Understanding Stress and Willpower

Key Experiments and Findings

Animal Studies on Exercise

• Voluntary vs. Forced Exercise
  • Voluntary Exercise: Leads to health improvements (e.g., lower blood pressure, improved heart rate).
  • Forced Exercise: Leads to decrements in health metrics.
• Takeaway: Exercise benefits depend on the voluntary nature of the activity.

Human Studies on Mindset and Belief

• Stress Videos
  • Negative View: Believing stress is harmful diminishes health.
  • Positive View: Believing stress enhances performance improves health.
• Boston Marathon Bombing Study
  • Findings: Watching 90+ minutes of news coverage caused more stress than being present during the bombing.

Willpower and Tenacity Research

Ego Depletion Theory

• Initial Theory: Willpower is a limited resource; linked to glucose.
• Carol Dweck’s Research
  • Belief-Driven Willpower: Teaching people willpower is unlimited can make them act as if it is.
• Follow-Up: Ego depletion holds if hard tasks are successive without breaks.

AMCC (Anterior Mid-Singulate Cortex)

• Overview
  • Important for tenacity and willpower.
  • Receives inputs from various brain areas (reward, autonomic function, prediction).
  • Stimulation Effect: Feels like facing a challenge immediately.
  • Research Findings: Greater size and activity linked to resilience and dieting success.

Interesting Research Results on AMCC

• Dieters: Successful dieters show increased AMCC size and activity.
• Anorexia Patients: Have significantly enlarged AMCCs.
• Superagers: Maintain/increase AMCC size into old age.
• Aging and Exercise: Additional cardiovascular exercise increases AMCC size, offsetting age-related decline.

Practical Implications

Enhancing Willpower

• Micro & Macro Sucks: Small and large challenges to build tenacity.
• Examples
  • Micro Sucks: Daily tasks you find annoying (e.g., washing dishes immediately).
  • Macro Sucks: Larger challenges throughout the day (e.g., tackling email backlog).
• Go One More: Push just a bit more beyond your comfort zone to build resilience.

Conclusion

Importance of AMCC

• Tenacity and Willpower: Crucial for all endeavors.
• Everyday Challenges: Implement daily challenges to build a stronger AMCC.