Willpower -- A Public Lecture in Two Parts

Very often we want several things at the same time. Choosing one — even if we manage to do so, the choice does not end there. Often the choice must be repeated — every day anew, each new time, again and again. (For example — choosing to wake up an hour earlier — this must be done every morning; choosing not to drink coffee after six — this must be repeated every day.) How do you stick to your choice, how do you hold on to it, how do you resist various temptations? The human quality that allows us to stick to one choice is: willpower. Willpower helps not only with coping with the morning rush or excessive coffee consumption. People with developed willpower have more achievements in various areas of life:

• Willpower, better than IQ, predicts a person’s academic achievements.
• Better than the capacity for empathy, it predicts the ability to establish successful relationships.
• Better than charisma, it provides the ability to be a leader and guide other people.

Studying willpower, scientists have discovered many mechanisms — both psychological and physiological — that underlie willpower. The discoveries are interesting, surprising, even shocking. Many of them are completely at odds with our customary logic. About how our willpower works and how to develop — train it, I will tell in public lectures. Lecture date and venue. For inspiration — one of the classic willpower tests. About the psychological and physiological mechanisms at work in the children seen in the video and the conclusions drawn from this experiment — in the lecture.