Kelly McGonigal

Psychologist and author of The Willpower Instinct, now embracing stress

Dr. McGonigal’s work has been covered widely by the media, including the CBS Evening News, U.S. News and World Report, CNN.com, O! The Oprah Magazine, Time magazine, USA Today, and the American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology. She is also a frequent source of expert advice and commentary for media outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, MSNBC.com, Web MD, Time, Fitness, Women’s Health, and more. In 2010, Forbes named her one of the 20 most inspiring women to follow on Twitter. In 2012, she teamed up with the Oprah Winfrey Network and Superbetter Labs to create an online game that would spread the benefits of gratitude to millions of people worldwide. She is also passionate about the benefits of physical exercise and has been certified as a group fitness instructor since 2000. In her free time, she continues to teach group fitness classes – because sometimes moving, breathing, and sweating is the best thing you can do to create health, joy, and resilience.

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The Upside of Stress

Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It

by Kelly McGonigal

If you’ve ever had stress in your life (hah!) and wondered how to deal with it more optimally, I think you’ll love this. McGonigal tells us that how we THINK about stress plays a huge role in its affect on us and walks us thru the science behind it. Rather than try to get rid of stress (good luck with that!), we’re much better off shifting our mindsets to embrace and use the stress wisely!

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Conquering Anxiety & Positive Psychology

The Willpower Instinct

How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It

by Kelly McGonigal

Willpower. It’s huge. The Willpower Instinct by award-winning Stanford Professor Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., is a GREAT book based on “The Science of Willpower” class Kelly teaches through Stanford University’s Continuing Studies program. It’s *packed* with super practical Big Ideas on the newest scientific insights about self-control to explain how we can “break old habits and create healthy habits, conquer procrastination, find our focus, and manage stress.” In this Note, we’ll check out the #1 way to build willpower (it’s not what you’d guess), how to give ourselves willpower boosts throughout the day and other stress-relief strategies that rock.

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Conquering Digital Addiction & Meditation & Willpower

Female Author Mind Modern Classic Top 101 Volume II

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What to Say to Yourself When You’re Feeling Nerves

Alison Wood Brooks is a researcher at Harvard Business School. She studies the most effective strategy for dealing with acute stress. First, a little test: Imagine that you need to give a big presentation in front of a bunch of people. Your heart’s been pounding for days at the mere thought o...

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Confidence & Conquering Anxiety & Speaking

Mind nervous Pressure Stress tool

How to Eat Stress Like an Energy Bar
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Reappraisal + Paradoxical Stress Swap

Are you chronically stressed? Of course, the good life is not one in which we never experience high levels of stress and/or try to eliminate it per se. (No pressure, no diamonds!) But… We do want to get really good at using the energy of stress to our advantage and mitigating an...

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Conquering Anxiety & Peak Performance

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Energizers vs. Enervators
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The Art & Science of How to Take a Good Break

We know it’s important to take good breaks. We want to work for a certain period of time (NASA says no more than 90 minutes or so) and then take a break. Repeat. Making waves as we oscillate from being on to being off. But, do you know that HOW you take a break matters? Yep. Sci...

+1 inspired by Note: The Willpower Instinct

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Self-Care & Willpower

Body Energy Fundamentals Recovery science self-awareness self-care tool willpower

Reduce the Variability of Your Behavior
#188

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To Increase the Likelihood of Rocking It

We’ve had a number of +1s on how to Optimize the use of our limited Willpower to install Habits that run on autopilot. Here’s another one. Today’s +1: If you want to install a new habit, reduce the variability of your behavior. Let’s say you want to install the habit of me...

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Habits & Willpower

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Here’s the Fastest Way to Get It

Continuing our Optimal Breathing theme, here’s a little gem from Kelly McGonigal’s The Willpower Instinct. I’ll let her ...

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Breathing & Willpower

Breathing Fundamentals Health Mind productivity willpower

Unicorns and Where to Find Them
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Hint: On Mt. Everest (+ How to Give Your Stress Meaning)

In our last +1, we talked about Joseph Campbell’s thoughts on Bliss AND Pain. Short story there, if you’re ONLY experiencing fun and excitement (and accompanying sunshine and r...

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Antifragility & Conquering Anxiety

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The Greatest Predictor of Anxiety
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Can You Guess It?

Way back in the early days of our +1 Optimizing together, we talked about the fact that our limbic systems evolved to deal with a single lion roaring at us at a time. As we said in that little chat on Lions vs. Jungles, that lion’...

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Conquering Anxiety & Conquering Digital Addiction

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Kelly McGonigal

Psychologist and author of The Willpower Instinct, now embracing stress

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Reduce the Variability of Your Behavior #188 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Want SuperWillpower NOW? #486 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Unicorns and Where to Find Them #528 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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"I'm Excited!"
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How to Eat Stress Like an Energy Bar
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Energizers vs. Enervators
#181

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Reduce the Variability of Your Behavior
#188

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Want SuperWillpower NOW?
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Unicorns and Where to Find Them
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The Greatest Predictor of Anxiety
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