The book explores how the ideas 'what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker,' 'always trust your feelings,' and 'life is a battle between good people and evil people' have become embedded in American culture. These 'Great Untruths' contradict basic psychological principles and ancient wisdom, leading to a culture of safetyism that interferes with young people’s social, emotional, and intellectual development. The authors investigate various social trends, including fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised play, and the impact of social media, as well as changes on college campuses and the broader context of political polarization in America.
The Art of Learning takes readers through Josh Waitzkin’s unique journey to excellence in both chess and Tai Chi Chuan. The book explains how a well-thought-out, principled approach to learning separates success from failure. Waitzkin discusses how achievement is a function of a lifestyle that fuels a creative, resilient growth process. He shares his methods for systematically triggering intuitive breakthroughs, honing techniques, and mastering performance psychology. The book also emphasizes the importance of embracing defeat, making mistakes work for you, and turning weaknesses into strengths. It is divided into sections that cover his rise in chess, his transition to Tai Chi, and the similarities in preparation and execution between the two disciplines.
In 'Who Not How', Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy introduce the 'Who Not How' framework, which challenges the traditional 'how' mindset by encouraging readers to ask 'who' can help achieve their goals. This book teaches how to delegate tasks effectively, find experts who can handle specific challenges, and create transformational relationships. By adopting this mindset, readers can free up time, build supportive teams, and achieve their biggest goals while maintaining personal freedom and reducing burnout.
This book introduces the concept of 'The Gap and The Gain', developed by Dan Sullivan, which helps high achievers understand why they are often unhappy despite their accomplishments. It explains that measuring oneself against an ideal (the Gap) leads to dissatisfaction, while measuring against past achievements (the Gain) fosters happiness, gratitude, and motivation. The book is a masterclass on positive psychology, healthy relationships, mental well-being, and high-performance, offering practical advice on how to shift focus to appreciate progress and achieve greater fulfillment and success.
In 'Personality Isn’t Permanent', Dr. Benjamin Hardy draws on psychological research to challenge the popular belief that personality is fixed. He provides strategies for intentional self-transformation, including how to design your current identity based on your desired future self, reframe traumatic experiences, enhance your subconscious, and redesign your environment to support future goals. The book includes true stories of self-transformation and emphasizes the importance of action in kindling confidence, motivation, and passion.
In 'Willpower Doesn't Work,' Benjamin Hardy argues that willpower is not a reliable tool for achieving success. Instead, he advocates for the power of environment in shaping behavior and outcomes. The book provides strategies on how to create an environment that supports your goals, such as removing distractions, investing in personal growth, and using 'forcing functions' to ensure desired behaviors become automatic. Hardy draws on psychological theories and the experiences of successful individuals to illustrate how adapting to and designing one's environment is crucial for personal and professional success.
It often feels like there is a massive gap between where we are and where we want to be. What’s more, we can spend so much time working to GET somewhere that we lose sight of what we’ve gained along the way. This is what organizational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Hardy and I dove into this episode. I loved this conversation, and I’m thrilled to share it with you, so don’t forget to spread it around.
Dr. Benjamin Hardy is an organizational psychologist and bestselling author of Willpower Doesn’t Work, Personality Isn't Permanent, and most recently, The Gap And The Gain.
He is a prolific blog writer, and his work has been read by over 100 million people, and featured on Harvard Business Review, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, CNBC, Cheddar, and others. He is a regular contributor to Inc. and Psychology Today, and from 2015-2018, he was the #1 writer in the world on Medium.com.
He and his wife Lauren adopted three children through the foster system in February 2018 and, one month later, Lauren became pregnant with twins, who were born in December of 2018. They live in Orlando.
Connect with Ben
-Website: https://benjaminhardy.com/
-Articles: https://benjaminhardy.com/articles/
-Book: The Gap And The Gain:
-Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benjaminhardy88/
-Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benjamin_hardy_phd/
-LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminhardy88/
-Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenjaminPHardy
-Book: The Gap And The Gain: https://amzn.to/3zodzxS
-Book: Personality Isn’t Permanent: https://amzn.to/3zodzxS
-Book: Willpower Doesn’t Work: https://amzn.to/3AoEg6N
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