Knowing how you mind works will give you the edge over breaking bad habits, The psychologist Jeremy Dean gives you the tools to change bad habits to good. A useful book, as well as a “good read”, he shares the results of some fascinating studies into why we get into bad habits, how our brain has an auto-pilot and how we have to be wily and persistent in make the change.
Making Habits, Breaking Habits How to Make Changes That Stick Synopsis
Habits are more powerful than your will - if you know how to make them work for you. Two strings are hanging from a ceiling, one at the centre of the room, one near the wall. You're asked to tie the strings together, but you can't reach both at the same time. You look around the room and see a table and a pair of pliers. How would you solve the problem? When confronted with challenges, most people let habits rule them (in this case, ignoring the pliers, the creative tool at your disposal). That is not surprising when you realise that at least a third of our waking hours are lived on auto-pilot - ruminating over past events, clicking through websites trawling for updates and the like. Such unconscious thoughts and actions are powerful. But the habits of the mind do not have to control us - we can steer them.
Psychologist Jeremy Dean is the founder and author of the popular website PsyBlog (www.psyblog.co.uk), which is read by upwards of 1 million people monthly and has been featured on the BBC and in the Guardian, the Times, the Huffington Post, and many others. Dean is currently a researcher at University College London, and this is his first book.
