We live in small worlds. Conscious change requires deliberate effort, and so, for the most part, we avoid it. Drawing on personal stories from everyday lives in transition, and a range of literary and cultural references, this book shows us how we can resist being mere habit machines, and make our acts and our lives more fully our own.

Vincent Deary is a Health Psychologist at Northumbria University, where his research focuses on the development of new psychosocial interventions for people with a variety of health complaints, including cancer survivors and fear of falling in older adults. As a clinician he works in the UK's first trans-diagnostic Fatigue Clinic, working as part of a multidisciplinary team to research and develop new treatments for people for whom fatigue is a disabling symptom. He is the author of How We Are, the first book in the How to Live trilogy.