The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal 238 pages 97815883334386

Subtitled: How Self-Control Works, Why It matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It. The author created the popular Stanford University course The Science of Willpower which takes insights from the disciplines of psychology, neuroscience and economics. How often do we set goals, annually as New Year's resolutions, or seasonally like "I've got to lose some weight before bathing suit weather" or randomly "where does my free time go?". This book has concrete information about how to set goals and actually achieve them. The author creates a doable framework by setting out challenges to make baby goals and ways to avoid common pitfalls that prevent us from progress. We can be our worst enemies by making it so easy to give up or make excuses for minor failings. I don't know if I agree with her condemnation of diet drinks. ( The author says that if we drink diet soda we will tell ourselves that since we made that "sacrifice" we can load up with salty, fatty sweet rewards). I really enjoyed reading her spin on the marketing aspect of creating desires. After reading this I hope to begin meditating daily... just have to start this goal soon! My husband, who reads much more self-help literature, pronounced this a winner... we had to negotiate whose turn it was to have "possession" of the book.