Posts tagged with 'willpower'
Skydiving with grandad - twelve tips for a courage toolbox
10th June 2021
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” C. S. Lewis “Fear is the mind-killer … I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will …
Effective weight loss: a wake-up call and a personal story
31st May 2013
I was talking to an old friend recently and I remarked on how well he was looking. He said he had lost two stone in weight and his waist circumference had gone down from 42 to 34 inches. Wow! I was very interested to hear how he had done it …
Commitment contracts: they really can help us achieve personally difficult goals
22nd July 2012
Four months ago I wrote a post entitled "Commitment contracts: another good way of helping us reach our goals" where I introduced some of the recent research on how helpful making a "commitment contract" can be when we're trying to attain particularly challenging personal goals. I mentioned the website www.stickK.com …
Commitment contracts: a personal example
23rd March 2012
(This post is downloadable as a Word doc or a PDF file). I've already written a couple of posts about commitment contracts - "Commitment contracts: another good way of helping us reach our goals" and "Orientation, practicalities & use as therapeutic tools". I'd like to illustrate some points about setting …
Commitment contracts: orientation, practicalities & use as therapeutic tools
22nd March 2012
(This post is downloadable as a Word doc or a PDF file). I wrote yesterday about "Commitment contracts: another good way of helping us reach our goals". In today's post I'd like to look a bit more at the practicalities of setting up and using commitment contracts. I'll illustrate this …
Commitment contracts: another good way of helping us reach our goals
21st March 2012
(This post is downloadable as a Word doc or a PDF file). In a paper - "Commitment contracts as a way to health" - published a little earlier this year in the British Medical Journal, the authors (Halpern, Asch & Volpp from the University of Pennysylvania "Center for Health Incentives") …
Building willpower: the eight pillars
10th July 2011
(this post is downloadable as both a Word doc & as a PDF file.) In the earlier post "Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - whatever word you use, it's sure important to have it" I described the extraordinary benefits achievable through increased self-control & willpower. I noted occasional downsides …
Who can you trust ... and do they have to be boring?
10th June 2011
May's edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology contains three articles on trust that got me thinking a bit. It's been said that the qualities that attract you to a potential partner (or friend) may well end up being the very issues that become most problematic in the …
Embodied cognition: what to do
23rd February 2011
This blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file. "Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!" attrib. Goethe/William Murray "To reach the other shore with each step of the crossing is the …
Embodied cognition: muscle & willpower
22nd February 2011
This blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file. Introduction: Lying very comfortably in my warm bed early this morning, I knew I wanted to get up but it was hard to do. I waited a little, then tightened my right hand into a …