Get Out of Your Own Way: The 5 Keys to Surpassing Everyone's Expectations

A Powerful Road Map for Surpassing Everyone’s Expectations

Break through your self-imposed limitations by learning how your own brain can be your biggest obstacle—or your greatest ally.

You’d expect your brain to be an always-reliable ally in your quest for a successful, satisfying life, but surprisingly the opposite is usually true. That’s because your brain is pretty much the same model your ancestors were using thousands of years ago when mere survival was everyone’s primary goal. It tells you now what it told them then: Play it safe. Avoid risk. Evade confrontation. Don’t venture outside the territory you already know. And never break the habits that have gotten you this far.

Coming at just the right time to help you deal with the growing demands of our pressure-packed, fast-changing world, Robert Cooper’s Get Out of Your Own Way helps you understand what’s going on in that head of yours. Once you know what really drives you, you can switch off the counterproductive parts of your brain, engage the helpful parts, and set out on the path to accomplishing what everyone else thinks you can’t. Based on more than two decades of worldwide research, Get Out of Your Own Way shows you the five keys for making the choices that let you engage and triumph over the realities of today’s world:

• Direction, not motion

• Focus, not time

• Capacity, not conformity

• Energy, not effort

• Impact, not intentions

Filled with wonderful stories—about everything from the note written by one of the author’s ancestors upon leaving Dublin for America in 1829 (“On the horizon is where hope lives . . . I am going there”) to the unlikely exploits of the world record–setting Jamaican bobsled team—this groundbreaking book confirms that the next frontier is not only ahead of you, it’s inside of you . . . and what everyone else thinks is impossible isn’t.



Also available as an eBook

Robert K. Cooper, Ph.D., is an independent scholar and leadership adviser whose emphasis on neuroscience enables him to provide unique perspectives to the many people and companies he works with. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Other 90% and has advised executives and rising-star leaders in organizations that include 3M, Barclays Bank, BSB Design, Intel, Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation, Navigant Consulting, Northwestern Mutual, and Verizon. His website is RobertKCooper.com.