POWER of meanings // MEANINGS of power
  • About
  • Introduction
  • Browse the book
    • Completed pages
    • All the pages alphabetically >
      • A >
        • Absolute power
      • B >
        • Benefits of understanding power
        • Binary thinking
        • Buddhism
      • C >
        • Circumstances and Power
        • Choice
        • Choosing meanings
        • Corrupted by power
      • D >
        • Dancing in high heels
        • Discovering your power
      • E >
        • Empowerment
      • F >
        • Foucault's "power is everywhere"
        • Free will
      • G >
        • Gender and power
      • H >
        • Having power and using power
        • How everybody is powerful
        • How everybody is powerless
      • I >
        • Improving mental abilities
        • In control
        • Inequality
        • Influencing each other
        • Intentionality and power
      • L >
        • Language has power over us
        • Limited resources
        • Louis XIV and Absolute Power
      • M >
        • Macropower: Power of Meanings
        • Main theories of power
        • "May" power
        • Meanings of power that are not directly related to social power
        • Meanings
        • Micropower: ability and influence
        • Mindfulness
        • (Mis)understanding of power in media texts
        • Money and Power
        • My synesthetic perception of "power"
      • P >
        • Power and knowledge
        • Power as ability
        • Power as a chess game
        • Power as influence
        • Powerful and powerless
        • "Power" in language
        • Power is not a thing
        • Power of speech
        • Power of mind
        • Power on/off
        • Privilege
      • R >
        • Responsibility, blame and power
      • S >
        • Synonyms of power
      • T >
        • Theory of micro- and macropower
      • W >
        • What is power?
        • Willpower
  • Author
    • My process

Willpower

PAGE IN PROGRESS
What you see here is a page of my hypertext book POWER of meanings // MEANINGS of power. Initially empty, this page will slowly be filled with thoughts, notes, and quotes. One day, I will use them to write a coherent entry, similar to these completed pages. See this post to better understand my creative process. Thank you for your interest and patience! 
From "Unwinding anxiety"
"First, recent research is calling into question some of the early ideas on willpower. Some of these studies have shown that willpower is genetically endowed for a lucky subset; still other studies have argued that willpower is itself a myth. Even studies that acknowledge willpower as real tended to find that people who exerted more self-control were not actually more successful in accomplishing their goals—in fact, the more effort they put in, the more depleted they felt. The short answer is that buckling down, gritting your teeth, or forcing yourself to “just do it” might be counterproductive strategies, possibly helping out in the short term (or at least making you feel like you are doing something) but not working in the long term, when it really counts"
​”
Second, while willpower may be fine under normal conditions, when you get stressed (saber-toothed tiger, email from the boss, fight with a spouse, exhaustion, hunger), your old brain takes control and overrides your new brain, basically shutting the latter down until the stress is gone. So exactly when you need your willpower—which resides, remember, in the prefrontal cortex/new brain—it’s not there, and your old brain eats cupcakes until you feel better and your new brain comes back online.”
Some people can use willpower to override their old brain, at least partially, but these people are very rare. It’s unfair to blame people for not having willpower. It’s not their fault that their brain works this way. It’s unfair to compare people with more or less willpower. If some people can train their brain to have more willpower it may be because of their genes and circumstances.
  • About
  • Introduction
  • Browse the book
    • Completed pages
    • All the pages alphabetically >
      • A >
        • Absolute power
      • B >
        • Benefits of understanding power
        • Binary thinking
        • Buddhism
      • C >
        • Circumstances and Power
        • Choice
        • Choosing meanings
        • Corrupted by power
      • D >
        • Dancing in high heels
        • Discovering your power
      • E >
        • Empowerment
      • F >
        • Foucault's "power is everywhere"
        • Free will
      • G >
        • Gender and power
      • H >
        • Having power and using power
        • How everybody is powerful
        • How everybody is powerless
      • I >
        • Improving mental abilities
        • In control
        • Inequality
        • Influencing each other
        • Intentionality and power
      • L >
        • Language has power over us
        • Limited resources
        • Louis XIV and Absolute Power
      • M >
        • Macropower: Power of Meanings
        • Main theories of power
        • "May" power
        • Meanings of power that are not directly related to social power
        • Meanings
        • Micropower: ability and influence
        • Mindfulness
        • (Mis)understanding of power in media texts
        • Money and Power
        • My synesthetic perception of "power"
      • P >
        • Power and knowledge
        • Power as ability
        • Power as a chess game
        • Power as influence
        • Powerful and powerless
        • "Power" in language
        • Power is not a thing
        • Power of speech
        • Power of mind
        • Power on/off
        • Privilege
      • R >
        • Responsibility, blame and power
      • S >
        • Synonyms of power
      • T >
        • Theory of micro- and macropower
      • W >
        • What is power?
        • Willpower
  • Author
    • My process