UH PRESS futures❵
(and also married to each other), and their book is backed up by over thirty years of research.
It looks at the idea of ‘personality’ and gives readers the chance to work out which personality traits are dominant in them. You can also test just how stuck in your ways you are. Armed with this knowledge, there are tailored ‘Do Something Different’ programmes to help you counteract your most ingrained traits. It’s about moving yourself to a different point on the personality spectrum so that you can try on a different set of behaviours for size – and then perhaps another, and another. In any given situation, a different way of dealing with it may not only lead to a more satisfying outcome but reduce stress as well (stress is often the consequence of rigid habits). Who could resist the advice to ‘tell a joke’ or ‘go commando’? Or perhaps the behaviour-changers aimed at you will include giving more hugs or learning a poem by heart. If just imagining doing any of those things makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable, that could be the very thing for you! People are resistant to change but often find that when they actually make a change, they feel surprisingly happy. As you shake up more and more habits, your new lack of routine will itself gradually become a way of life. But now you’ll be building up a much wider repertoire of responses to whatever life may throw at you. The greater goal of ‘flexing’ is personal coherence, where our actions are in keeping with the way we see ourselves. If we achieve coherence in this way, we’re generally much less stressed and more at ease with ourselves. Do Something Different is also being used successfully to change behaviour in communities and corporates (see
www.dsd.me). The possibilities really are endless.
As you shake up more and more habits, your new lack of routine will itself gradually become a way of life.
Flex is published by University of Hertfordshire Press at £8.99. Ben and Karen’s other books include The No-Diet Diet, Sheconomics and Love Not Smoking. f❵
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