Book Review: Your Future Self Will Thank You

My rating: ★★★★✰

Pages: 224

Genre: Nonfiction / Self-Help / Christian Living

"Self control isn't just one good character trait, a nice addition to the pantheon of virtues. It's foundational. Not because it's more important than other virtues, but because the others rely upon it."

Such is the theme that underlines Your Future Self Will Thank You by Drew Dyck, a self-confessed breaker of resolutions and bacon-cheeseburger-with-light-mayo-as-a-health-food eater. 

Apparently, such are the things that qualify him to write a book on self-control.

Drew Dyck is a frequent interviewee of the Holy Post, a podcast of which I happen to be a frequent listener. It was through the podcast that I became acquainted with the existence of this voracious reader, writer, and generally fun guy. When I learned that he had written a book on self-control while listening to one of his many interviews on the Holy Post, I as a natural procrastinator (and generally inefficient person) knew I had to get this book and read it immediately. 

Okay, maybe not immediately. But you know, sometime in the not-too-distant future of that present.

The point is, I eventually got around to it. What's more, I eventually got around to writing this. (I think my future self will thank me.)

Summary

Your Future Self Will Thank You: Secrets to Self-Control from the Bible & Brain Science is a Christian self-help book dealing with the topic of self-control and how it relates to the Christian life. As its name implies, it takes a holistic approach to self-control, discussing both the Biblical and scientific perspectives. Plus, Drew's own experience with self-control and the ways he put both the Biblical and scientific principles he learned into practice.

Analysis

To sum it up in a few words, this book was a joy to read. This isn't a nonfiction self-help book with tediously abstract, semi-practical concepts that will bore you to death. It's written in a style that reflects Drew's fun personality, communicating his observations using colloquial language, the more-than-occasional quip, and oh-so-relatable anecdotes about his life and his own struggle with self-control in all of its aspects, whether that be fasting, exercising, or reading the Bible and praying.

You are hereby warned: you may or may not die of laughter if you make the perilous decision to read this book. 

Drew uses the Bible as the essential framework to understand self-control. Then, he naturally fills in the rest with science and stuff about Chuck E. Cheese's and the Seventh Circle in Dante's Inferno. 

Drew's observations are informed and supported by intriguing scientific studies. (For example, studies that indicate that there is a definite correlation between religiosity and self-discipline. See Chapter 3.) Also included are the viewpoints of scientific professionals, theologians, and other well-informed people, as well as sketches of the lives of people like Benjamin Franklin, John Stott, and Billy Graham. 

Importantly, Drew makes the Bible the foundation for understanding self-control and why we don't always do what we want to do (Romans 7:15-20). He points out that our lack of self-control is in fact caused by our sin, and that our hearts, contrary to what we are inclined to believe, are "deceitful" and "desperately wicked." This is an important fact to internalize, he says, because without doing so, "we're like a blind boxer—we keep getting hit, but don't know where the blows are coming from." Drew uses the Bible as the essential framework to understand self-control. Then, he naturally fills in the rest with science and stuff about Chuck E. Cheese's and the Seventh Circle in Dante's Inferno.

There were some parts that made slower reading than the rest of the book because they seemed rather irrelevant and impractical to me. The last couple chapters, in particular, are a bit more heavy than the rest of the book. Probably because they discuss addiction and unhealthy proclivities to things such as pornography, alcohol, or social media. 

That being said, the rest of this book was a breeze. 

Stuff I Learned

The Amazing Superpower of the Will

Willpower, that is, the will to push yourself to do any given thing, is a finite resource, meaning that it will eventually run out. To illustrate this fact, Drew cites a study conducted by psychologists in which there were two groups of college student test subjects, all of whom had been fasting up until the point they were allowed to enter a room with freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies and a bowl of radishes. One group (the "Radish Group") was permitted to only eat radishes, while the other group (the "Cookie Group") was allowed to consume the cookies. After this, both test groups were led into a separate room to complete puzzles that the psychologists told them were supposed to "test their intelligence." In actuality, the puzzles were impossible to solve. Both test groups eventually gave up trying to solve the puzzles. The difference, however, was that the Cookie Group gave up after twenty minutes, while the Radish Group called it quits after eight. The reason for the disparity is that the Radish Group had to expend willpower to resist the temptation of the amazing chocolate chip cookies. Because they used up their willpower forcing themselves not to eat the cookies, they had only a little willpower left to push  themselves to attempt to solve the impossible-to-solve puzzles. Hence, they gave up much sooner than the Cookie Group. 

(Or maybe this study proves that radishes are bad for you and cookies are good for you. Something to consider...) 

The key to growing willpower is to "start doing hard things."

Because willpower is a finite resource, we need to use it strategically. We need to plan ahead and be careful to not put ourselves in situations that deplete our willpower. Also, we can invest time in activities that replenish and stabilize our willpower store, like eating low-glycemic foods, meditating, and praying. 

There are two kinds of willpower: state willpower and trait willpower. The first indicates the amount of willpower present in someone at any given time. The latter refers to the amount of willpower you naturally possess, and it varies from person to person. Some people are born with more trait willpower and thus are more driven and self-controlled. For those of us who weren't born with an above-average amount of willpower, the good news is that we can grow it by exercising it. Willpower is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Thus, the key to growing willpower is to "start doing hard things." 

Habits are the Answer

To make up for willpower's shortcomings, we should cultivate good habits. In case you're wondering why, it's because habits make what used to be hard for us to do automatic. Think about it: if I made it a habit to run everyday, it would be hard at first. I would endlessly procrastinate from my cushioned seat on a comfy couch, weakly shuddering at the idea of running a mile with every crunch of potato chip. But if I actually did go out to run and kept that up over the course of several weeks, eventually the practice would become involuntary.

On average, it takes 66 days to form a habit.

A habit is composed of (1) a cue, (2) a routine, and (3) a reward. The cue is something that triggers you to start the routine, which is the actual thing you do as a habit, which you then reward with something—which can be something as simple as the satisfaction you feel as you check off the routine on your to-do list or give yourself a chocolate chip cookie (or a radish) to reinforce the routine. The reward is something you look forward to as you do the routine. It's something that sustains you as you perform the routine. Hence, it is essential to include it as part of your habit. 

Here's something exciting: on average, it takes 66 days to form a habit. Typically, if you want to form a long-term habit, you should tackle it solely until it is fully ingrained in your daily life. If you try to tackle several habits at once, you're likely to fail because your concentration would be divided. This is why our New Year's resolutions often don't last very long: because we make multiple resolutions at once instead of focusing on just one thing we'd like to improve about ourselves or our lives.

One last thing about habits: habits are replaced by habits. In other words, if you want to get rid of a bad habit and gain a good one, you should keep the same cue while changing the routine. For example, Drew relates that he had a habit of checking his social media first thing in the morning. His cue would be rolling over in bed and seeing his phone. To replace this bad habit with a good one, he placed his Bible where he used to put his phone so that in the morning he'd wake up to the same cue, but would perform a different (more healthy) routine. 

Conclusion

Drew recommends this book for "sinners, quitters & procrastinators". I would do the same. This book is for absolutely everyone.

In closing, I'd like to mention one important thing Drew mentions in his book. He said that we shouldn't cultivate self-control merely out of a desire to become powerful or successful, as we might be inclined to do. Instead, we should learn self-control because we want to fulfill the two greatest commandments: "Love God. Love others." 

As we pursue the virtue of self-control with God's help, may we never lose sight of this objective. 

"[E]ndeavor to live a life marked by self-control. Your future self will thank you. And others will too." — Drew Dyck

Your Future Self Will Thank You can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in your local library system—wherever you choose to look for it. Are you planning on reading this book if you haven't already? Do you struggle with self-control? Do you think a bacon cheeseburger with light mayo is a health food?