Interpretation of self-control

Self-control is a book written by American psychologist Magnegel, which guides people to improve their self-control. At the beginning of this book, the importance of improving self-control is described, and the neurological principle of self-control and the process of how we lose self-control are introduced, which helps us to improve our vigilance against losing self-control. The full text consists of ten chapters, and here I will focus on some parts that are deeply touched.

Self-control is an important feature that distinguishes human beings from other animals, and it can also distinguish between successful and failed lives. Many small animals often choose to continue eating when faced with a lot of food, and people will stop when they are full. Although people don't support themselves to death, some people often lose control in other aspects, such as indulging in games and drug addiction. I think a recent living example is Liu Lirong, the chairman of Gionee Group. Because gambling has reached the point of no return, Gionee's Giant Building collapsed instantly.

According to neurological research, people's willpower comes from the prefrontal cortex of the brain. The left area is responsible for "I want to do it", the right area is responsible for "I don't want it" and the middle position is responsible for "I want it". These three parts are the most important sources of self-control, and their goal is to control themselves. The more active the prefrontal cortex is, the stronger the self-control is. Another area of the brain, the pituitary gland, is responsible for the impulsive self, which is the instinctive reaction of human beings inherited from primitive society. For example, during an earthquake, the pituitary gland will promote the secretion of adrenaline and prepare you for flight. Of course, some extreme people choose to jump directly from tall buildings, which can only be said to be completely impulsive.

In modern society, many impulsive instincts are unnecessary now. For example, in the primitive society where food is scarce, when you see fruit trees, you will greedily pick all the fruits and eat them as energy reserves to prepare for a life where you may not eat for a few days in the future. Now that living conditions have improved, food can basically flow continuously. At this time, gluttony often leads to obesity and cardiovascular disease, and the result will be death. With the development of society, human beings have evolved the ability of self-control, which can help us resist temptation and make plans for the longer-term future.

? So how to improve self-control? The book "Self-control" provides many practical methods. The first method proposed is "meditation", which means "don't think about anything" in layman's terms. Close your eyes, concentrate on breathing, slow down the pace of breathing, and meditate for 5 minutes every day to make your prefrontal cortex more active, thus enhancing your willpower. Exercise is also a very effective way to strengthen willpower, which can improve the physiological basis of self-control by increasing the baseline of heart rate variability. The author also supplements exercise here. In order to improve mood and relieve stress, the most effective exercise is five minutes at a time, not several hours at a time. As long as it is not sitting, standing still or lying down, it can be a form of exercise. Seeing this, I suddenly feel that it is really easy to improve my self-control, so every time I work for an hour in a row, I will get up and take a walk on the balcony outside the company to breathe fresh air. When I return to work, I will feel that the whole person will be refreshed and more focused on my work. In addition, keeping 8 hours of sleep every day can help you regain self-control. If you don't get enough sleep, finding a chance to take a nap and catch up on sleep can also improve your attention and restore your self-control.

? The above is an effective way to improve and restore self-control based on body mechanism. The following book tells how people get out of control. The author points out that self-control, like human muscles, has its limits, and every decision will consume our willpower. The muscle pattern of willpower tells us that self-control will gradually weaken from morning till night. I think "a day's plan lies in the morning" is the application of this truth. People are most energetic and have the strongest self-control in the morning. At this time, it is suggested to do something "important but not urgent".

? Psychologists have discovered a phenomenon called "moral permission", and most of them tend to become susceptible to it. "Moral permission" means that when people do some good things, they will relax their vigilance and give themselves a "green light" to do some bad things. For example, for some dieters, it is likely that they will reward themselves with some delicious food because they have run for several kilometers, because it is easy for us to think that indulgence is the best reward for virtue. Many studies show that when people strive for long-term goals and make some progress, they often lose their resistance to "eating, drinking and having fun", because it is easy for us to pay attention to "progress" itself and be complacent about our achievements, but forget or ignore the original goals, thus making way for the impulsive self. This explains why many celebrities and even philanthropists have some scandals that shocked the world. The characteristics of "moral permission" are also used by some businesses. For example, we often see some Taobao sellers playing slogans such as "Every time you buy a product, you will donate 0. 1 yuan to children in poor mountainous areas" on the sales interface. When we think that shopping is also a kind of "charity act", it will be easier to buy things. In addition, the double 1 1 promotion was completely reduced, and buy buy bought it under the banner of "saving money". Even if he exceeded the budget, he felt that he had done a great good deed, but he bought a lot of things that he didn't need at all.

The "So What" effect was first put forward by food researcher Janet Polivi and Peter Hermann. This effect describes a vicious circle from indulgence, regret to more serious indulgence. For example, some dieters will have a strong sense of frustration if they accidentally eat too much food. This kind of frustration will not make people put down their food immediately. They will feel that since their dieting plan is ruined, so what? They might as well eat all the food, so they will eat more in the end. Through observation, it is found that those who quit smoking, give up drugs and gamble, as well as those shoppers who want to save money, all have the problem of "so what?" Psychologists have found through research that it is not the behavior itself that leads to more depraved behaviors, but the sense of shame, guilt, loss of control and despair brought by depravity.

Claire adams of Louisiana State University and Mark Leary of Duke University did an experiment. They invited women who care about their weight to participate in the experiment, and the subjects had to participate in two experiments. In the first experiment, subjects were asked to eat original doughnuts or chocolate doughnuts within 4 minutes and drink a large glass of water after eating to improve their "satiety", which was more likely to cause their guilt. Then the subjects will start the second experiment, which is the candy taste test. They are also divided into two groups. A group of people will receive information that can alleviate their guilt and be encouraged not to be too hard on themselves. Everyone will indulge sometimes. The other group did not receive any information. Next, the researchers gave each subject three bowls of candy with different flavors and asked them to try each candy and eat as much as they wanted. After the experiment, the researchers weighed each candy bowl and found that the women who received the message only ate 28 grams of candy on average, while the women who did not receive the message ate 70 grams of candy on average. This result surprised many people. According to general understanding, if you don't embarrass yourself, the result is likely to be nothing. However, it turns out that most people are wrong. Many studies show that self-criticism will reduce their enthusiasm and self-control. Only by self-understanding can we help ourselves get rid of negative emotions, learn lessons and accept feedback and suggestions from others more easily. Next time you make a mistake, don't rush to blame yourself, learn to be considerate of yourself first. Maybe your mistake has happened to someone else. Encourage yourself and try not to make the same mistake in the future.

I think the ninth chapter of Self-control is the most wonderful chapter in the book, and it also answers the puzzles hidden in my heart for many years. It is mentioned here that 1985, Danny Wei Gena, a professor of psychology at Harvard University in the United States, conducted an experiment at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. The experiment requires 17 college students not to think about "white bear" for the next five minutes. For these college students, their minds are usually full of sex, exams and disappointment with the new coke, but it is hard for them not to think about the white bear in the experiment, and even some students have not got rid of the curse of "white bear" after the experiment. When people try not to think about something, they think more than when they don't control their own thinking. Wei Gena called this effect an "ironic rebound". The ironic rebound can explain many phenomena. For example, the more insomniacs want to sleep, the more they find themselves awake, and the more dieters don't want to eat, the more irresistible they are.

Wei Gena believes that when people try to suppress an idea, two different systems in the brain work at the same time. One of them is the "operating system", which is responsible for diverting people's willpower from forbidden thoughts, and will consume a lot of energy in the process. The other system is the "monitoring system", which is responsible for searching for evidence to prove that you are not thinking, feeling or doing something. Monitoring does not need to consume a lot of energy, automatic control. In general, the "operating system" and the "monitoring system" cooperate with each other, but once the "operating system" is weakened, the "monitoring system" will bring you into a nightmare that is out of control. For example, when you are hungry and decide not to eat greasy food, your "operating system" will make you try to concentrate, plan and control your actions, while the "monitoring system" will scan your thoughts and environment for warning signals. When you accidentally see "braised pork" on the menu, the "monitoring system" will remind you that braised pork is on the back menu. If you are not very hungry, you are more energetic, and the "operating system" will lead you in other directions and stay away from trouble. When you are hungry, it will be difficult for the "operating system" to complete the task, and the "monitoring system" will frantically remind you that there is your favorite braised pork on the menu. As a result, you will probably drool and order a braised pork.

To make matters worse, when people try to get rid of an idea, it will haunt them all the time, and people are likely to believe it, even if it is just an illusion. People will judge the possibility or truth of a thing according to the difficulty of memory. For example, because it is particularly easy to remember reports involving air crashes, the possibility of air crashes is overestimated. So how to get rid of the dilemma of "ironic rebound"? Wei Gena's method is to "give up self-control". When we stop trying to control those bad thoughts, those thoughts will naturally disappear. Brain activation research confirms that once subjects are allowed to express repressed thoughts, they are unlikely to be activated, so the possibility of entering consciousness will be reduced.

When you do something wrong or make a fool of yourself in public, there will inevitably be a voice of remorse in your heart, "I am so stupid, I was not born to do this", but please don't suppress this negative thought and don't believe it at the same time. By taking a deep breath and turning your attention to breathing, your heart will become calm, and you will focus more on the matter itself than doubt your ability.

Self-control combines the research results of neurology and a large number of psychological experiments, reveals the neurological principle of self-control, explains how people lose self-control in daily life, and provides many effective methods for improving self-control. To sum up, I think the most useful methods are as follows:

1. Ensure proper exercise and adequate sleep, and provide continuous energy for self-control;

2. Keep in mind your goals, not your progress, and be good at planning what needs to be done at each stage;

3. When making mistakes, don't be too hard on yourself, learn to be considerate and encourage yourself, and prepare for the next challenge;

4. Don't try to achieve complete self-control. When you have a bad idea in your heart, don't try to suppress it, and don't believe it, so it will gradually disappear with your breath.

Of course, the above methods are only some suggestions given in this book. If you are interested in improving your self-control, I recommend reading this book.