This book is about how we think and how what we think shapes our attempts to manage the ongoing course of our lives. Our primary mode of thought is in the form of stories, called narratives, which help us make sense of what is going on around us and provide context for it by linking it to what has happened in the past. Moreover, narratives allow us to use the past and present to make educated guesses, called forecasts, about what will happen in the future. When the forecasted future is undesirable, we intervene to ensure that the actual future, when it arrives, is more to our liking. Narrative thought has its limits, particularly when logical rigor is required. The implications of these limits are discussed, as are the ways in which people have attempted to overcome them.

This book is about how we think and how what we think shapes our attempts to manage the ongoing course of our lives. Our primary mode of thought is in the form of stories, called narratives, which help us make sense of what is going on around us and provide context for it by linking it to what has happened in the past. Moreover, narratives allow us to use the past and present to make educated guesses, called forecasts, about what will happen in the future. When the forecasted future is undesirable, we intervene to ensure that the actual future, when it arrives, is more to our liking. Narrative thought has its limits, particularly when logical rigor is required. The implications of these limits are discussed, as are the ways in which people have attempted to overcome them.

This book is about how we think and how what we think shapes our attempts to manage the ongoing course of our lives. Our primary mode of thought is in the form of stories, called narratives, which help us make sense of what is going on around us and provide context for it by linking it to what has happened in the past. Moreover, narratives allow us to use the past and present to make educated guesses, called forecasts, about what will happen in the future. When the forecasted future is undesirable, we intervene to ensure that the actual future, when it arrives, is more to our liking. Narrative thought has its limits, particularly when logical rigor is required. The implications of these limits are discussed, as are the ways in which people have attempted to overcome them.

"Nothing endures but change"…said Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BCE) but he failed to tell us how to cope with it. Thanks to the cognitive sciences we are now beginning to understand why we have so much difficulty in this regard. Although we have struggled with change for so long, we are only recently coming to understand ourselves well enough to recognize how we both manage and resist it in our lives. Once again, thanks to the cognitive sciences we are beginning to develop tools to help us. And thanks to this book the reader can learn a methodology to apply these tools. The author’s primary proposition is that much of our difficulty in dealing with change is related to natural physiological processes that also serve us to maintain a coherent point of view. The reader is guided though a deeper exploration of our neuro-linguistic structure as a way of examining our "human beingness" in a grounded and practical way. The well known and respected Birkman Method® is featured as a practical and credible tool for sketching the authentic person as different from his or her public persona to help to discover the true SELF and achieve a higher level of satisfaction in changing times. Coaches, counselors, teachers, managers and any professionals who need to understand people better should read this book

"Nothing endures but change"…said Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BCE) but he failed to tell us how to cope with it. Thanks to the cognitive sciences we are now beginning to understand why we have so much difficulty in this regard. Although we have struggled with change for so long, we are only recently coming to understand ourselves well enough to recognize how we both manage and resist it in our lives. Once again, thanks to the cognitive sciences we are beginning to develop tools to help us. And thanks to this book the reader can learn a methodology to apply these tools. The author’s primary proposition is that much of our difficulty in dealing with change is related to natural physiological processes that also serve us to maintain a coherent point of view. The reader is guided though a deeper exploration of our neuro-linguistic structure as a way of examining our "human beingness" in a grounded and practical way. The well known and respected Birkman Method® is featured as a practical and credible tool for sketching the authentic person as different from his or her public persona to help to discover the true SELF and achieve a higher level of satisfaction in changing times. Coaches, counselors, teachers, managers and any professionals who need to understand people better should read this book