Scientific Secrets for Self-Control – TTC, C. Nathan DeWall

We’ve all said it to ourselves at one point or another: “If only I had more willpower, I could do the things I really want to do.” Having the mental fortitude to reach your goals, whether they concern your job, your personal finances, your skills at a hobby, or even your waistline, seems forever unattainable. But here’s the truth: Greater willpower and lasting success actually well within your reach.

It all depends on an understanding of the science behind self-control. Long thought to be nothing but myth, the connection between your mind, your body, and your behaviors and emotions actually has powerful scientific evidence behind it. And once you’ve grasped the fundamentals of self-control and learned how to incorporate them into your personal life, you’ll find yourself in possession of a powerful tool for

• becoming more goal oriented,
• thinking more positively and constructively,
• avoiding the negative health effects of emotional baggage and common stressors,
• beating back self-doubt, and
• facing the challenges of today and tomorrow with greater confidence in yourself.

Join Professor C. Nathan DeWall, an award-winning teacher and expert in self-control research, for Scientific Secrets for Self-Control. In just six engaging and inspirational lessons, you’ll get a chance to shatter the myths about willpower and replace them with verifiable science that will help make the seemingly unattainable finally possible. Packed with eye-opening studies, experiments, and exercises to strengthen your self-control when dealing with money, physical fitness, personal relationships, and more, this course will have you wondering why you ever doubted yourself.

Investigate Self-Control alongside an Expert

Whether you’re looking for new ways to resist temptation, make a strong first impression, or better control your emotions, Scientific Secrets for Self-Control is your guide to understanding—and mastering—this mysterious, frequently misunderstood subject. In clear and accessible language, Professor DeWall introduces you to the general theories behind self-control: what it is, how it works, and how you can take steps to improve it.

The individual lectures in this course cover a fascinating range of issues related to self-control. Among the topics you’ll have a chance to explore and investigate in the company of an expert:

• How researchers discovered that delayed gratification can lead to better individual well-being in everything from higher self-worth to less sensitivity to rejection
• One of the most influential theories about how self-control works—the limited resource model, which argues that self-control relies on limited energy that becomes depleted after use
• How scientists discovered the link between the prefrontal cortex and aggression, and how people a risk for violent anger show abnormalities in that region of the brain
• The argument that humans continue to stereotype other people into general groups (boys/girls, old/young, white/non-white, skinny/overweight) as a mental conservation strategy

Strengthen Your Self-Control Skills

Alongside groundbreaking scientific findings and research, you’ll get personal exercises, activities, and thought experiments you can use to practice strengthening your self-control skills to meet whatever specific goals you want to achieve. Each one of Professor DeWall’s lectures concludes with one or two exercises specific to a particular topic (such as aggression, first impressions, delayed gratification).

• To psychologically recharge your depleted self-control energy, write down your core values and why they matter; self-affirmation is a great way to boost your self-control.
• Make a plan before entering a tempting environment. For example, before going to a restaurant, look at the menu online so you can plan a strategy to avoid foods you shouldn’t eat.
• Don’t make any major relationship decisions after you’ve experienced a long, taxing day. Having adequate self-control energy is crucial to making clear, rational decisions you won’t later regret.

These and other exercises are more than just engaging ways for you to practice self-control. They’re highly insightful examples of just how central self-control is to almost everything that you do in your life.

Finally Overcome Challenges and Obstacles

Professor DeWall is at the top of his game in Scientific Secrets for Self-Control, and you’ll quickly see why this popular instructor has earned such acclaim for his teaching and his ideas. The Association for Psychological Science has called Professor DeWall a “rising star” in psychological research, and he has received honors and awards including the Outstanding Teacher Award from the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Science and a SAGE Young Scholars Award from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology.

Add that caliber of instruction to this course’s helpful 3-D animations and use of green screen technology, and these lessons are a dynamic experience, particularly when enjoyed in visual formats.

By turns inspiring, supportive, informative, and enlightening, Professor DeWall has crafted a wonderful course that serves as an invaluable source of support for finally overcoming the obstacles in your life and reaching your true potential.

6 Lectures

1 Why Is It So Hard to Do What We Should?
2 Self-Control Successes and Failures
3 Marshmallows, Monkeys, and Mortality
4 Taming the Impulsive Beast
5 First Impressions and Stereotypes
6 Romance, Finance, and Your Environment