Kelly McGonigal 
Originally posted 16 Sep 2013

We all have goals and dreams, and as you pursue them, don’t beat yourself up over your setbacks. The science of willpower shows that guilt and shame only sabotage self-control. The way to get back on track is forgiving your failures. Whatever your regrets, bad habits or temptations, you’re not screwed up, you’re human. And it’s not just you. It’s all of us. Here are my three favorite books for remembering that.

1. A Primate’s Memoir by Robert M. Sapolsky

In A Primate’s Memoir, neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky recounts his years in the Serengeti observing baboons. A wild animal story may seem an unlikely place to discover your humanity, but sometimes self-compassion is easiest to come at sideways. You’ll empathize with the monkeys’ social striving, as they jockey for status and sex. When they give up foraging for real food in favor of eating human garbage, you may be reminded of your own junk food addiction. And when tragedy strikes, you will find yourself deeply moved, mourning these wild primates who seem to represent our most basic instincts.

2. Start Where You Are by Pema Chödrön

In Start Where You Are, Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön makes an unexpected promise. Those despicable parts of your human nature? They’re the raw material for wisdom and growth. “You can feel as wretched as you like, and you’re still a good candidate for enlightenment,” she reassures us. Whether you want to meditate your way to Buddhahood or just quit smoking, you don’t have to wait to become someone else. Many of us have a desperate hope: On Jan. 1, I’ll wake up and I won’t be angry, I won’t be anxious, I won’t want that cookie. Then I can forgive my mother, stop drinking and stick to my diet. Chödrön gives us permission to get started no matter how overwhelmed or flawed we feel — and reminds us that we don’t really have any other choice.

3. PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives  by Frank Warren

In 2004, Frank Warren handed out 3,000 postcards to strangers. He asked them to write a secret they had never told anyone and mail it back anonymously. PostSecret is a compilation of these cards. Some secrets will sound familiar, though you may never have said them out loud:

“I waste office supplies because I hate my boss.”

“I feel guilty about sometimes wishing that I didn’t have children.”

“I can eat a dozen donuts in one sitting.”

Some secrets are funny, like the person who confessed: “I write the same thing on all my thank you notes, and I worry that my relatives will compare them and find out.” Others will break your heart, like the postcard that reads, “Sometimes I hope the drugs will take me before the loneliness ever gets its chance.”

The introduction to PostSecret tells us, “The things that make us feel so abnormal are actually the things that make us all the same.” That’s why I love these three books. They invite us to see ourselves as we are and to stop beating ourselves up about it. We aren’t all bad, and we aren’t all good. We’re human. We can make peace with that, even as we aspire to be better.

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About the Author

 Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., is a health psychologist teaching at Stanford University and specializing in the mind-body connection. Her work focuses on how we can translate neuroscience and modern psychology research into practical strategies for better health, happiness, personal success, and relationships. She is the author of The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It and Yoga for Pain Relief: Simple Practices to Calm Your Mind and Heal Your Pain. McGonigal is also the Editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal of research on yoga, meditation, and integrative medicine.

Republished with permission from NPR.