86Thousand400: The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters

Summary of others:

Getting the best out of people depends on how you approach them and what you understand of them

The best relationships are the ones where you accept the person as they are and work with this

Walk away from people whose behaviours or beliefs you cannot accept

Invest a lot in those whom you care about

Troop:

Establishing your troop is critical to reassure your chimp

Opinions from outside your troop are not important

Clarifying the roles of those in your troop helps it function well

The troop needs time spent on it to make it function. Invest in the troop

Communication

The key to communicating well is to prepare yourself.

The square of communication: Right time, Right place, Right way, Right agenda, Right person

Environment:

Some people spend their lives in the 'wrong' place. Realising that your lifestyle is not matching your Chimp's needs and doing something about it, is one of the keys to being at peace within yourself. The right part of the jungle is where your work and home environments are happy places to be

Territory

Once the territory is established here are a few other suggestions that will keep it happy and stop it becoming distressed:

Right finances and possessions. Learning to live within your means is an excellent way to stop the chimp from fretting.

Right friends: surround yourself with the right people as often as you can

Right job: it needs to feel competent and confident in order to perform its work

Right food: the right food for your chimp is emotional food. It needs satisfaction and peace of mind. Don't give your chimp indigestion by asking it to accept and live with inappropraite emotions, for example, stress or unhappiness

Right time out: not giving enough rest and then it will not be happy in this world. More rest means you invariably come back feeling better

Key Point: Don't just react to stress; deal with it constructively

Beating yourself up and guilt: Never beat yourself up if you handle stress poorly. Try smiling, relaxing and coming back with enthusiasm. You can only do your best, so accept it.

Beating yourself up and feeling guilty are two very useless and destructive gremlins. They never have anything constructive to offer

Key Point: Anything in life is only as important as you want it to be