Maximum Willpower [Kindle Edition]

Formerly called "The Willpower Instinct", in this book McGonigal brings together the newest insights about self-control from psychology, economics, neuroscience and medicine to build willpower. She is a health psychologist at Stanford School of Medicine where she teaches a course called "The Science of Willpower" that quickly became the most popular classes ever offered by Stanford. Course evaluations call the course "life-changing".

The book's 10 chapters reflect her 10-week course, written in an interesting and easy style, without any "academic pompousness":

1. effective willpower - just noticing what's happening is key
2. the willpower instinct - anything that puts a stress on your mind or body can sabotage self-control but too much willpower is stressful
3. self-control is like a muscle - it gets tired from use but regular exercise makes it stronger
4. why being good encourages bad behaviour - we use past good behaviour to justify indulgences
5. why we mistake wanting for happiness - even false promises of reward make us feel alert and captivated, so we chase satisfaction from things that don't deliver
6. how feeling bad leads to giving in - self-compassion is a far better strategy than beating ourselves up
7. we discount both future rewards and future costs - we consistently act against our own long-term interests and we illogically believe our future selves will (magically) have more willpower
8. why willpower is contagious - humans are hardwired to connect and we mimic and mirror both willpower failures and willpower successes of our social network
9. inner acceptance improves outer control - attempts to fight instincts and desires ironically make them worse
10. final thoughts - the aha moment

Each chapter makes use of fascinating paradoxes to dispell common misconceptions about self-control. While I preferred the deeper "Willpower" by Tierney and Baumeister (who has studied contradictory human behaviour for decades), this book is way ahead of any others I've read on the subject, for its wide range of down-to-earth and practical strategies for greater success.

I bought this as I wanted to have more willpower when it came to food. I found the book very enlightening and it has helped me understand better why I lack willpower! It has given me a few strategies to improve my willpower and as a result I have resisted some temptations and lost weight. What I have found more surprising is that it has affected other areas of my life in that I am not procrastinating as much; I've tidied out my garage, cleaned my kitchen cupboards and sorted out my wardrobe. I'm certainly pleased I bought this book and strongly recommend it. I would have given it 5 stars but found it a bit long winded in parts.

Never before have I really been aware of the physiological basis of how stress can affect willpower. This book is extremely liberating, realising that you can actually change your physiology to a state where willpower is more accessible is empowering. This book should be ready by every GP, health care professional and those caring for 'troubled' children, in fact everybody! It wont be the answer to everyones troubles, but it may help them get their physiology ready to receive other help.

The only thing not so good about it is its title, it doesn't show just how full of help the contents are!

READ IT! Worth every penny!!