My guest this week is psychologist Dr. Benjamin Hardy. Ben recently wrote an excellent book called Personality Isn’t Permanent: Break Free From Self-Limiting Beliefs and Rewrite Your Story. This conversation is all about overcoming self-imposed limitations so your past doesn’t have to define your future. I find Ben’s message very uplifting, with his focus on the choice that each of us has in determining our path and our identity, and the freedom we can find as we decide who our future self will be.

I really enjoyed talking with Ben and getting to know him. I expect you’ll get a lot from our discussion.

Topics we discussed included:

• Ben’s definition of personality as our consistent attitudes and behaviors
• The changeability of personality
• Ben’s preference for the Big Five personality measures vs. typing inventories
• The downsides of seeing people as character “types” vs. existing on a continuum
• The limitations of common personality tests
• The Kolbe A^TM Index
• Prospection: our ability to make decisions in the present based on what we imagine in the future
• Using the person you want to be as the driver of your behavior
• Beyond the nature/nurture divide
• The primacy of choice in determining our identity
• The transformation Ben experienced in early adulthood
• The two years Ben spent serving a church mission
• How Ben’s faith influences his views on the possibility of transformation
• Ben’s emphasis on outcomes
• The value in committing to goals, and focusing on a single future self
• Decision fatigue
• Being honest about the future we want
• The confidence that follows commitment
• Ben’s recommendation of intermittent fasting, and the clarity it can bring
• The benefits of going to bed one hour earlier, rather than wasting time on consumption behavior
• Building “identity capital” by spending time doing valued activities
• Why it’s often so hard to write a book
• Ben’s free Future Self program

Benjamin Hardy, PhD, is an organizational psychologist and bestselling author of Willpower Doesn’t Work and Personality Isn’t Permanent.

His blogs have been read by over 100 million people and are featured on Harvard Business Review, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, CNBC, and many others.

Ben is a regular contributor to Inc. and Psychology Today, and from 2015-2018 he was the #1 writer in the world on Medium.com.

Ben and his wife live with their five kids in Orlando, Florida. So clearly Ben knows a lot about dealing with the stress and busyness of life and work and parenting!

Find Ben online at his website where you can learn more about him and take his free 30-Day Future-Self Program.

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