From: The New York Times
Willpower Doesn’t Work. This Does
There is a children’s story I used to read to my daughters when they were 3 and 4 years old. It comes from Arnold Lobel’s “Frog and Toad” series and involves a big batch of cookies so delicious that the main characters can’t stop eating them.
“We need willpower,” says Frog.
“What is willpower?” asks Toad.
“Willpower is trying hard not to do something that you really want to do,” says Frog.
Even at their young ages, my daughters nodded in recognition when, earlier in the story, Frog says to Toad, “I think we should stop eating. We will soon be sick.” And both girls smiled sympathetically when we turned the page and watched Frog and Toad declare that they would eat “one last cookie,” only to succumb to temptation, again and again.
Read the whole story (subscription may be required): The New York Times
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