We’ve all had the experience of trying to will ourselves to do something – get up earlier, tackle our most difficult project first, eat healthier – and found that sometimes our willpower just isn’t enough. This book by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney explains how willpower works, how it gets depleted, and what we can do to make it work for us. The Wall Street Journal called Willpower “an accessible, empirically grounded guide to willpower and how best to deploy it to overcome temptation. ‘Willpower’ offers no shortage of helpful strategies to compensate for weakness of will.” This book can help you significantly, especially if you pair it with The Power of Habit.
Up to 40% of our daily actions are the results of our habits. If you can harness that activity so that it works for you, you’ll go a long way towards being more effective and having better balance in your life. There are many daily practices that you can develop that will support you in your work as an entrepreneur, as well as help you to take care of yourself, ranging from meditating to clearing our your email inbox daily, provided that you can implement these habits in your life. The Financial Times noted that “few [books] become essential manuals for business and living. The Power of Habit is an exception. Charles Duhigg not only explains how habits are formed but how to kick bad ones and hang on to the good.” This is an excellent book that is well worth reading.