Flex_ Do Something Different - Ben [0]
Love Not Smoking: Do Something Different
Do Something Different: The Journal
The No Diet Diet: Do Something Different
co-authored with Dr Danny Penman
Sheconomics
by Professor Karen J Pine and Simonne Gnessen
(Inner) FITness and the FIT Corporation
by Professor Ben (C) Fletcher and Bob Stead
First published in Great Britain in 2012 by:
University of Hertfordshire Press
College Lane
Hatfield
Hertfordshire
AL10 9AB
UK
© Ben (C) Fletcher and Karen J Pine 2012.
The right of Ben (C) Fletcher and Karen J Pine to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-907396-54-0
Design by
Whiteing Design Partnership
Tel (01582) 792215
www.whiteingdesign.co.uk
Printed in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe
Preface
This book has a history. In the true spirit of flex, it is both old and new. Both mature and youthful. Many of the ideas in it stretch back, quite a way back. Even back to the times when Ben Fletcher had hair. Yes, they go back to Ben’s post-Oxford days when he first researched why some individuals get stressed. And back to the birth of FIT Science to revisit some of the principles that Ben wrote about, with Bob Stead, in the book (Inner) FITness & The FIT Corporation. That book is no longer in print and in any case Ben had decided that it needed bringing up to date. So, in a sense, this is the new and improved FIT handbook. But it is also so much more than that.
About the time that he realised FIT needed revamping and revitalising, bringing new thoughts to bear on the original theories, Ben had also started to express those ideas in a new, more powerful (some would say more accessible) format. That was probably from 2004 onwards, when he started working with his wife Karen Pine. Together they are the proud ‘parents’ of the Do Something Different approach that makes up much of this book. That’s why the voice in the book shifts from ‘I’ to ‘we’ at times. The ‘I’ is Ben, expounding old and new ideas and putting them into his voice. The ‘we’ is the product of that thinking and the work of Ben and Karen together. Ultimately, though, Ben and Karen are a partnership, in life and in work, sharing the same views and speaking with one voice.
How to use this book
There are four sections to this book. They do have a sequence to them but we have tried to include many smaller sub-sections for the reader who prefers to dip in and out. At the end of each of the four main sections we give you ways to put the ideas into practice – a ‘flex in action’ section. As the theory unfolds you’ll see how flex is all about expanding your world and making full use of your personality, since most of us are driven by habit and use just a fraction of our potential. The more you can put the flex technique – i.e. Do Something Different (DSD) – into practice, the more you will experience for yourself the worlds it can open up for you.
The first section explains why we are all so habitual and how the nature of the human brain drives us towards repetitive thoughts and behaviours. And why these aren’t always good for us. At the end of that section you can test, with the habit-rater, how habitual you are (you may be surprised since most of us are unaware of this limitation). Then you can get a first taste of the Do Something Different technique by trying some simple DSDs in your daily life, as a way of breaking free of some of your simplest habits. The DSDs are simple and fun yet also enlightening and will prepare you for the next section, Section 2.
This describes how the idea of behavioural flexibility came about and why it is