Psychologist and motivational blogger Benjamin Hardy, PhD, shows you why self-transformation is easier to achieve than you think, at any stage of life.
If you have ever taken a test to identify your "personality type", like the Myers-Briggs or Enneagram, you might be surprised to learn that such tests are not only unscientific, but are holding you back. The truth is, there's no such thing as a personality "type", or a "real you" that can only be unearthed through some process of self-discovery.
Instead, your personality is something you can intentionally choose and create. Rather than being defined by the past and trapped in unresolved traumas, you can build your identity and internal narrative to serve the future you desire. In Personality Isn't Permanent, Dr. Hardy draws on psychological research to demolish the popular misconception that personality-a person's consistent attitudes and behaviors-is innate and unchanging. He offers practical, motivational advice to help you cultivate the traits and achieve the goals you always dreamed of.
In Personality Isn't Permanent, you'll learn:
• Why you should never be the "former anything". Defining yourself by your past successes can be just as damaging to your potential to grow as being haunted by past failures.
• How to flip the script on negative memories and view them as something that happened for you, not to you.
• How to design a desired vision of your "future self," and make decisions based on what "they" would want.
• How to tap into what psychologists' call "pull motivation" by narrowing your focus on a single, definable, and compelling outcome.
• Why you should consistently put yourself in new situations that can initially be emotionally uncomfortable.
• Why you should measure your progress by how much you've grown, rather than what you lack.
Along the way, you'll hear fascinating true stories of radical self-transformation, like Vanessa O'Brien, who quit her corporate job and went on to obtain Guinness World Records for climbing the tallest mountains in the world; Andre Norman, who became a Harvard fellow after serving a fourteen-year prison sentence; Ken Arlen, who instantly quit smoking by changing his backstory; and Hardy himself, who transcended his childhood in a broken home, surrounded by issues of addiction and mental illness, to get his PhD and build a happy family.
Filled with scientific strategies for reframing your past and designing your future, Personality Isn't Permanent is your practical guide to transcending your limitations and becoming the person you always wanted to be.
