Book Review: Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts–Becoming the Person You Want to Be

Marshall Goldsmith’s book, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts–Becoming the Person You Want to Be is about adult behavioral change. Frankly, I could use some of that right now. 2019 was not a great year for me and I could use some attitude adjustment. As Goldsmith noted, “A trigger is any stimulus that reshapes our thoughts and actions” (Goldsmith, 2015, p. xv). Too many things are triggering me and I need to regain control. I think this book can help me.

Triggers is 244 pages long. Goldsmith has arranged the 22 chapters into four parts. The four parts are

• Why don’t we become the person we want to be?
• Try
• More structure, please
• No regrets

As everyone already knows, change is hard. Goldsmith outlined why change is hard and mental obstacles that keep getting our way. We have been conditioned to react to triggers. In order to change our behavior, we must first recognize our triggers. Next, we must slow down our response to the triggers so that we can make a better choice.

Goldsmith pointed out that we are great planners but poor doers. He explained why our execution suffers compared to planning and offered suggestions for making the adjustment. One of the suggestions is to have an accountability mechanism as a way to follow up on our progress.

A key part of Triggers is the use of active questions. We tend to ask each other passive questions such as how happy were you today? Instead, he suggested asking yourself and others active questions like did you do your best to be happy? The key is the beginning of the phrase “Did you do your best to…”

With this beginning, you can measure your progress in a number of areas. Goldsmith provided a tool to help take a daily account of the things that are important to you. The behaviors that you want to change. I am intending put this tool into practice.

The other phrase that I will try to put into practice is AIWATT, “Am I willing, at this time, to make the investment required to make a positive difference on this topic?” Sometimes, there are battles not worth fighting.

Triggers has a number of tools that I can use to help modify my behavior. It is something I need to get this decade started on the right foot. If you believe that you have somethings to tweak, I would recommend that you check out Triggers.

Additional Reading

• Book Review: Choosing Change: How Leaders and Organizations Drive Results One Person at a Time
• Book Review: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
• Book Review: The Compound Effect

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