Ree already cares for her dissipated mother and two younger siblings, but her tenacious refusal to be intimidated out of her search by either the cops or a clan of hatchet-faced blood relatives carrying secrets is the kind of willpower Ms. Granik has always been drawn to.
In particular is the theory that willpower is a limited resource.
"12 Years a Slave," on the other hand, "takes advantage of the fact that this is a biography and, therefore, is able to be a little more minimalist in the storytelling, a little more repetitious," McKee said, adding a bit of jargon: "In genre it's sometimes called a pathetic plot or a plot of suffering, and what's at stake is the character's willpower.
Recent research shows that strengthening willpower is the real secret to the kind of self-control that can help you resist temptations and achieve your goals.
This is where the willpower approach fails.
"It's the same willpower that you use to be polite or to wait your turn or to drag yourself out of bed or to hold off going to the bathroom.
Perhaps the big question is whether there's the political willpower to continue an investigation that began under Pentagon IG Gordon Hedell, who left the agency in December.
"People often define willpower as a force that makes food challenges easy," she says, explaining that, instead, "willpower is the ability to make choices that are consistent with your goals or values -- even when it's difficult and part of you wants something else".
I know he's got the willpower, I know he's as tough as anybody, and we'll find out on the 21st of August.
But the general idea behind these moronic quotes is as alarming as their syntax and vocabulary — that idea being, Yglesias writes, the conservative conceit that willpower is the crucial variable in making our national security policy work.
