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Patrick Wagner
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Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

Positive thinking makes life easier, but the key to success is discipline. Fortunately, one can practice discipline by training one's willpower.
Willpower
Discipline
Success
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Patrick Wagner
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People who already have a high degree of self-discipline as children are fundamentally more successful and happier in life. For all will-less procrastinators, smokers and couch potatoes this is seemingly bad news. But the good thing is: you can train your willpower!
Patrick Wagner
20
Willpower is like a muscle that gets tired the longer it is in use. For example, a smoker who has not smoked a cigarette all day is more likely to get into a fight with his wife.
Patrick Wagner
13
The key to ego fatigue lies in our blood sugar levels. For example, children who go to school without breakfast are more behavior-sensitive than those who have had good breakfast.
Patrick Wagner
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To maintain your willpower, you need glucose. Always eat well and healthy when you have an important exam or project.
Patrick Wagner
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"Where there is no glucose, there is no will." Avoid too much sugar, the rapid energy boost is followed shortly afterwards by a crash. Sleep well and adequately, as lack of sleep worsens the utilization of glucose, reducing self-restraint.
Patrick Wagner
14
"Ego fatigue is a double blow: your will is weakened and your cravings stronger than ever."
Roy Baumeister
11
How can the most intelligent politicians stumble upon the stupidest sex scandals? The problem is the decision fatigue. The more and more important decisions we make, the less we can resist temptations.
Patrick Wagner
12
Proof of this was provided by an investigation into the pardon practice of Israeli judges. It was not the severity of the crime that decided freedom or imprisonment, but the day of judgment.
Patrick Wagner
9
 The emptier the stomachs of the judges, the sooner a probation letter was dismissed.
Patrick Wagner
11
Deciding means letting go of possibilities and this hurts. Options disappear and the loss experience increases the more extensive the selection is.
Patrick Wagner
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Sellers take advantage of this tiredness after a long series of buying decisions, which is why you find candy and gossip magazines at supermarket checkouts.
Patrick Wagner
11
The American David Blaine spent 63 sleepless hours in an ice block, hung in a glass box over the Thames for 44 days and stood on a 25-meter-high column for 35 hours. How could he survive these hardships? Blaine's answer: repetition and practice.
Patrick Wagner
11
Start with small exercises to change habits to train your will muscle. As a right-handed person, you can e.g. do certain things with your left hand, or straighten the way you sit several times a day.
Patrick Wagner
11
Then you go to bigger tasks, such as quitting smoking or doing more sports. Numerous studies have shown that advances in one area of ​​life initiate a veritable virtuous circle.
Patrick Wagner
11
Today, a dilemma is that our goals are increasingly conflicting. We want career, free time, more time for our children and regular exercise.
Patrick Wagner
9
We are drowning in a flood of information and our minds are often as chaotic as our desks.
Patrick Wagner
8
Efficiency expert David Allen has designed his famous GTD system against this chaos. Therefore each task is either done immediately, delegated, thrown away, or placed in a folder for the very day it is presented to you.
Patrick Wagner
12
To-do lists should banish everything in this system. Crucial here is the most concrete next action that may not be "buy gift for X", but "go to the store Y and Z search".
Patrick Wagner
11
Our subconscious mind distinguishes between completed and unfinished tasks. The unsettled make us restless, sometimes even depressed.                       
Patrick Wagner
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Tidying up your workspace and getting rid of age-old tasks will give you room for productivity and long-term goals.
Patrick Wagner
12
When we look in the mirror or are filmed, we behave more compliant and rather tell the truth. When we submit to a self-imposed or externally imposed discipline, we come closer to our goals.
Patrick Wagner
9
Behind both is our ego-consciousness, which allows a permanent alignment between what we do and what we should do. Today, there are numerous high-tech methods that allow you to observe and discipline yourself.
Patrick Wagner
10
Writers sometimes make a pact with themselves to write a certain amount of words every day; or they commit to do nothing but write during a certain time of day.
Patrick Wagner
8
You can be controlled by a service like Stickk to comply with your rules. You commit yourself to an unpleasant penance - For example, to donate money to a hated party - if you do not achieve your goal.
Patrick Wagner
8
Many former alcoholics report a higher, divine power that helps them stay dry. Religious people have been shown to be more self-disciplined in life.
Patrick Wagner
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But basically, it does not matter if you believe in God, meditation or the Green party program.      
Patrick Wagner
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What is important is that your faith sets a clear agenda, exercises peer pressure on you, and gives you zero tolerance at certain points. If you know where to draw the line, you've already won half.
Patrick Wagner
9
Not the self-confidence or the intelligence quotient of children decides success or failure in their lives, but above all the degree of their self-restraint.    
Patrick Wagner
8
But to teach this to your children, you do not need a cane. Rather, consider a few simple principles.
Patrick Wagner
7
Establish clear rules: Consequence and speed of implementation are crucial to success. Indulging in misconduct is much more comfortable for the parents - but it takes a double and triple revenge.
Patrick Wagner
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Reward performance, punish failure: You can for example, allow your children to watch 15 minutes of television for each completed task ( up to a maximum of one hour per day). If your child does not listen to you despite the warning, remove this television time.
Patrick Wagner
8
Exercise control: Take part in your children's recreational life and interaction and involve young people in the creation of goals and rules.
Patrick Wagner
8
Unfortunately, the best disciplining techniques fail when fighting with your weight. Evolution has burned it into our brains to experience hunger as an existential threat.
Patrick Wagner
8
As soon as the diet is over, our body desperately increases fat again to be prepared for the next phase of starvation.
Patrick Wagner
8
"To resist eating, you need willpower. To have willpower, you have to eat. "
Roy Baumeister
9
The most important rule is: Never diet! Set realistic goals for how to change your eating habits gradually and permanently. Make a commitment to brush your teeth immediately after dinner to prevent later trips to the fridge.
Patrick Wagner
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Use the trick of deferred gratification: Do not refuse to enjoy a dessert, but tell yourself that you can eat it later. With a bit of luck you may have forgotten about the temptation after a few hours.
Patrick Wagner
10
Do not try to change your life from one day to the next day. Accept your own limits and learn to recognize exhaustion symptoms in good time.
Patrick Wagner
10
Create order in your environment and in your mind. Set realistic goals and deadlines - and give yourself a big reward once you reach a goal.
Patrick Wagner
12
Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.
Andrew Jackson
If life gives you lemons, make apple juice and make people wonder how the hell you did it.
Gurbaksh Chahal
I believe in cooperating for the common good.
Erskine Bowles
Remember, the entrance door to the sanctuary is inside you.
Rumi
A great mantra to have, whether you're breaking up with your boyfriend or you lose your job, or something changes that you didn't anticipate - which is a fact of life, and very much a fact of running a business - is: 'I was OK before this, I will be OK after this.'
Sophia Amoruso
I think I'm seen as trustworthy. I'm seen as having determination and persistence, and I'm seen as having a capacity to reach achievable answers to difficult issues.
John Howard
A day doesn't go by where I don't create something.
Patti Smith
Splendid architecture, the love of your life, an old friend... they can all go drifting by unseen if you're not careful.
Ian Mckellen
Cities depend on a healthy mix of uses and people for their vitality. As a pre-eminent world city, London is a magnet to people from across the globe.
Richard Rogers