The tradition of New Year’s resolutions has a long and checkered history, i’m in favor of self-improvement, and New Year’s is a good excuse to do that. It’s good to take a point every year and assess oneself, to become a better person. Roy Baumeister More Quotes by Roy Baumeister More Quotes From Roy Baumeister Willpower is what separates us from the animals. It's the capacity to restrain our impulses, resist temptation - do what's right and good for us in the long run, not what we want to do right now. It's central, in fact, to civilisation. Roy Baumeister disciplinerunninganimal Trophies should go to the winners. Self-esteem does not lead to success in life. Self-discipline and self-control do, and sports can help teach those. Roy Baumeister disciplineself-esteemsports The societal pursuit of high self-esteem for everyone may literally end up doing considerable harm. Roy Baumeister self-esteemendsmay Willpower is a muscle that can be strengthened. Roy Baumeister muscleswillpower Researchers were surprised to find that people with strong self-control spent less time resisting desires than other people did. . . . people with good self-control mainly use it not for rescue in emergencies but rather to develop effective habits and routines in school and at work. Roy Baumeister strongselfschool What sets human beings apart from animals is not the pursuit of happiness, which occurs all across the natural world, but the pursuit of meaning, which is unique to humans. Roy Baumeister pursuit-of-happinessuniqueanimal Most of the problems that plague our society - addiction, overeating, crime, domestic violence, prejudice, debt, unwanted pregnancy, educational failure, underperformance at school and work, lack of savings, failure to exercise - are in some degree a failure of self-control. Roy Baumeister educationalpregnancyschool For most of us... the problem is not a lack of goals but rather too many of them. Roy Baumeister problemgoal Violence appears to be most commonly a result of threatened egotism -- that is, highly favorable views of self that are disputed by some person or circumstance. ... violence is perpetrated by a small subset of people with favorable views of themselves. ... Viewed in this light, the societal pursuit of high self-esteem for everyone may literally end up doing considerable harm. Roy Baumeister lightself-esteemviews People with high but unstable self-esteem exhibit the greatest hostility. Roy Baumeister unstableself-esteempeople Evil is not likely to result where people firmly believe that ends do not justify the means. Roy Baumeister meanbelievepeople The easiest first step is to keep records, make yourself write down every day whatever you exercise, so you can see the checkmarks adding up. Roy Baumeister latest-headlines It takes less willpower and less energy to carry things out by habit than to decide to do them each time. Roy Baumeister latest-headlines
