The 12 Levers

The world of self-help is overflowing with advice. Countless books, podcasts, therapies, and videos talk about how to build a better life.. For Spencer Greenberg and Jeremy Stevenson, the most essential part of all this advice is the techniques. Techniques answer the million-dollar question: What do you actually do to fix your problem? What do you do to overcome anxiety, maximize productivity, and find inner peace?
After years of research—analyzing 106 self-help books and 23 therapies—they discovered that, from a bird’s-eye view, all self-help techniques collapse into just 12 broad strategies: The 12 Levers.
Knowing these Levers can prepare you for so many of the challenges that life will throw at you. You’ll learn how to…

• Clarify your intrinsic values to give your life direction
• Overcome fear by using the most scientifically validated anxiety approach in the world
• Alleviate insomnia and out-of-sync sleep routines with techniques largely known only to sleep therapists 
• Enrich your downtime by doing more glad-you-did-it activities
• Get more done by understanding the three factors of The Productivity Equation
• Interrupt spirals of self-consciousness using the Attention Training Technique

 
…and much more.
Together, the 12 Levers form the complete psychological toolkit for improving your life.

• “In the confusing, uncertain, and too much information world in which we live, The 12 Levers does us a favor, cutting through the information clutter to array a dozen core techniques for making life better and happier from the hundreds of self-help guides that are out there. The book is clear, thoroughly researched and well-written. Please read it before you buy another self-help book.”
  Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice, Why We Work, and co-author of Practical Wisdom and Choose Wisely
• “I’ve read an embarrassing number of self-help books in my life. I could have saved a lot of time by just reading The 12 Levers, which distills the common truths across all of them. It’s the most thoughtful and comprehensive self-help book I’ve ever read—written with empathy and clarity.”
  Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, New York Times bestselling author of Everybody Lies
• “Many self-help books promise transformation. Many fewer explain the mechanisms by which transformation occurs. The 12 Levers looks past schools of thought, slogans, and storytelling to identify the repeatable psychological procedures that truly drive change. You will come away with a much clearer understanding of approaches you've encountered in the past, as well as a powerful toolkit that you can use for whatever challenges life has thrown at you."
  Annie Duke, bestselling author of Thinking in Bets and Quit