THE
NOVEMBER, 2011
STURBRIDGETIMES
Prsrt. Std U.S. Postage PAID Worcester, MA Permit No. 2
THE CHRONICLE OF STURBRIDGE COUNTRY LIVING
MAGAZINE
BOOK REVIEW WILLPOWER By Roy F. Baumeister and JohnTierney Penguin, Sept. 1, 2011 304 pages List price: 27.95 Amazon: 17.04 (10/26) ISBN-10: 1594203075 ISBN-13: 978-1594203077 Also available on Kindle and Audio CD, Unabridged
10 THE STURBRIDGE TIMES MAGAZINE
Rediscovering thegreatesthumanstrength BY RICHARD MURPHY Go into any bookstore in this country, and you will find shelves filled with tomes on self-help. It’s a half full or empty situation, depending on your outlook. Are we a nation of benighted folk who feel so low that we are desperate to raise ourselves out of the swamp of despair? Maybe self-improvement is a noble goal, to be better than we are. Take your pick, there is a book for every taste. Some volumes seem to signify narcissism and are of the bring out your inner super star genre. Yet another have as a theme stop being that lazy slug and be more productive. It is a subject that many have written about. One of the first was Napoleon Hill, with his Think and Grow Rich. Whether it worked for the 20 million readers is questionable, but it worked for old Nap. In WILLPOWER Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney have written a book that is not going to work miracles. It is, however, realistic on what the will can and cannot accomplish. The two men are not a couple of guys selling a self-help cult. John Tierney writes on scientific subjects for the New York Times. Professor Baumeister heads the social psychology program at Florida State University. Maybe the most interesting aspect of the study is that you may not be a weakling, just hungry. Obviously an oversimplification, but without sufficient fuel in the form of glucose, temptation is harder to resist. Not understanding the biological basis of willpower leads us to ask too much of it. Glucose is a form of sugar that the body needs. Too
much and it becomes fat. Not enough at the right time and you might be tempted into getting that Red Sox logo tattoo on your forehead. It would not be smart to swallow a bag of m&ms just before you go into an automobile showroom, but making a deal while starving is not a wise strategy. The authors are adamant, “No glucose, no willpower.” Near as bad as not enough glucose is lack of sleep. You probably realize that already. Even if we’re not self aware, most of us have observed a cranky toddler who should be in bed. It ties in with the glucose problem. Sleeping lowers the demand for glucose and helps the body utilize it. Sleep deprivation not only impairs glucose processing, it can also lead to a higher risk of diabetes. Simply put, “A rested will is a stronger will.” Willpower can be used up. You only have so much of it. The authors detail experiments where subjects are offered temptations and heroically resist. In the second part of the test, they collapse and give in with little resistance. Again, we ask too much of the will at our peril. If there is one aspect of willpower that has the attention of the multitudes it is dieting. The subject weighs heavily on the nation. This is understandable as most of history, the struggle to feed the world was just that, a struggle. In an age of abundant, relatively cheap, if not good, food, why not eat? The consequences stare back at us from a full-length mirror. Hence, dieting has become an industry. Are you contemplating a diet? The authors have one word of advice, don’t. They chronicle the travails of America’s most famous dieter. Oprah has risen from poverty to
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much and it becomes fat. Not enough at the right time and you might be tempted into getting that Red Sox logo tattoo on your forehead. It would not be smart to swallow a bag of m&ms just before you go into an automobile showroom, but making a deal while starving is not a wise strategy. The authors are adamant, “No glucose, no willpower.” Near as bad as not enough glucose is lack of sleep. You probably realize that already. Even if we’re not self aware, most of us have observed a cranky toddler who should be in bed. It ties in with the glucose problem. Sleeping lowers the demand for glucose and helps the body utilize it. Sleep deprivation not only impairs glucose processing, it can also lead to a higher risk of diabetes. Simply put, “A rested will is a stronger will.” Willpower can be used up. You only have so much of it. The authors detail experiments where subjects are offered temptations and heroically resist. In the second part of the test, they collapse and give in with little resistance. Again, we ask too much of the will at our peril. If there is one aspect of willpower that has the attention of the multitudes it is dieting. The subject weighs heavily on the nation. This is understandable as most of history, the struggle to feed the world was just that, a struggle. In an age of abundant, relatively cheap, if not good, food, why not eat? The consequences stare back at us from a full-length mirror. Hence, dieting has become an industry. Are you contemplating a diet? The authors have one
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“...life simply is will to power” FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE BEYOND GOOD & EVIL
word of advice, don’t. They chronicle the travails of America’s most famous dieter. Oprah has risen from poverty to untold wealth. She is legendary for her driven personality. If any one could be poster child for the will triumphant, it would be her. Yet, her ongoing battle with weight has not been successful. Even Oprah has asked too much of willpower. Remembering what was mentioned earlier about glucose, the authors present the dieter’s nutritional catch 22: 1. In order not to overeat, a dieter needs willpower. 2. In order to have willpower, a dieter needs to eat. Okay, dieting is not the way to go. Are we to just slurp our way to inevitable tonnage? Not necessarily. There are strategies that can help. Still, it’s no slam-dunk, more a bit of jui jitsu. The authors are not presenting a diet plan,
but strategies to make it easier to avoid or neutralize some of the temptations. Be warned, it’s never going to be a lose 40 pounds over the weekend deal. The last chapter also presents strategies to help those of us with slug tendencies become more productive. They cite the method of Raymond Chandler, arguably the greatest detective novel writer. “Chandler had his own system for turning out the Big Sleep and other classic detective stories. “Me, I wait for inspiration,” he said, but he did it methodically every morning. He believed a professional writer needed to set aside at least four hours a day for his job: “He doesn’t have to write, and if he doesn’t feel like it, he shouldn’t try. He can look out the window or stand on his head or writhe on the floor, but he is not to do any other positive thing, not read, not write letters, glance at magazines, or write checks.”” The authors hail this as a “marvelously simple tool against procrastination for just about any kind of task.” What they don’t write about Chandler was his profound love of the bottle. Your man was a stone drunk. The picture of Ray, tumbler of Jameson in one hand and other on the typewriter has a certain charm, but is not probably going to work for the rest of us no matter how many hours we do nothing in the morning. Despite that, Willpower is the most realistic book ever published on the subject of what is possible for humans to accomplish by will. You may not become a dynamo after reading it, but nothing they suggest is unreasonable.
THE STURBRIDGE TIMES MAGAZINE 11
