Watch this event on ReasonTV: http://reason.com/reasontv/2014/02/06/self-control-is-the-key-to-a-success-joh

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? Need some tips on how to keep them? (Here are some hints)
Why do so many smokers try to quit but fail?
How did David Blane fast for 44 days and hold his breath for over 8 minutes?

On January 28th, Roy Baumeister and John Tierney will explain how each of these actions depend on “willpower” – and how a better appreciation of the role and function of willpower can enable us to be better organized, more productive, and achieve our goals. They’ll also explain why Barack Obama, after reading their book, resolved to wear a dark blue or gray suit every day.

For more than two decades, psychologist Roy Baumeister has been investigating the role of will-power in determining human behavior and the factors affecting that willpower. For a long time, Baumeister’s research was ignored or even derided by most fellow psychologists but as the evidence mounted his ideas have increasingly become accepted – and are now even seen as mainstream.

In 2011, Roy collaborated with New York Times columnist John Tierney to write Willpower – Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, drawing on this research as well as original interviews with David Blane and others. The book was a New York Times best-seller and has been translated into 20 languages.

Professor Roy Baumeister is Francis Eppes Eminent Scholar and Co-Director of the Baumeister and Tice Social Psychology Lab at Florida State University.   Over the past two years, John Tierney has played an instrumental role in Reason’s series of events at the Museum of Sex, conducting interviews with most of our guest speakers. He writes the Findings column in the science section of the New York Times.