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106 reviews for:
Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be
Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter
3.74 AVERAGE
106 reviews for:
Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be
Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter
3.74 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
There was so much hype around this book and I found the concept enticing, but the meat of the book was lacking.
Triggers was an excellent book that doesn't necessarily give step-by-step instructions on how to impact your own behavior, but talks about the general ways in which you can influence human behavior in the long term.
If you take the principles Marshall Goldsmith discusses in his case studies and apply them to your day-to-day life, you'll definitely see an impact!
If you take the principles Marshall Goldsmith discusses in his case studies and apply them to your day-to-day life, you'll definitely see an impact!
realistic, easy read but a one that made me reflect and I actually introduced some changes thanks to this book.
Started out reasonably enough: person hits their head and concludes they need to get to know their neighbors and make more friends. I'm totally on board with that. By the end, the book was advocating testing oneself daily on whether one made oneself happy. Sorry, but almost nothing is guaranteed to take away joy from life as that kind of introspection. Also book was pro-juicing (no scientific basis), anti-fat (again no scientific basis), and anti-ice-cream (even if science might back this up, I do not want to become a person without ice cream).
This review originally appeared on Everyday eBook
Become a Better You: Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith
Change is hard. Change is even harder when you are trying to modify your behavior. Habits have become a popular subject in books; it seems as though we are always trying to find the easy way to change them, whether it is quitting smoking, starting a new exercise program, or becoming a more active, positive contributor during our work meetings. Marshall Goldsmith's latest book, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts - Becoming the Person You Want to Be, tackles this subject head-on in an insightful, practical way.
Goldsmith is a bestselling business author and leading executive coach to American CEOs, so he brings a wealth of stories and examples as well as years of experience to the book. Triggers focuses in on exactly what the title says: the triggers in your life that lead you to behave the way you do. As he points out, we so often dismiss the major role that our environment plays, and, unfortunately, there are many things about our environment that we cannot change or control. However, we can learn to manage how we react. Goldsmith presents both the how and why to identify and move beyond our triggers.
As you would expect, the beginning of the book is about the triggers - what they are, how to identify them, the different types, and how they work. He discusses the barriers to change: the things that make it hard to change our behavior, despite our best intentions. He then presents the Wheel of Change, an easy-to-understand graphic that can be utilized to help us identify how we can go about changing.
The second part of the book is all about trying to make the change. As he points out, the most important thing about making a change is trying. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of us, the idea of trying has become associated with failing as we've aged, rather than associated with success, as it was when we were children. But real change takes time; there is no silver bullet to get through the process overnight. One of the key components to trying is accountability, which Goldsmith addresses through daily, engaging active questions. These questions put the onus on you, rather than providing a way to answer in a way that blames other people or your environment. The other important aspect of this is the requirement that someone else ask you the questions. This person can merely record the scores and not say anything, or they can be fully engaged with you along the way (or somewhere in the middle).
The third part of the book is about the importance of structure in any attempt to change. The daily questions are a core structural element that the book advocates. Structure also helps us with some of the roadblocks we face. For example, we all face the Influence of Depletion. As the day goes on, our energy begins to wane, but we are usually unaware of its influence. Recognizing its influence can help us put more structures in place to combat it.
You may be questioning the need for another book about habits. Triggers is a great complement to some of the bestselling titles already in print (e.g., [b: The Power of Habit|15899755|The Power of Habit ...in 30 Minutes|Charles Duhigg|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355091776s/15899755.jpg|21650563] and [b: Better than Before|15705973|Better than Before (RightMatch.com, #1)|Kathryn Shay|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343783196s/15705973.jpg|21369204]). It provides some very practical exercises to put in place to achieve change and sustain it for the long term. Even better, Goldsmith illustrates how it all works with real-life examples, both business and personal. Whether you are trying to become a better leader, employee, spouse, or parent, Triggers provides a great blueprint to making lasting changes.
Become a Better You: Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith
Change is hard. Change is even harder when you are trying to modify your behavior. Habits have become a popular subject in books; it seems as though we are always trying to find the easy way to change them, whether it is quitting smoking, starting a new exercise program, or becoming a more active, positive contributor during our work meetings. Marshall Goldsmith's latest book, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts - Becoming the Person You Want to Be, tackles this subject head-on in an insightful, practical way.
Goldsmith is a bestselling business author and leading executive coach to American CEOs, so he brings a wealth of stories and examples as well as years of experience to the book. Triggers focuses in on exactly what the title says: the triggers in your life that lead you to behave the way you do. As he points out, we so often dismiss the major role that our environment plays, and, unfortunately, there are many things about our environment that we cannot change or control. However, we can learn to manage how we react. Goldsmith presents both the how and why to identify and move beyond our triggers.
As you would expect, the beginning of the book is about the triggers - what they are, how to identify them, the different types, and how they work. He discusses the barriers to change: the things that make it hard to change our behavior, despite our best intentions. He then presents the Wheel of Change, an easy-to-understand graphic that can be utilized to help us identify how we can go about changing.
The second part of the book is all about trying to make the change. As he points out, the most important thing about making a change is trying. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of us, the idea of trying has become associated with failing as we've aged, rather than associated with success, as it was when we were children. But real change takes time; there is no silver bullet to get through the process overnight. One of the key components to trying is accountability, which Goldsmith addresses through daily, engaging active questions. These questions put the onus on you, rather than providing a way to answer in a way that blames other people or your environment. The other important aspect of this is the requirement that someone else ask you the questions. This person can merely record the scores and not say anything, or they can be fully engaged with you along the way (or somewhere in the middle).
The third part of the book is about the importance of structure in any attempt to change. The daily questions are a core structural element that the book advocates. Structure also helps us with some of the roadblocks we face. For example, we all face the Influence of Depletion. As the day goes on, our energy begins to wane, but we are usually unaware of its influence. Recognizing its influence can help us put more structures in place to combat it.
You may be questioning the need for another book about habits. Triggers is a great complement to some of the bestselling titles already in print (e.g., [b: The Power of Habit|15899755|The Power of Habit ...in 30 Minutes|Charles Duhigg|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355091776s/15899755.jpg|21650563] and [b: Better than Before|15705973|Better than Before (RightMatch.com, #1)|Kathryn Shay|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343783196s/15705973.jpg|21369204]). It provides some very practical exercises to put in place to achieve change and sustain it for the long term. Even better, Goldsmith illustrates how it all works with real-life examples, both business and personal. Whether you are trying to become a better leader, employee, spouse, or parent, Triggers provides a great blueprint to making lasting changes.
Un livre excellent qui traite d'à quel point notre environnement joue en notre défaveur, de comment repérer les pièges qui jalonnent notre vie de tous les jours et les déclencheurs qui nous plongent dans des habitudes mauvaises. Mais qui donne aussi énormément de clés pour pouvoir s'auto-évaluer, combattre nos mauvaises habitudes et réussir à s'améliorer peu à peu jusqu'à devenir la personne que l'on veut être profondément. Beaucoup de réflexions, beaucoup d'exercices à mettre en place, mais une lecture excellente et enrichissante.
"The present is the ideal place to be. This is where we shape ourselves into a better person."
"The present is the ideal place to be. This is where we shape ourselves into a better person."
A good book for understanding why my best laid plans always seem to go awry and what to do about that. It reinforced something I am struggling with, which is accepting that the need for structure is morally neutral and not a personal failing. Recommended.
Favorite nugget of wisdom:
"The takeaway: If your motivation for a task or goal is in any way compromised—because you lack the skill, or don’t take the task seriously, or think what you’ve done so far is good enough—don’t take it on. Find something else to show the world how much you care, not how little."
Other passages of interest:
"Let’s use the term planner for the part of us that intends to change our behavior and doer for the part of us that actually makes change happen. The disconnect is the same: We are superior planners and inferior doers. ... Our failure to do what we plan is a certainty like death and taxes. It’s not just environmental intrusions and unpredicted events that upset our plans. It’s also our willful discounting of past experience. We make plans that are wholly contradicted by our previous actions. The planner who intends to make a deadline is also the myopic doer who forgets that he has never made a deadline in his life. The planner believes this time will be different. The doer extends the streak of missed deadlines. The yawning gap between planner and doer persists even when conditions for success are practically ideal. ... The boxer-philosopher Mike Tyson said, 'Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.' As we wander through life, what punches us in the face repeatedly is our environment."
"When people are asked passive questions they almost invariably provide 'environmental' answers. ... Active questions are the alternative to passive questions. There’s a difference between 'Do you have clear goals?' and 'Did you do your best to set clear goals for yourself?' The former is trying to determine the employee’s state of mind; the latter challenges the employee to describe or defend a course of action. ... Active self-questioning can trigger a new way of interacting with our world. Active questions reveal where we are trying and where we are giving up. In doing so, they sharpen our sense of what we can actually change. We gain a sense of control and responsibility instead of victimhood."
"Behavioral change demands self-discipline and self-control. We tend to use these terms interchangeably, but there’s a subtle difference. Self-discipline refers to achieving desirable behavior. Self-control refers to avoiding undesirable behavior. When we wake up in the dark morning hours to hit the gym, or run a weekly meeting so that it ends on time, or leave work with a clean desk, or remember to thank our colleagues for helping us, we’re displaying self-discipline—repeating positive actions consistently. When we deny ourselves that which we most enjoy—whether it’s stifling the urge to crack wise at someone else’s expense or saying no to a second helping of dessert—we’re displaying self-control."
"I have a first principle for becoming the person you want to be. Follow it and it will shrink your daily volume of stress, conflict, unpleasant debate, and wasted time. It is phrased in the form of a question you should be asking yourself whenever you must choose to either engage or 'let it go.' Am I willing, at this time, to make the investment required to make a positive difference on this topic?"
"That’s one of structure’s major contributions to any change process. It limits our options so that we’re not thrown off course by externalities. If we’re only allowed five minutes to speak, we find a way to make our case with a newfound concision—and it’s usually a better speech because of the structural limitations (most audiences would agree). Imposing structure on parts of our day is how we seize control of our otherwise unruly environment."
"When we decide to behave well and our first steps are successful, we often achieve a self-fulfilling momentum—Griffin called it 'cruise control'—where we don’t have to try as hard to be good. Like getting through the first four days of a strict diet, if we can handle the initial stages of inhibiting our undesirable impulses, we’re less likely to backslide. We don’t want to waste the gains of our behavioral investment. Good behavior becomes the sunk cost we hate to sacrifice."
Favorite nugget of wisdom:
"The takeaway: If your motivation for a task or goal is in any way compromised—because you lack the skill, or don’t take the task seriously, or think what you’ve done so far is good enough—don’t take it on. Find something else to show the world how much you care, not how little."
Other passages of interest:
"Let’s use the term planner for the part of us that intends to change our behavior and doer for the part of us that actually makes change happen. The disconnect is the same: We are superior planners and inferior doers. ... Our failure to do what we plan is a certainty like death and taxes. It’s not just environmental intrusions and unpredicted events that upset our plans. It’s also our willful discounting of past experience. We make plans that are wholly contradicted by our previous actions. The planner who intends to make a deadline is also the myopic doer who forgets that he has never made a deadline in his life. The planner believes this time will be different. The doer extends the streak of missed deadlines. The yawning gap between planner and doer persists even when conditions for success are practically ideal. ... The boxer-philosopher Mike Tyson said, 'Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.' As we wander through life, what punches us in the face repeatedly is our environment."
"When people are asked passive questions they almost invariably provide 'environmental' answers. ... Active questions are the alternative to passive questions. There’s a difference between 'Do you have clear goals?' and 'Did you do your best to set clear goals for yourself?' The former is trying to determine the employee’s state of mind; the latter challenges the employee to describe or defend a course of action. ... Active self-questioning can trigger a new way of interacting with our world. Active questions reveal where we are trying and where we are giving up. In doing so, they sharpen our sense of what we can actually change. We gain a sense of control and responsibility instead of victimhood."
"Behavioral change demands self-discipline and self-control. We tend to use these terms interchangeably, but there’s a subtle difference. Self-discipline refers to achieving desirable behavior. Self-control refers to avoiding undesirable behavior. When we wake up in the dark morning hours to hit the gym, or run a weekly meeting so that it ends on time, or leave work with a clean desk, or remember to thank our colleagues for helping us, we’re displaying self-discipline—repeating positive actions consistently. When we deny ourselves that which we most enjoy—whether it’s stifling the urge to crack wise at someone else’s expense or saying no to a second helping of dessert—we’re displaying self-control."
"I have a first principle for becoming the person you want to be. Follow it and it will shrink your daily volume of stress, conflict, unpleasant debate, and wasted time. It is phrased in the form of a question you should be asking yourself whenever you must choose to either engage or 'let it go.' Am I willing, at this time, to make the investment required to make a positive difference on this topic?"
"That’s one of structure’s major contributions to any change process. It limits our options so that we’re not thrown off course by externalities. If we’re only allowed five minutes to speak, we find a way to make our case with a newfound concision—and it’s usually a better speech because of the structural limitations (most audiences would agree). Imposing structure on parts of our day is how we seize control of our otherwise unruly environment."
"When we decide to behave well and our first steps are successful, we often achieve a self-fulfilling momentum—Griffin called it 'cruise control'—where we don’t have to try as hard to be good. Like getting through the first four days of a strict diet, if we can handle the initial stages of inhibiting our undesirable impulses, we’re less likely to backslide. We don’t want to waste the gains of our behavioral investment. Good behavior becomes the sunk cost we hate to sacrifice."