Flex_ Do Something Different - Ben [22]
Being too low in … … may lead to:
Awareness Insensitivity
Lost opportunities
Poor relationships
Fearlessness Anxiety and illness
Playing too safe
Disappointment
Self-responsibility Perceiving no control
Being impressionable
Lack of direction
Balance Failure
Over-focus
Chasing one’s tail
Conscience Damage to others
Long-term costs
Prejudice
From the thousands of people who have been FIT profiled, we have seen some who score relatively high in one constancy compared to the others. This lack of ‘harmony’ can itself cause problems because personal outcomes are dependent on all five constancies and each acts as a check and balance on decisions and actions. The table below shows some of the more common problems of having high levels of a constancy not balanced by other constancies:
Being too high in … … can result in:
Awareness Hypersensitivity
Self-absorption
Hypochondria
Fearlessness Reckless actions
Danger
Self-harm
Self-responsibility Obstinacy
Dogmatism
Bullying
Balance Mediocrity
Decision paralysis
Missed opportunities
Conscience Preaching, not practising
Intolerance of others
Nit-picking
Some people are so fearless that they do reckless things that cause harm to themselves and others. Some people are so aware that they cannot cross the street for fear of being run over. Some people are so self-responsible that they fail to get others to do what they should do and end up stressed out. Some people are so concerned about doing the right thing that other people get fed up being told what they are doing wrong. Some people balance things in their life but have no passion. The ‘good’ inner FIT ingredients may have negative consequences for a person unless he or she can achieve harmony among the constancies.
So, am I saying that people should become less FIT in these areas for their own good? No. The solution lies in bringing harmony to all the constancies, so that they hold each other in check. The best way to do this is to work on raising the weaker levels, rather than reducing the higher ones. Fearlessness does need to be held at bay, as do all the constancies, but they do that for each other. That is why achieving harmony among the constancy levels – where each one is as strong as the others – is an important target to aim for.
27. Outer FITness – behavioural flexibility
We have so far described the dimensions of FIT Science that are concerned with thinking or cognition – the inner part of FITness. These constancies are fundamental to effectiveness and well-being in the broadest sense. All our research shows us that. But these constancies are not where the action is. It is very difficult for us to simply change our minds and be less fearful, or more self-responsible.
We cannot think ourselves better and the plethora of failed self-help books illustrates this. Positive thinking is a great idea but often so difficult to put into practice, particularly if we have got into the habit of thinking otherwise. We cannot just be told to be different, or even tell ourselves. For the vast majority of people willpower (if it exists) is just not strong enough to battle against a lifetime of habits. We have to do something different to make change possible.
That is where the outer part of FITness comes in. It sets the base from which we can start to change for the better. Our behaviours shape our thoughts. What we do can be used to bring about change. If we behave differently we start to think differently as a consequence of the new experiences we have. So behaviours can change constancies; behaviours can change minds.
In FIT Science we start with the behaviours that we naturally have in our repertoire. These are our own personal habit map; they are our ‘personality’. As I told the Chinese waiter, the difficulty with describing behaviour in terms of personality traits (such as the ‘big five’: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, neuroticism and openness to experience), however, is that it suggests an inherent inflexibility. Your personality habit travels everywhere