The start of a New Year is the perfect time to recommend ‘The Flinch‘, which is the latest book by Julien Smith, who previously wrote Trust Agents with marketing uber-blogger Chris Brogan. It’s not only a free download for all new and existing Kindle owners, but at a time when we’re all talking about our resolutions, and in my case New Year Obsessions, it’s the perfect time to take on the flinching reflex that stops us from achieving what we want.

And that’s the importance of the book, which is available via the Domino Project. First Smith outlines what ‘The Flinch’ is, and how it has to be overcome by champions, such as boxers. If you’re flinching away at the thought of being hit, you’ll never land a punch, so whether it’s boxing, martial arts, or any sport involving physical risk, you have to overcome that primitive instinct to get away from potential pain. It’s served us well when we were on our guard against sabretooth tigers, and isn’t a bad thing if you’re walking through town at night, but generally in our lives we end up misplacing it against minor inconveniences which get blown out of proportion compared to the actual risk to us.

That’s all fairly logical, but Smith does a great job of writing with infectious passion. More importantly, I was pleasantly surprised to see some assignments to actually get used to the reflex and how to react. They’re all relatively simple in theory and don’t take any effort beyond using objects you’ll have readily available in your house to create situations where you can learn to stand up to the flinching mechanism, and not shy away from it.

So whether you’re planning on tackling some specific challenges in 2012, or you’ve experienced flinching in the past and want some support in tackling it, there’s no reason not to pick up the free download. As is the case with all the Domino Project books, it’s a relatively short and quick read, but given the practical steps, it’s probably the most useful of all of them.