Knowing the 12 Levers will psychologically equip you better than anything else we are aware of

In The 12 Levers, Spencer Greenberg and Jeremy Stevenson distill hundreds of self-improvement techniques into twelve fundamental psychological strategies. Spencer Greenberg explains how years of research into self-help and therapy led them to build a practical toolkit designed to help people live happier, more fulfilling lives.

Bonjour Spencer Greenberg, why did you write this book… now?

Spencer Greenberg: We wrote this book because it is the book we always wish we had been able to read. We had longed for there to be a book that compiled all “the best stuff” with regard to self-improvement in one place. So that’s what we sought to create.

The reason it came out now, not years ago, is only because it took us years to conduct the research necessary for it. In order to write the book, we ended up extracting every method from more than 100 self-improvement books and more than 20 types of therapy, leading to a collection of almost 500 techniques.

Then we analyzed all of them to understand what the underlying psychological levers are that underpin self-improvement. That’s what our title, The 12 Levers, refers to – we were able to boil it all down to twelve high-level psychology strategies for improving your life.

What extract from your book best represents you?

S.G.: First, an excerpt about my own self-improvement journey:

“When [Spencer was] young, he suffered from intense social anxiety. The mere idea of striking up a conversation with a stranger would fill him with dread and cause his heart to pound in his chest. In his twenties, he decided to seek help. He saw a psychologist and learned a technique called exposure therapy [explored in Lever 5 of the book]. It involved gradually confronting his fears by doing social challenges assigned by his psychologist.

The challenges started simple, like asking strangers for the time. But they became increasingly outrageous and scary, like walking up to random men in bars and politely asking for a hug (much to Spencer’s surprise, no one ever punched him or even got angry). At first, these challenges filled him with terror, but remarkably quickly, they helped him overcome his social anxiety…”

And now, an excerpt about why we wrote the book:

“Above all, the goal of this book is to make you happier and reduce unnecessary suffering [and help you create more of what you value]. Some suffering is inevitable, like grief when you lose a loved one or disappointment when you fail at a goal you care about. But plenty of suffering is actually unnecessary, like feeling anxious about something that isn’t dangerous or feeling guilty when you did nothing wrong.

This kind of suffering is unnecessary because the psychological strategies to manage it are already available. Unfortunately, however, ‘already available’ doesn’t always mean ‘easily accessible.’ The Levers and techniques in this book are no miracle cure. Becoming happier still requires work, maybe a lot of work. But knowing the 12 Levers and how to apply them to your circumstances will psychologically equip you better than anything else we are aware of.”

What emerging trends do you believe in the most?

S.G.: Despite an increasingly technologically advanced world (with more things available ever more easily), people don’t seem to be getting happier. Worse, there’s evidence that mental health has been getting worse.

In the United States, France, and a number of other countries, young people are suffering from anxiety and depression at rates greater than those of older generations. There’s no reason this has to be the case. A better understanding of psychology can help.

If you had to give one piece of advice to a reader of this article, what would it be?

S.G.: If you have a significant challenge in your life that has gone unresolved, take a second look at it. Often, we stop at surface-level causes without realizing it.

For instance, if you find yourself repeatedly getting into the same kind of arguments with your spouse, and the solutions you’ve tried haven’t made it better, there’s likely a deeper explanation for those arguments than the ones you’ve explored so far. Look for deeper causes beneath the surface-level ones.

For instance, if your first answer to why it’s happening is that “we fight because she wants X while I want Y”, your follow-up question to yourself might be “but why have we not yet found a way to not fight about X and Y?”

In a nutshell, what are the next topics that you will be passionate about?

S.G.: I’m passionate about running studies on many aspects of human psychology, in the hopes of expanding the boundary of what’s known. I’m also passionate about releasing the results of our studies so that the public can benefit.

For instance, at my organization Clearer Thinking, we’re running a study now pitting 20 different self-improvement techniques against each other in a “horse race” to see which ones really work best.

Another example of this is that, based on our research on personality, we released the free tool we call The Ultimate Personality Test, which analyzes your personality using three different frameworks simultaneously, with the aim of giving you the most accurate understanding of yourself.

Thank you Spencer Greenberg

Tnaks Bertrand Jouvenot

The book: The 12 Levers, Spencer Greenberg & Jeremy Stevenson, DK RED, 2026.