Flex: Do Something Different ~ Paperback ~ Ben C. Fletcher

Imagine being able to handle whatever life throws at you with ease. Our habits, which help form our personality, undermine our ability to rise to new challenges. Most of our actions are based on old behavioural patterns so instead of coming up with new strategies, we're stuck on autopilot. And the more fixed our personality is, the harder we find it to adapt to change or to the new. No wonder we often feel overwhelmed, unhappy or stressed. We all have a far greater range of behaviours at our disposal than we realise but we limit our life by using just 1/10th of our personality. The other 9/10ths of our tools for life lie dormant in our brain's toolbox. flex will show you how to start using them. flex is about taking charge of ourselves and not slipping onto autopilot. A person who can flex, using different behaviours appropriately, will feel at ease in any situation. The key to being able to flex is to Do Something Different, to disrupt the brain's habits. When you can flex your personality you will feel more in control, happier and less stressed. flexing will help you to achieve more in life too. Find out about the science behind the Do Something Different behaviour-change technique that is helping to transform people's lives. And experience for yourself the endless possibilities it can open up for you.Table of Contents1. How many kinds of people are there? 2. The personality trap 3. People on autopilot 4. flexing 5. People shrink their worlds 6. We are all capable of change 7. Shaping a life 8. Why the past doesn't help our future 9. We are all habit machines 10. Habits come in many forms 11. The myth of willpower 12. Becoming habit-free 13. Inertia and the status quo bias 14. The pull of the past 15. Shaping a new self 16. Show me a stressed person and I'll show you a habit machine 17. Small changes, big consequences 18. Alleviating stress 19. The birth of FIT Science 20. Inner FITness - constancies 21. Awareness 22. Fearlessness 23. Self-responsibility 24. Balance 25. Conscience 26. Harmony among the constancies 27. Outer FITness - behavioural flexibility 28. Behavioural dimensions 29. Doing the right thing 30. The stress and inefficiency zone 31. Behaving differently with different people 32. The optimal behavioural range 33. Making the most of a situation includes you too 34. flex transition - relabelling feelings and repetition 35. Moving on and expanding tastes too 36. Back to stress and the discomfort zone 37. New behaviours have effects on others 38. Does a leopard change its spots? 39. Do Something Different 40. What does a Do Something Different intervention look like? 41. How does Do Something Different work? 42. Interactions between the two selves 43. Experiencing and reflecting on our own development 44. The 'golden rules' for behaviour change 45. Bringing about long-term behaviour change 46. Coherence comes from doing the right thing 47. Towards greater personal coherence 48. Levels of coherence 49. How personal coherence has consequences over time 50. Coherence units 51. Apparent and real incoherence 52. Why greater coherence leads to better decisions 53. Choices do get made, even if we feel we don't make them 54. The myth about decision-making 55. Choice/decision is illusory 56. Why people get paid for making 'big decisions' 57. DSD and decision-making 58. Why does DSD improve decisions? 59. People are not choice machines 60. Self-lying and self-deception 61. A modest claim - flex can change the world! 62. Advantages of flex at a personal level 63. Advantages of flex for the organisation 64. Advantages of flex in the social domain 65. flex and world issuesAuthor BiographyBen (C) Fletcher and Karen Pine are both Professors of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire and renowned experts in behaviour change. Their Do Something Different technique is highly successful in helping people make the changes they want, including losing weight, tackling stress, stopping smoking and improving health and wellbeing. Their other books include The No-Diet Diet, Sheconomics and Love Not Smoking.