Pamela Druckerman interviews Walter Mischel, a professor of psychology at Columbia, in Learning How to Exert Self-Control:
…Self-control can be taught. Grown-ups can use it to tackle the burning issues of modern middle-class life: how to go to bed earlier, not check email obsessively, stop yelling at our children and spouses, and eat less bread. Poor kids need self-control skills if they’re going to catch up at school.
…Adults can use similar methods of distraction and distancing, he says. Don’t eye the basket of bread; just take it off the table. In moments of emotional distress, imagine that you’re viewing yourself from outside, or consider what someone else would do in your place. When a waiter offers chocolate mousse, imagine that a cockroach has just crawled across it. “If you change how you think about it, its impact on what you feel and do changes,” Mr. Mischel writes.
…He explains that there are two warring parts of the brain: a hot part demanding immediate gratification (the limbic system), and a cool, goal-oriented part (the prefrontal cortex). The secret of self-control, he says, is to train the prefrontal cortex to kick in first.
…Self-control alone doesn’t guarantee success. People also need a “burning goal” that gives them a reason to activate these skills
Read the rest of Druckerman’s column here: Learning How to Exert Self-Control
Find Mischel’s new book at Amazon here: The Marshmellow Test: Mastering Self-Control.
Image Source: Foodspotting
i am more of the ‘remove it from the table’ ilk. why fight with the evil twin when you don’t have to?
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I need to learn the remove it (or me) from the table.
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Hmmmmm, methinks that my pal DK will NOT be opting for the imagery of a cockroach scurrying across his extra-thick vanilla shake or chocolate chip pancakes. Not. Gonna. Happen. Banish them from the kingdom, pal, it’s your best play….
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Bingo. Exactly. Not.Going.To.Happen. 🙂 (Banishment included)
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Ok – you have now destroyed my complete adoration of chocolate mousse. Really? Did we have to go with the cockroach? SIgh…I need a piece of cheesecake.
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THAT, was your take-away from this piece. Wow.
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Well yeah…removing temptation is never very effective with the petulant child in me. 😉
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Not me either. I’d run it down after taking it away.
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I found the entire article fascinating.
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Great piece. I agree.
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Now with a basket full of yummy eatables in front I am asked to practice self-control? Isn’t it food discrimination?
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It is. It is.
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I get absolutely what is being said here, but just as an aside especially for you, Dave, as I know how much you like your food, you needn’t resist bread; it isn’t fattening. Only the butter needs hiding. Ignore what the slimming faddist say — tuck in. Forget about cockroaches 😉
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Laughing. I am on your Plan Sarah, it’s the moderation that’s the problem.
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Hhhhmm, sure, remove it from the table, but not before I grab the DONUT hiding underneath!!! 😉 Cher xo
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Now THAT’s helpful CHER. 🙂
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Doing all I can of course!! 😉 xo
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Of course you are!
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*biggest grin ever* 🙂
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Sometimes immediate gratification is the only answer!
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Unfortunately, I take THAT path too often Lulu
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Made me think David! The best diet advice that works for me is to not have things around me that could tempt me.
Creating an environment for my success 🙂
Hey, I was one of those marshmallow kids who would wait until it was moldy if it meant I could get something even better later. I also used to hide money in different places so that I would be rewarded later when I came across it.
TMI ….. and a bit weird 😉
Val x
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Wow, what incredible willpower. You should bottle “That” Val.
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Noone would believe it David 😉
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Don’t mind if I do. 🙂
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I personally enjoy eyeing the bread, inhaling it’s sweet, freshly baked aroma, picking one with a slightly crisp crust, fluffy and light inside, slathered with sweet, creamy butter, one bite at a time. Since I don’t get a chance often to experience such glory, I enjoy the glory when I can.
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Me too. Me too. And I enjoy the glory far too often I’m afraid!
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PS I was so affected by your blog that I wrote one of my own based on YOUR own! Thanks for the inspiration!
http://humoringthegoddess.com/2014/09/16/bread-and-butter-badlands/
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Oh, don’t worry, I saw how inspiring you were. Which part of this is helping ME?
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The cockroach imagery will work better than thinking what someone else would do in my place. That could be hazardous.
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Smiling. True.
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how possible 🙂
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My husband buys chocolate covered raisins (pomegranates, blueberries, cherries–you get the picture) from Costco (you know, giant containers). Trouble is, he travels during the week, leaving me with these temptations (over which I have very little control!). So, I give them away while he is gone! 🙂
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Well, at least you give them away. I couldn’t ever part with them…
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I don’t think I could imagine a cockroach in the chocolate mousse – that would be an insult to chocolate mouse! I can resist food I mustn’t eat if I really have to, but I don’t like it. Does anyone?
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Somehow a chocolate mouse got in there, but you know what I mean?!! A mouse in the mousse might be easier to imagine! 😉
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I was smiling when I read mouse. You were thinking cockroach and mouse popped out!
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😀
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