So many leaders struggle with willpower and self-control, whether that’s grabbing that extra piece of chocolate cake, acting up at a meeting or just not taking care of themselves. Drew Dyck discusses his latest book on willpower and explains how habits are the key to greater self-control.
As a journalist and publishing acquisition editor, Drew also talks about the massive changes in publishing since the rise of the internet, how curated content is just about gone, and the new digital world that publishing finds itself in.
Welcome to Episode 275 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.
Guest Links
Drew Dyck | Your Future Self Will Thank You
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Episode Links
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Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
The School of Greatness Podcast, EP. 793
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
3 Insights from Drew
1. If you want to write a book, you need more than a good topic
If you are going to write a book today, you have to get a little more refined and original in the idea. The best books are books that grow out of the author’s personal experience. Often times, those are lessons that they have learned the hard way. When an author can tap into a pain point in their story that helps a larger audience, they have found a topic they can build a book off of.
As an author, 2 other things you will need to get published are good writing skills and some kind of audience. You attain both of these issues by testing your ideas out in a few articles or blog posts that you publish to test your ideas in. One of the biggest frustrations Drew has is when someone comes to him wanting to write a book but they are not even willing to write articles. Authors need to get reps and get feedback before they dive head-first into a book.
2. Willpower is a finite resource
Ever wonder why you eat healthier at breakfast than at 8 at night? While researching for his new book, Drew has learned that you only have so much willpower for any given day. There are multiple factors that drain this willpower. Decision making, resisting temptation and maneuvering conflict are 3 examples.
This depletion of willpower causes you to lose your cognitive ability to make good decisions as the day goes on. This is why you eat well in the morning but lose all self-control by 8 PM. Another danger of this is that people make plans for the day in the morning when their willpower is high, but then, when evening rolls around they are much less motivated or equipped to use the self-control required to go on that run they planned on.
3. Want to win self-control? Build your habits
If two people are going into a situation and one of them is just relying upon willpower to do the right thing and one has a good habit in place to do the right thing, the habit person will win every single time. Although we think every action is based on a conscious decision, habits are what actually guide our actions in life.
If we don’t take control of our habits, they will continue making our decisions for us. A simple way to begin controlling your habits is by studying yourself and figure out what things you are doing and when. Once you track your habits, you can begin to change how your life is organized so that you can begin replacing bad habits with good habits.
Quotes from Episode 275
Willpower is a finite resource. @drewdyck Click To Tweet Good character is when your habits are healthy and holy. @drewdyck Click To Tweet If knowledge was the key to success, we'd all be billionaires and have perfect abs. @cnieuwhof Click To Tweet When you finish writing a book, you're half done. @drewdyck Click To TweetRead or Download the Transcript for Episode 275
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Next Episode: Chris Norton
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