It has been called the most difficult language to understand on the planet.
In the second half of the 20th century, Missionaries have gone deep into the jungle of the Amazon to try to bring God’s message to a tribe known as the Piraha. Many have been driven half mad in their attempts to learn their language that seems to have little structure or methodology to it [1].
Read More“Sit in this corner until you can stop thinking about a white bear.” Said the older brother of a young Leo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist.
Several hours later the brother returned to the room to find Tolstoy paralyzed; still in the corner and unable to stop thinking about white bears.
Why couldn’t Tolstoy stop thinking about white bears? It’s not like Russia was dealing with some massive white bear epidemic at the time. So why couldn’t he get the thought out of his head?
Read MoreFor 2 weeks every year all across America, there is an epidemic of self-control loss.
It happens to some of the best and brightest minds we have. It happens to those who will be leading our corporations, legal system, and the government.
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Read MoreImagine you have just won the lottery. You have two options about when you will get your cash payout. If you wait 3 years, you’ll get $50 million dollars, but if you wait 6 years, you’ll get $100 million dollars. If you’re like most people, you’ll wait the full 6 years for double the money. After all, you’ll be getting paid over $16 million dollars a year for each extra year that you wait!
But what if I were to offer you $50 million dollars today or $100 million dollars 3 years from now? It's not so easy to turn down the quick reward this time! Despite the fact that it’s the same amount of time spent waiting, now the majority of people will take the $50 million dollars today.
Read More“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” – Mark Twain
I don't know about you, but I doubt Mark Twain is actually advocating that we eat live frogs. So what was the “frog” he was talking about?
A “Frog” is that thing that ugly, disgusting, thing on your to-do list that you want to put off until later more than anything else. It’s something that needs to get done, but you have absolutely zero motivation to do it.
We all have frogs looming on our calendars, and here are 3 reasons you need to follow Mark Twain's advice and eat it first thing in the morning.
Read MoreImagine you are a participant in a study on willpower. You arrive to the laboratory having fasted for the last 12 hours, so your body is in dire need of some nourishment.
Before you are two different milkshakes:
The first milkshake is a chocolaty, creamy, old-fashioned milkshake that people have been enjoying for decades.
The second milkshake has the exact same amount of calories and nutrients as a regular milkshake, but is just a gloppy milk product that is as tasteless as a glass of water.
Because both milkshakes contain the same nutrients, you will be adequately nourished regardless of the one that you choose.
Read More“Who needs this?”
Said Joe DeSena, founder of The Spartan Race, as he was in the middle of doing an Ironman Triathlon in Utah. Joe is renowned for pushing his body to the limit, but this time he felt like he had pushed his body as far as it could possibly go. He was 10 miles into the run and he was so nauseous that he had to walk over to an ambulance to vomit uncontrollably.
Joe had all but decided that he was going to amongst those on the DNF (did not finish) list, when he saw a woman with one leg run by him. When he saw the woman pushing herself through a physical feat that many 2-legged people don’t even try, it changed his perspective. Seeing this gave him the strength he needed to run with her for the final 16 miles and finish the race!
Read MoreIt may be the most competitive event on the planet.
Every 2 years we see athletes from all over the world converge on one city to compete in the Olympic games. They do it for pride. They do it for their country. And they do it with one goal in mind – win medals.
Many athletes train all of their lives and only get the chance to compete in just one Olympic games. Imagine that. Years of training from as young as even 5 or 6 years old for just one chance at glory. Clearly with that much time invested on an event that may span only mere minutes or seconds, athletes want to make sure they’re training properly.
Read MoreThe test was simple. The participants, all non-exercisers with the goal of adding workouts to their weekly routine, were asked to write down how many hours they planned to spend in the gym over the next two weeks.
Each participant entered in the amount of time they planned to spend in the gym. Then they recorded how much actual time they spent there to see if it matched up. After careful calculation, the participants planned to spend about 20 hours on average over the next two weeks in the gym.
Read MoreAs humans, we all have our vices – mine is blueberry muffins. The delicious blend of sweet pastry and fruit is enough to make my mouth water even as I write this. While at a local coffee shop, I was staring one of these freshly baked muffins down with intense passion. But I knew I should not indulge. I have been following a diet plan called “The Paleo Diet for Athletes” for over 9 months now and the last thing I wanted to do was break it.
However, the aroma of the baked good was enough that my mind was making up every reason possible to say, “go on, you deserve it!!” My heart was pounding as I got closer to the register. With every step it felt more and more like the world was going to end if I didn’t get this muffin now!! All of my willpower and self-control was gone, and I was about to give in. Until I remembered one last line of defense that we have – procrastination.
Read MoreWhat is the effect of physical exercise on a person’s willpower?
That’s the question researchers at Macquarie University in Sydney were trying to find out. There are, of course, many health benefits associated with physical exercise, but what does it do for our self-control?
Willpower itself is like a muscle, so can it become strengthened along with your other muscles through physical activity?
Read More“I’m going to start working out. I’ll start by going to the gym every Wednesday.”
A friend of mine told me those words 2 years ago. He didn’t go to the gym on a regular basis, and was trying to make it a habit. My first inclination when he told me that was probably pretty typical.
Really? You’re only going to go on Wednesday? Come on, you can at least go 3 times a week!
But that friend knew something that I didn’t. He knew that no matter what he was going to be able to make it to the gym every Wednesday without fail. If he went more than that, great, but when trying to build the habit, he had to start somewhere.
Read MoreIn a previous post I wrote about the real reason that positive thinking and self-belief works. Belief goes beyond consciously thinking that you will be able to do something. True belief taps into the subconscious mind and reworks the emotional sense of doubt and anxiety that come along with us achieving our goals.
Read MoreIn a previous article, I wrote about how willpower is a muscle. And like all other muscles in the human body, it can get exhausted from overuse, but it can also be strengthened through practice!
Fair warning: like all practice, these workouts are not going to be much fun. After all, you will be exerting your willpower in the same way that you would exert your legs on a run. But they are scientifically proven to get you results. So although it will be difficult in the short-term, you will find that it will be easier to say no to temptations, make it to the gym and stick with your long-term goals!
Here are 5 exercises you can do to strengthen your willpower muscle!
Read MoreResearchers at Virginia Commonwealth University had a simple question.
Can we help students who are struggling in class turn things around by helping to boost their self-esteem?
They had a good basis for the question. After all, there is a correlation between getting good grades and having a high self-esteem. But which comes first? Do students with a high self-esteem naturally try harder because they believe in themselves? Or is it just natural that those who work hard and get good grades have a high self-esteem from achieving great results?
Read MoreThe students arrived in the laboratory in a nutrition-depleted state (they were hungry!). Each one of them was instructed to fast prior to the experiment in which they were about to participate.
Then, the social psychologists unleashed their cruelty upon the participants. They invited them into a room with the aroma of freshly baked cookies. The students sat down around a table that had two plates on it. One was the plate of the warm, tempting cookies. The other was a plate of cold, raw, radishes.
Read More“Say no to drugs.”
We’ve all heard those words. Whether it was from our parents, our teachers or TV advertisements. However, saying “no” to temptations – whether they be as serious as drugs or as simple as an extra slice of cheesecake – isn’t that easy.
But is it possible that there is a way to say “no” that makes it more likely that we will be able to resist the temptation?
Read MoreIt’s Sunday night. You’ve just had a fun, relaxing weekend and you’re planning the week ahead. You have a cool, focused vision of how the week will pan out. You’re going to eat better, get up earlier, and tackle that big project.
Fast forward to mid-week. It’s the end of a long, stressful day of work and all of the sudden that cool, calm, decision-making process is gone. It’s replaced by a sense of panic as you go over your dinner options. You feel like there’s no way you can summon the willpower to cook a healthy dinner, and that takeout menu is looking extra tempting….
Read MoreIt’s 6:30am in the morning in Beijing and Michael Phelps wakes up to what will be his 3rd gold medal performance of the 2008 Summer Olympic games. He goes through his normal routine. He has his breakfast planned in advance. He eats exactly what he has before each of his previous competitions and what he will for the next 5 gold medal performances in front of him.
After breakfast, he goes through the rest of his routine. A 45-minute warm-up swim, a long period of stretching - honing his focus by listening to the same hip-hop mix he has before all of the other competitions.
If you were to ask Michael Phelps what he was thinking about at any point during this pre-competition routine, he would respond saying that he’s “not really thinking about anything.” And that’s exactly what he wants.
Read MoreThere it is. You feel a rush of excitement as you see that thing that you promised you would give up. It may be a slice of cheesecake, a glass of wine, or a cigarette, but whatever it is, it feels like your whole body is saying YES!!!
Then a rush of anxiety hits just as hard, and the internal debate begins.
Read MoreWillpowered was founded on one idea - Help people win the mental battle. All of our products and services are designed based on scientific evidence to help you overcome mental obstacles on the way to achieving your dreams.
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