Willpower by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney discussed a “muscle” that many people often neglect to train, which is the willpower muscle. As the years continue, more information has been discovered regarding the power of the mind and in particular, the different techniques to enhance mental performance. Baumeister and Tierney eloquently expressed the scientific discoveries that described how individuals could master self-control, and ultimately preserve willpower.
In particular, the author’s raised the idea that each person has a finite supply of willpower or self-control, and with each decision made throughout the course of a day, the supply of willpower depletes. However, once an individual can transform a “decision” into a “habit”, that once stressful decision or action no longer seeps into the supply of willpower. The process of transforming decisions into habits is challenging, however, through small consistent changes, constantly fueling the brain, and distracting the mind to name a few, humans can become more efficient and conserve willpower.
The book had more strengths than limitations due to the simplistic nature of the author’s writing and examples used. Most importantly, the book flowed effortlessly from one topic to the next, which made grasping the concept of “preserving willpower” easy to understand. In particular, the author’s immediately gained the reader’s attention from the “Radish Experiment”, which showed a group who was able to eat chocolate chip cookies instead of radishes had more willpower to try and complete an insoluble puzzle. From that point on, Baumeister and Tierney referenced “willpower preservation” examples with realistic actions the reader could utilize in order to apply the author’s recommendations. For instance, when discussing the importance of glucose for proper brain functioning, the author’s provided “action based” examples such as when you eat food, go for the slow burn of glucose in order to escape the boom-bust cycles, or if you’re sick, it is not safe to drive a car as the immune system occupies the majority of the glucose in order to mend body, which starves the brain of “decision-making fuel”.
The one limitation of the book is with regards to the background of the individuals, which were used as examples. There is no question that the author’s translated scientific findings into simple terms, however, some of the individuals examined were the extreme and had endless amounts of money to aid their transformation. For instance, Drew Carey struggled with organization so instead of simply reading a book, he paid a lump sum to David Allen (the guru of organization and “getting things done”) to have him come work directly with him. Carey said, “It cost me a lot of money (to hire David Allen), but I didn’t even think about it.” If Drew Carey could not read a book and improve his self-control and organization, how could the average Joe?
Throughout the book, the author’s constantly referred to small daily alterations to make lasting changes or “new habits”, which directly related to coaching. Subliminally, the author’s points taught coaches reading the book that if training sessions focus on small, but specific daily improvements, the players will steadily improve. If coaches overload players with too much information, players will deplete their supply of willpower or self-control due to focusing on too many objectives at once. The book was enjoyable and educational which made it a valuable read.
TOG Soccer 