Change is hard to do
Change is essential when you are trying to redesign your life. This means breaking old habits and forming new ones. Change is not easy, however, whether for individuals or organizations. We like routines and cling to the comfort of predictable behaviors and outcomes – even when they are not what we want out of life.
The Heath Brothers tell you how.
Chip and Dan Heath have studied change and provide real life examples of how change happens. Part of the problem is that there are two drivers of human actions – rational and emotional. The Heaths use the example of an elephant (emotion) and the rider (logic). The elephant is big and powerful and difficult to control. We don’t change things just because we know that it is the right thing to do. Emotional forces are hard to overcome even by the clearest logic.
Real life examples
This book covers a range of different changes from individual to organizational and presents examples that demonstrate how effective change can happen. These are useful even when you are retired because everyday we face challenges caused by set patterns of behavior which limit our ability to do the things that we want or reach the goals that we set.
Three clear steps
There are three actions that will help change to happen:
- Clear direction to the rider- providing a clear set of actions to perform removing doubt and questions about what to do.
- Motivation to the elephant-appealing to the emotions of love, honor and respect.
- Shaping the path-changing the environment to make it difficult to do things which detract from the desired action; removing obstacles.
Recommended Reading for Lifestyle Designers
This is a good read for anybody but especially for someone who is planning an outrageous retirement. The value of this book is in providing a clear model about how change happens. Understanding what makes change possible and showing examples of real change. We all say we want to change but few of us manage to make real changes. This book can help make change a possibility whether in your personal life or with business.
