and anxiety
it basically the biological opposite of what need to be happening in your brain and body to remember long term goals and to be that orther version of self
when we pilling on the guilt and the shame, brain switch into other mode that everything is gonna be tempting even procrastinating, drinking or smoking
write the message for self and literally have them the script for the moments they fail, procrastinated, late whip this massage out as a way of not falling down the hole that they often fall into
3 step of message
mindfulness of thoughts and feelings
common humanity
noticing that you are guilt, feeling self doubt or self critical, angry of your self and acctually alow yourself to see that feeling
because big reason that people go from guilty to giving again is they want to get rid of that feeling
it's over whelming and they want to distract themselves from something that gonna get them into further trouble
encouragement over criticism
reason hard to find motivation, willpower is we start feel there's something uniquely broken with us, there's something about people wrong and weak
that mindset make it very difficult to tap back into motivation or strenghth
the matter is how you response afterward not the fact that it happened at all
The time travel experiment
the most of people feel like their future self is a stranger
future self: they could be improvement or could be an older version
the more people feel like self future is a stranger is different than them, the less likely they can do things to protect future self health and happiness
college students who had not met their future selves were more likely to want alot that money to their present expenses or just to some fun splurge
the research has actually had a lot of impact in the world of retirement savings and banking
the people who believe that is there is more overlap, that they are more closely related to their future self and have a lot more willpower for different types of willpower challenges
The power of self continuity
less procrastination less likely to be late
more ethical behavior at work
less debt/ more wealth
better health
people who think their future self is more different, like total stranger, they're actually likely feel good about betraying a colleague at work if it help them advance in their career
this is the real world finding not just an experiment
people who feel close to their future self also more likely to do things that don't have a payoff immediately, like flossing and exercising but that would be good to protect their future self
people who feel closer to their future self actually have more assets, their home outright, money in the bank, retirement savings
get to know self future
write a letter from your future self
send yourself "back to the future"
who you are, what you're doing, where you're living, what you care about
challenges in currently
this is the exercise of just imagining yourself in the future
studies show that just imagining yourself grocery shoping in the future help people make better decisions in the present moment that's going to pay off in the future
visualizing intervention
imagining failure is way more helpful than imagining success
there has a lot of studies that show tracking your success lead people to slack off in the long run
people mistake that feeling good when write success help to give more motivation to do more
a number of studies show that when people are reminded of their success and take note of their progress they are much more likely to then do something inconsistent with their goal
using pessimism as a source of willpower
you can think of yourself as your own little cooperation with goals and if you find your self hitting setbacks, one of the most important things you can do is adjust your expectations
take a really serious look at the process of how failure working
health intervention
the power of acceptance
anxiety
intrusive thoughts: some time our mind goes places we don't want it to go, to memories or to things we're imagining, negative thought about ourselves
weight loss: this technique of learning how to accept your own craving
substance abuse
schizophrenia who learn accept to their own intrusive thoughts and hallucinations and delusions like a craving, that's not real, and you don't need to act on it but it's still be there and eventually pass
surfing the urge
notice the thought, craving or feeling
accept and attend to the inner experience
breathe and give brain and body a chance to pause and plan
broaden your attention, and look for the action that will help you achieve your goals
willpower rule
train your willpower physiology
for give yourself
make friend with your future self, predict failure
surf the urge