Book Recommendation - The Switch

Cover via AmazonI completed reading a book called 'The Switch' written by Dan Heath and Chip Heath. It is a very well written book. It is a book about making change when it is difficult. If you want to quit smoking, but aren't unable to do it or if you are in a legacy industry whose competitiveness is threatened by internet and want to make difficult changes, this book lays out a very clear way for making the change.

When we know that we have to change, then we feel that we have enough reason to change and we can easily navigate the change. But if you have tried to change anytime, you would have observed that it is not that easier. To understand it, the authors have used  a model. Assume a rider riding on top of an elephant. Your analytical mind is the rider. You know all the facts about why to change, what to change. The emotional or feelings part of mind is the elephant. So for your analytical mind to make the change, you have to ride the inertia and emotions. But imagine if you can have strong emotions for change, then riding the elephant would become a breeze in the right environment. Right environment is the third factor. Suppose you have to make an elephant go uphill. It is a difficult task but if you make a clear road in the way, it would be easier for the elephant to go.
 Lets take an example here. Consider some person is trying to quit smoking. He knows why it is important to quit smoking but he doesn't have sufficient motivation to quit. Now assume, he imagines how happy his wife would be and how much good it is for his kids, then he gets motivated. He then decides he will quit smoking. He goes the whole morning without smoking but after lunch he couldn't control his feelings to smoke. Then he can make it easier for him to quit it by scheduling meetings right after lunch so that he needn't have any time to go and smoke.
So change consists of three parts, they are

1. Shape the path: They have to clear the path or environment for change - For eg, if you want to eat healthy food, other junk food should first be thrown off your shelves. You should fill it with fresh fruits and vegetables. etc.

2. Direct the rider: There are two parts in our brain. One that is emotional and doesn't do what it has to even though it knows. It is swayed by emotion. They call it the elephant. Other part is rational brain which analyses and comes at the right decision. This is called the rider.  They say that due to many alternatives, the rider comes into analysis-paralysis mode and is confused. To overcome this problem, the rider should be directed correctly.

3. Motivate the elephant: As told above, even though when we rationally know what the right decision is, most of the time we fail to see through it if the emotional part of brain, the elephant is not motivated enough. So the elephant should be motivated.

Head over to my book reviews blog here to read a summary of various ways in which you can make harder change easily.

2010 Resolutions - Progress Report

It has already two months into the new year so I thought it would be good to review my new year resolutions and take them forward. So let us establish some ratings to determine how I am doing.

Distinction: Exceeds Expectations

A - 90% objectives met

B - 50% objectives met

C- 20% objectives met

D- 10% objectives met

E - 0% objectives met

Health: In the category of my health, my progress has been very bad. My resolutions were to wake up at 6 in the morning daily, exercise and run daily and drink a smoothie daily.. but bad to say I haven't been implementing anything consistently. So the report is D because I have some days done that inconsistently. I am thinking of joining a running club and then take it forward from there. I have identified a club near my place but in US without a car it is impossible to go anywhere. So I think it would take more than a month for this to be implemented. Regarding waking at 6 and drinking a smoothie, I am sleeping late so I think I will just take it light for now. But I hope to make progress on it.

Career: In career my resolutions were not to multitask, have 0 issues and to join another degree. To be frank, these are not big resolutions at all. I am unable to stop multitasking and I haven't done much development in these three months to see if they have issues at all. Regarding joining another degree, I am in the process. Though it is not 100% met, this will be rated B

Relationships: So I wanted to strengthen existing relationships with more emphasis on sharing. I am a very independent person and sharing doesn't come naturally to me. I am a voracious reader and I feel that I have something valuable to share like interesting articles or useful information, but I don't send emails to people which are the best methods for communication. Also, I feel that I don't communicate heart-fully and connect well. And regarding my reluctance to share, I think my friend Rajesh, points out in his blog on why smart people are reluctanct to share because they feel that what they know is obvious knowledge or just background thinking. To quote him

Two things:

1. The point that what is obvious to you is not obvious to many other people who are not at the same level of expertise so it is worth sharing them.

2. Not noticing what’s in your “background thinking.” It may be in your background thinking but it’s not in the background thinking of everyone else. So, once you notice this, you can easily package this knowledge and share it.

Read more: http://www.lifebeyondcode.com/2009/12/26/why-some-smart-people-are-reluctant-to-share/#ixzz0h57fjqLz
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

So noticing that I decided that I will share more in the coming time, but I am yet to follow up on that. So still have a lot to do here, and I feel that I can do more in communicating empathetically. Basically lot of scope for improvement and regarding progress, I am sharing more on twitter and my retweets have also gone up. I would give myself only a C, because I have to go forward a lot before, I can feel that I am sharing well. I think this has to happen in real life also. I am reluctant to give advice or say something even what I know because I feel that it is so obvious. I think I have to take part more in the conversation because then I will know what I know and what I can add. Hopefully I can do that more in the future.

Finances: 30 L...That is the magic figure for this year. I didn't know how I would get that much when I wrote it for then, my onsite was not confirmed but now, I am in US earning more than what I could in India. But still, the amount will not come to that which means I should have some other ways of earning too, but at this point I am not excessively bothered about that as money is just a return for the value I provide. So I am concentrating on increasing my ability to create value and share value and then this would just be the side effect. So I think it would meet 50% of desired value. So I will give it a B

Personal: Only this I would say is progressing well in expectations. I have written 12 posts in this year and of them only one I think is outright useful post and most of others have been sharing myself which would have ofcourse helped the reader. And regarding writing story, i have written something, but I have to polish it more. If I don't get time to polish it I will publish by end of this month as it is.

Regarding books, hopefully I will get time to read some classics as I miss my library in India. So this is also a B

So basically, I have to catchup a lot in health, relationships. Career and personal goals are going well but can be better.

Will write a next progress report May 1st week. Till then, take care.

Give me any suggestions that you feel will help me.

If you have resolutions, may be it is a good time to review the progress.

Changing inner self Vs changing the outer world.

Image by jmtimages via Flickr

As you can see from the posts I have been writing lately,

I have been mostly in a contemplative mood. This is next in that series

When something you want to do is not being done in the way you want, there are two options infront of you.

1. Fight and change it to be done in the way you want.

2. Adjust yourself to like the way it is done.

So which is the better way?

Generally if doing either ways doesnt effect you much you might prefer going in the second way... But what if you the cost of adjustment is too much?

I have a more adapting mentality but I am realizing more and more daily that we shouldnt adjust more than required and its better to fight and fail than accepting the outcome.

My friend Ketan, wrote a comment to my previous posts sometime back about the serenity prayer

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Looks easy but very difficult to implement. Dave Pollard, an Idealist has written the following lines here,

I've been talking a lot about my three latest self-improvement projects: To connect better with my own (largely suppressed) emotions, to become more empathetic, and to learn to live in Now Time instead of Anxious Time. I certainly believe that practice and exercise have value, but I'm increasingly convinced that any changes they provoke are likely to be modest, and perpetually difficult to sustain.

It seems there is a healthy level till which we can accomodate change but after that we should fight for bringing about the change we believe in.