Here are some simple, straightforward methods you can use to break bad habits, overcome obstacles, and define objectives

Self-Management Strategies

Simple yet effective strategies can overcome obstacles (such as procrastination) that get in the way of achieving your goals. Techniques include:

• determine what inspires you and recreate that environment
• remove or reduce temptation
• break big jobs into smaller pieces
• "automate" humdrum tasks

Solving Problems

A logical, step-by-step approach to problem-solving uses diagrams and brainstorming based on a rational analysis of the problem. These methods can help you come up with brilliant, radical solutions to old, perplexing problems.

Moral Problems

Many people suffer from unreasonable guilt or fears that they are bad or inadequate in some way. But most people have an "instrumental nature" — meaning a desire to make the world a better place. This instrumental nature is a better foundation for self-assessment than our feelings, which are outside our control, or the judgments of others, which are often both unreasonable and ill-informed.

Religion, Philosophy and Self-Help

Thinkers who have influenced my approach range from Buddha to the Dalai Lama to John Stuart Mill. From each, I have extracted nuggets of universal wisdom.

Invincibility

My recipe for happiness is based on three ingredients: the ability to express our inherent goodness; taking risks, regardless of outcomes; and freedom from guilt.

The Brain and Emotion

Several pioneers in brain physiology have discovered what people want more than money. The brain contains specific pleasure centers, and neurotransmitters influence both cognition and emotion. These discoveries have led to important advances in the treatment of mental illness.

Psychotherapy

More and more Americans are realizing that psychotherapy is not a last refuge of the mentally ill but instead is a powerful, self-directed tool for personal development. Whether or not you use psychotherapy as a means to overcome anxiety and other personal problems and to reach your goals is up to you.

The greatest thinkers in the field of psychotherapy focused on different aspects of the psyche and developed correspondingly different therapeutic approaches. Understanding the strengths of each approach is useful in choosing a therapist.

Social Inventions

Many people seek the aid of support groups for problems ranging from depression to unemployment. Alcoholics Anonymous, begun in 1935, has become the largest of these "mutual help" groups, and has spawned many similar 12-step programs. People uncomfortable with the religious flavor of AA have founded other mutual-help groups. Group therapy also enables peopleto gain relief from shame and loneliness, discover they are not alone with their problems, and have opportunities to help each other.