books I've read

Anne Hawn's books

Who Moved My Cheese?
If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans
Scientific Secrets for Self-Control
Just One Damned Thing After Another
The Vanishing
Exercises in Knitting
The Good Dream
The Very Best of Edgar Allan Poe
The Chosen
BT-Kids' Knits
Talking God
The Professor
The Christmas Files
The Finisher
Home Decor for 18-Inch Dolls: Create 10 Room Settings with Furniture and 15 Outfits with Accessories
Dracula and Other Stories
A New Song
Christy
All Quiet on the Western Front
File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents


Anne Hawn Smith's favorite books »

I'm reading 150 Books

2019 Reading Challenge
2019 Reading Challenge 19614 members
<b>Are you ready to set your 2019 reading goal?</b> This is a supportive, fun group of people looking for people just like you. Track your annual reading goal here with us, and we have challenges, group reads, and other fun ways to help keep you on pace. There will never be a specific number of books to read here or pressure to read more than you can commit to. Your goal is five? Great! You think you want to read 200? Very cool! We won't kick you out for not participating regularly, but we'll love it if you do. Join us!

Books we've read

The Help
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
The Night Circus
The Golden Compass
11/22/63
The Little Lady Agency
Catch-22
The Good Father
A Discovery of Witches
The Knife of Never Letting Go
Fahrenheit 451
Frankenstein
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
A Christmas Carol
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
The Color Purple
Matched
Cloud Atlas
The Princess Bride
The Catcher in the Rye


View this group on Goodreads »

Saturday, January 03, 2015

Scientific Secrets for Self-Control

Scientific Secrets for Self-ControlScientific Secrets for Self-Control by DeWall, C. Nathan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was excellent!  Just about everyone knows they have self-control issues, but this series of lectures not only explains why scientifically, but also gives ways to attack the problem based on lab tests.  Just one example gives an idea.  Since the Internet, we can shop all day and night which can be murder on the budget.  It is the purchases at night that often are most problematic.  The explanation is that practicing self control can actually be stressful, so after a long day of practicing it, we are worn out so the decisions about purchases can be made when our supply is depleted. The simple answer is to wait until morning to purchase something!  I can't think of the times when I've gone on a website to see what is new and put a number of things in my shopping cart.  Coming upon it at some later date, I have wondered why in the world I wanted some of those items.

The lectures also deal with how you can build your self-control muscles.  Each time we resist something, we get better about it.  The author advises "Implement Intentions – Takes your mind out of the middle of “Desire vs What you actually do.” You make a one step intention that only tackles one part of the goal. In this example, the author says to never purchase anything at night, but to wait until morning. My first intention was "When I am waiting for my coffee to warm, I will take the dishes out of the drainer." also "When I go from one room to another, I will tidy one thing."  Those decisions are very easy but they help build the habit of self-control.

I agree with some criticism of some that the author's delivery isn't the best, so it only gets 4 stars, but the content is great. I'm glad this is an Audible book that I purchases because I plan to listen to it a lot!


View all my reviews

No comments: