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 Joy of Movement

How exercise helps us find happiness, hope, connection, and courage

by Kelly McGonigal

I’m a big fan of Kelly McGonigal and her ability to help us apply scientific wisdom to our lives. We’ve covered two of her earlier books: The Willpower Instinct and The Upside of Stress. So... When I got this book, knew I’d enjoy it. But, I didn’t anticipate JUST how much I’d love it. We have some great Notes on Movement (Spark, Spartan Up and No Sweat among my favorites), but Kelly’s book will be our new go-to for the science of WHY exercise/movement is so essential to our well-being. It’s PHENOMENAL. Reading about the SCIENCE behind stories of transformation (and how, as per the sub-title of her book: “Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage”) also made me that much more clear on the power of what we’re doing with all of our work and the importance of focusing so much on Energy (especially with our Mastery and Coach programs). Big Ideas we explore include: Hope Molecules (and how to create them), persistence highs (and how to create them), collective effervescence (and why it's so awesome), how we endure (hint: TOGETHER!), and OMMS!!! (Obstacles (literally!) Make Me Stronger!).

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Energy & Energy & Movement

Best of Optimize positive-psychology

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

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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 of this tal...

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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 any potential harmful effe...

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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. Science says some breaks ar...

+1 inspired by Note: The Willpower Instinct

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Self-Care & Willpower

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Reduce the Variability of Your Behavior
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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 meditating. You’re clear...

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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 take over… She tells us: “You won’t find many quick fixes in this book, but there is one way to immediately boost willpower: Slow your breathing down to four to six breaths ...

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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 rainbows and unicorns 🦄!) then you’re doing it wrong. TRULY following your TRUE bliss isn’t always easy. “Sometimes p...

+1 inspired by Note: The Upside of Stress

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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’s roar triggers a fight or flight response. We fight or we flee. And, hop...

+1 inspired by Note: The Upside of Stress

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Conquering Anxiety & Conquering Digital Addiction

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How to Sidestep Depression
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Did You Know There’s a Magic # of Steps?

Did you know that scientists have identified a threshold for your step count under which you make yourself more vulnerable for anxiety and depression? Yep. It’s nuts. Check this out. In Kelly McGonigal’s FANTASTIC (!) new book called The Joy of Movement she tells us: “The average daily ...

+1 inspired by Note: The Joy of Movement

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Conquering Depression & Movement

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A Quick Ticket to Ick
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Go from Active to Sedentary and… VOILA!

In our last +1, we talked about how to sidestep depression and anxiety. I still can’t believe that scientists have identified a threshold for our step counts under which we make ourselves more vulnerable for anxiety and depression. As Kelly McGonigal tells us in The Joy of Movement: “The aver...

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How We Endure
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Olympic Moments: When Last Place = Historic Place

Let’s go back to Kelly McGonigal’s The Joy of Movement. In addition to deepening my understanding of the science of WHY exercise/movement is SO ESSENTIAL and BENEFICIAL, I can’t remember reading a book that brought me to tears so many times. Kelly is both a brilliant scientist and a brillia...

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Fatherhood & Spartan Training

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Bliss, Pain & Unicorns on Everest
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Pearl Bites Part II

In our last +1, we talked about my chigger-triggers (hah and yeehah! 🤠) and how to alchemize life’s inevitable “inconveniences” into Pearl Bites. Right after finishing that one I thought about Kelly McGonigal’s wisdom on climbing Everest and the inevitable cold, crazy nights an explore...

+1 inspired by Note: The Upside of Stress

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The 100,000 Game
#1250

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Join Me?

Not too long ago, I mentioned the virtual Optimize Local Zoom group I joined. It was such an epic hangout. I’m still beaming from the download of Love (and Wisdom + Self-Mastery + Courage + …). Seriously. It VERY MUCH reminded me of the graduation weekend where I got to hang out with 500+ of our inau...

+1 inspired by Note: The Joy of Movement

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Energy & Movement

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Kelly McGonigal

Psychologist and author of The Willpower Instinct, now embracing stress

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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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How to Sidestep Depression #1064

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Bliss, Pain & Unicorns on Everest #1217 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
#142

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Energizers vs. Enervators
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Reduce the Variability of Your Behavior
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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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How to Sidestep Depression
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A Quick Ticket to Ick
#1065

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How We Endure
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Bliss, Pain & Unicorns on Everest
#1217

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The 100,000 Game
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