Reddit reviews Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
We found 20 Reddit comments about Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Broadway Business
I remember hearing... or reading?... about a study where they were testing burnout. What they did to test it was give several groups an impossible-to-complete task and timed how long they took to give up. Two groups were presented with radishes, and the other two with cookies- the radish groups were the control. Of the two groups presented with cookies, one was told not to have a cookie, and the other group was given no instructions about the cookies- they could have as many as they wanted, and most had one or two.
The group that was instructed not to have the cookie gave up after spending only 40% as much time on the task as the other groups.
Aha! I remember, I read about this in This book. (I may be quoting numbers wrong and don't have a copy handy to check, if somebody else does, I'd appreciate the correction!)
Anyway, The point I wanted to make is that willpower is a finite resource- but one that can be replenished, conserved, and spent wisely. The book describes it with the metaphor of a mahout riding an elephant: "You", the 'smart' part of your brain, are the mahout- and the 'elephant' is the part that does the work commanded by 'you', or more to the point, the part that is 'feeling burned out'. So there are two things to do here, if you want to reach this goal. First, do not let your elephant realize that it has any option but reaching this goal: if the elephant can get away with less, it will try to. Think of a 4.0 GPA as normal- and you'll be able to trick your elephant.
The second thing to do is: Take care of your elephant. Elephants- the real thing, I mean, not the stupid part of you- need to eat a LOT. they need exercise. They need to socialize. And they need very strict discipline when working. So you- the mahout- can slack off sometimes, when the elephant is working. And the elephant can slack off sometimes- while the mahout is watching. But never both at the same time, or the elephant runs amok and the mahout has to do an elephant's work.
Slight aside. I've just read a book that I think it'd be worth you reading, whilst you're still in the design phase, as it's all about how to encourage change. I also found it quite accessible. http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752
This is a great opportunity for birthday gifts as part of a theme.
You get a bunch of boxes that are the size of a Nintendo Switch box, and then you place the following items inside (one each per box) and wrap:
Me too and good luck to you all! Already grumpy lol. Anyway, for anybody reading this there's a book called Switch that might be relevant and helpful. It was assigned for one of my classes this semester so essentially I've only skimmed the first chapter and that's it, but essentially a big take away I got from that is that all day we use our willpower to stop us from doing things we want but know we shouldn't. Your willpower is a finite resource that if you deplete too far, won't work anymore.
So remember, all this talk of sobriety is good, but too much change can overwhelm your system far more than it can handle and may cause you to relapse back to old habits. Quitting every vice you have cold turkey is probably just not going to work even if you did come up with a bunch of healthy habits to replace them with. So remember not to be too hard on yourselves, we're all only human after all. And again, good luck everybody!
Switch
And also similar, but more broad in terms of ideas (by the same author):
Made to Stick
>getting people to change their daily routine or break the habit of emails is where it gets tricky.
Switch by Dan & Chip Heath. Great book about enacting change in yourself and others.
I'm learning the very basics of DBT at the moment. It's very useful! Actually,
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath
Permalink: http://amzn.com/0385528752
Is a pretty good look at DBT applied to professional and business and gov't situations. I actually learned enough about DBT reading it to leap ahead of my therapist a bit. I immediately knew when she was introducing 'finding bright spots', and that was cool, because we could jump into implementing it instead of guiding to accepting it. I knew they worked because of my reading, it just took a little guidance to find some in my own life.
Switch: How To Change Thngs When Change is Hard
I would love this book.
Hi, I can't say I am familiar with this kind of situation or anything close to feeling the stress you must be feeling right now, but recently I have been reading an interesting book called Switch (http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752). I am still on the first few chapters, but I already found some valuable advice, like focusing on the few things that are working and trying to replicate their conditions. You might want to give the book a shot and see if inspiration strikes.
Maybe Dan Heath & Chip Heath - Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
If he's the type that doesn't understand, then get a second opinion from another one.
As far as going 4-5 times a few years ago, then that's great. That shows that you DO have potential to get things done. That's something that can be a great motivator. If I could do it before, I can do it again.
Yea "I want to be successful" is not compelling enough. Everyone wants that.
Here's what I want you to do.
Get an excel sheet. Write down "In 3 years". Now you'll have 3 columns.
One will be (Achieve...Things I want to accomplish). Another will be (Have...Things I want to possess). Another will be Experience (Things I want to do).
So write down a few things you wanna do for each of them in 3 years. Now you're going to do one for 1 year, and one for 3 months.
It's a really simple way to do goal setting. What I do is I look at the sheet in the morning for about 5 minutes. I'll add in some pictures and stuff. I'll take a moment to VISUALIZE the future.
Ex. Pictured myself wearing a rolex. a 10 girlfriend. Sitting in a Ferrari. Blah Blah blah.
What this does for me everyday is get me excited for the future and motivate me to work.
Also in regards to the "first step". There's two things you can do. One is to well...don't think too much about it. There's two sides to me. There's the "general" that issues the command, and the "soldier" in me that follows orders. When I'm planning, I'm the general and I think about the long outcome and what I should do. When it's ACTION time I turn into soldier mode. My brain STFU and I just do it without complaining or thinking. Literally my brain shuts down and I only think about going to the gym and nothing else. LASER focus.
Another thing is...this all just boils down to habits. Think of discipline as a muscle. Yours is weak right now. But the more you do the task, the stronger it becomes. That's what was a lightbulb in my head. I do not think you're born this way or born that way. Something that has "discipline" has been doing it a lot longer than you and trained theirs over a few years.
You should pickup this book, it's the best one I read on how to make lasting changes. It also explains a lot of the "science" behind it which helps me to understand.
http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752
Something else that helps me a lot in my travels is I've seen a lot of poverty and shit man. I've been on the road for over a year now in mainly SouthEast Asia.
College graduates make $500 a month out a college
people working 80+ hours a week for $50
Beautiful chicks having to become prostitutes to support their families in their home villages
Kids begging in the streets
You're in a very fortunate position. To waste your potential is kind of a slap in the face to others that weren't so fortunate to be born in America.
Good luck
It's not my idea.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385528752
Ok /u/ACfireandiceDC, here goes:
I was diagnosed ADD a few years back after I read an account of someone describing their ADD symptoms on a Humans of New York post, of all things.
I read their life story and thought, shit, this sounds awfully relateable.
As soon as I was diagnosed, it became obvious I'd suffered since I was a child, and in-fact my Dad had, too - ADD is often genetic.
In being diagnosed, I was able to start better understanding why I acted in certain ways, and therefore able to start deploying strategies to navigate the challenges I faced.
This included starting on medication, initially Ritalin, but at this stage, I take Dextroamphetamine as I find it's much kinder to me later in the day during the 'crash' associated with amphetamine stimulant meds (note: the effects are entirely personal and vary greatly from person to person).
With hindsight, it's now obvious to me that ADD, and many other similar 'labels' are a general attempt to describe a group of symptoms that can range wildly from diagnosee to diagnosee - what I'm trying to say is that similar to Autism, I believe ADD and other similar disorders are sub-sets of a spectrum.
In my case, and by that I mean my individual 'genetic' traits which are associated with ADD, I suffer from the following things:
There are probably a few more I could squeeze in, but for the most part that's my slice of cake.
Now, at this stage of the game, a few years into the diagnosis, I've spent much time and effort reading books, studies, anecdotes and so forth which have lead me to some interesting conclusions (that I have no doubt will continue to evolve):
Overall, I think most of my symptoms are a manifestation of a type of anxiety, not dissimilar to what I imagine you experience with OCD.
As a designer, if I can't get something 100% spot on within my own idea of 'perfect', I'll quickly end up grinding to a halt and giving up.
Likewise, if I mess up a deadline early on, I'll lose all ability to continue, instead, becoming stuck in a bottomless pit of self-loathing and procrastination.
My point is, I can trace most of my symptoms back to this type of 'anxiety'.
I think, in many ways, this stems back to a conflict between my self-image and the reality of productivity requiring the suspension of 'perfection' in order to get things done.
What I mean is: in my head, I want everything I do to be perfect because my ego constantly tells itself that it's special and unlike everyone else - when I look around, I see everyone elses work that seems mediocore and average, and I 'know' that I am capable of so much better, but then when I am working on something, as soon as I faulter and begin to struggle to get it 'just right', I am no longer capable of working and the procastination sets in - perhaps just a sub-conscious defense mechanism against the realisation that I, too, am mortal, and not as 'perfect' as my ego so desperately needs me to be - a form of cognitive disonance.
As a side note, I've often wondered if this insecurity stemmed from my parents, or perhaps from bullying during my formative years - a question I fully intend on getting to the bottom of as soon as I can afford to see a professional.
With this realisation under my belt, I've slowly but surely been able to make great strides in the last few months towards something that finally seems like an effective counter-attack.
When starting a big project, I let myself spend hours, if not days, engrossing myself in the details and getting comfortable with the task set out before me. I find this helps silence many of the 'voices' (metaphorical) before they have a chance to bring me down and derail the train.
The aim is to understand what I need to do, how I'm going to do it, and importantly, that I can do it, alongside a light but constant reminder that I need to focus on finishing something over lower quality rather than giving up on something nearer to perfection (in my industry, a common phrase is 'Just Fucking Ship It' (ship = launch) and 'Shipped is better than perfect').
Alongside the effective medication, frequent cardio, no longer drinking alcohol, a good nights sleep, meditation and a quiet, healthy work environment, I'm starting to see real change.
I'm no-where near the 'utopia' of productivity I have in my mind, and honestly, I likely never will be - that's okay.
But as someone who has spent literally years hating myself for not being able to command myself into action, the slightest signs of a 'pulse' are incredibly exciting.
It's taken a lot of effort and time to get here, but I firmly believe that if I can, anyone can.
If you have any further questions or think I might be able to share some other useful information, please feel free to message me or simply reply here (this applies to OP and anyone else who might stumble across this reply, at any point in the future).
As much as I hope you find this reply useful in some way on its own, I also want to leave you with some actionable steps:
If you haven't already, take a look at the GTD 'Getting Things Done' methodology. Regardless of whether you implement it or not, learning the 'science' behind it will help you on your journey.
Here's a good place to start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOSFxKaqOm4
Then here: https://blog.zenkit.com/a-beginners-guide-to-getting-things-done-3cc1a5123b98
Some brilliant books I'd suggest are as follows - I'm not great at reading a book the whole way through these days, so I find Audiobooks to be a God-send (mainly Audible):
Mindset by Carol Dweck
https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S-Dweck/dp/0345472322
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip & Dan Heath
https://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752
Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
https://www.amazon.com/Ego-Enemy-Ryan-Holiday/dp/1591847818
Principles: Life and Work
https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Life-Work-Ray-Dalio/dp/1501124021
So why then is tobacco shaming acceptable? You need to motivate people both logically and emotionally. You inform them on eating habits to motivate their logical side and you shame them to motivate their emotional side.
If you want to learn more about this dual motivation I suggest reading this book: http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752 The author discusses the concept of emotional and logical motivation and that changing someones habits requires tapping into both. His analogy is the elephant (emotion) and the rider (logic). If you only motivate the rider the elephant will stand still and nothing will happen. If you only motivate the elephant it will run a muck not knowing the correct path.
It helps to talk 'manager' langugage - perhaps read Switch or a similar business change focused work to help get into the mindset. The 'do it well in one spot and expand on that' method is basically the 'bright spots' concept in that book.
If you haven't already, you might want to check out Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.
This is pretty good.
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
I don't have the original source, but this book quotes a study that shows people are less likely to stick to a diet that they start on Monday. Likely because you are emotionally motivated to start on another day of the week. Like exactly what you re talking about - you feel disgusting and lethargic and are emotionally committed to losing the weight. Rather than trying to rationalize yourself into losing weight, which always loses out to those emotion-driven cravings.
You're absolutely right, Thursday is a great day to take control of your diet!
That loving a tree thing gave me a really weird visual... but here is some of the best advice I can give you, I hope it helps.
~Get your body healthy. Start eating right, cut out as much sugar and soda as you can and bring in to you diet as many vegetables and fruits as you can. Start exercising 3-5 days a week, maybe jogging or going to a gym. But if that seems like something you wouldn't be able to make a habit, maybe just try taking a walk everyday or something, just getting outside and moving my legs really helped me through some of my hardest times. Also maybe consider quitting smoking if you feel that is the right move for you, it totally changed my life for the best when I quit cigs and tree.
~Start journaling or somehow writing your thought and feelings down. This sounds like it wouldn't be that helpful if you have never tried it, but trust me, it can do wonders for clarifying what exactly needs changing in your life. I think journaling can be 100x more effective than any form of therapy.
~Hang out with your friends and don't talk about how you feel depressed, talk about stuff that feels nice and get your mind off of what is making you not feel so nice.
~Check out stuff by Anthony Robbins, he is incredible. I recommend Lessons in Mastery. It really gave me a huge boost and changed my life for the better permanently at a time when I felt like how you have described you feel now.
~Get some hobbies, get outside, get your mind off your troubles and into books, sports, action, anything that makes you feel better. But make sure your not pushing your emotions under the rug, make sure to figure out (maybe with the help of journaling) what exactly the message your emotions are trying to send you is. Once you know what their message is, then it is fine to move on and take action based on those messages.
~I also recommend a book called One Small Step Could Change Your Life and also Switch.
Here are amazon links to my recommendations below (each one changed my life for the better permanently)...
If you want to talk about anything or ask me questions about how I got through some very hard times just PM anytime. I sincerely wish you good luck with everything :-)
http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Mastery-Anthony-Robbins/dp/0743525159
http://www.amazon.com/Small-Step-Change-Your-Life/dp/0761129235/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318486356&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318486377&sr=1-1
Hey, I’m not sure if you're a guy/girl, I just wanted to tell you that I understand. I have experienced what you’re going though, and I continue to experience some of those elements even today. A combination of age + unemployment + social isolation can cause havoc in a person’s psyche, and his/her general outlook on life.
Just 2 things I initially did when I was in a similar situation:
Exercise: Join a gym. If you can’t afford one, run. And when you do, try to go a little beyond that point where your body says no. Just a little. You’re in control; you’re in charge. Push. You were built for it.
Read: I can’t stress the importance of this. Read everything you can. It will keep you engaged, make you more articulate, you’ll have something to start a conversation about, and it’ll broaden your knowledge. All this apart from the gazillion other benefits reading brings. I will give you a list of 3 books to read, and read them in this order. Make it a point not to rush through them. Absorb every word, because the way you look at things will change after you’re done. To remind you again, read slowly. Have an open mind. Fully absorb every little detail.
1.The Power of Now http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Now-Spiritual-Enlightenment/dp/1577314808/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377020642&sr=8-1&keywords=power+of+now
If you decide to go through with the above, read below first:
The most important way thorough this period in your life: baby steps. ULTRA SMALL STEPS. When I started running, I couldn’t even do 200m without feeling like I was going to pass out. Today, I can run 5km within 30 minutes. I set small targets for myself; extended my run by 50 meters, or bettered my timing by 10 seconds every session. And without even realising it, I’m at a point where I can comfortably run very long distances. I approached reading the same way. I started off with 2 pages a day, and then I made it 5 pages; then 10. Before I knew it, I was going through a lot of books.
Let me know how it goes. I believe that change comes about from within, only when you really, truly, deeply want it. If nothing changes, it means that something about your circumstances is ‘comfortable’, and you didn’t fully want a change in the first place. Ask yourself how badly you want to get out of the situation that you’re currently in. After some honest self-reflection, come back to this. Trying to make a turn for the better in your life through reading and exercising might sound ridiculous to you, but like I said, small steps. Set yourself goals, and after you’ve completed them, you can move on to the next stage. Good luck! Let me know how things go, don’t hesitate to PM :)