Mojo

About the Author

Marshall Goldsmith, widely recognized as the world's top executive coach, teaches executive education at Dartmouth's Tuck School and other leading business schools. He is the author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There. He also has regular blogs on Harvard Business, BusinessWeek, and The Huffington Post. With a unique ability to convey complex ideas in simple, actionable steps, Goldsmith has made a significant impact on leaders worldwide. His book Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It, co-authored with Mark Reiter, delves into the essence of Mojo and provides a roadmap for achieving and maintaining it.

Main Idea

Mojo is the positive spirit toward what we are doing now that starts from the inside and radiates to the outside. It is the moment when we do something purposeful, powerful, and positive, and the rest of the world recognizes it. This book explains how to create, maintain, and recapture Mojo, emphasizing its importance in achieving happiness and meaning in both professional and personal life.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. You and Your Mojo
3. Measuring Your Mojo
4. The Mojo Paradox
5. The Building Blocks of Mojo
6. Identity: Who Do You Think You Are?
7. Achievement: What Have You Done Lately?
8. Reputation: Who Do People Think You Are?
9. Acceptance: When Can You Let Go?
10. Mojo Killers
11. Four Pointless Arguments
12. That Job Is Gone!
13. Your Mojo Toolkit
14. Connecting Inside to Outside
15. Coda: You Go First!

You and Your Mojo

The term Mojo originally referred to a folk belief in the supernatural powers of a voodoo charm. Over time, it has evolved to describe a sense of positive spirit and direction. In the context of this book, Mojo is about the harmony between what we feel inside about our actions and what we show on the outside. It's about loving what you do and showing it.

Goldsmith emphasizes that Mojo is not just about professional success, but also about personal fulfillment. It’s about being able to achieve a state where your work and personal life are aligned, and you feel a deep sense of satisfaction and purpose in everything you do. This alignment is crucial because it ensures that you are not just going through the motions but are truly engaged and passionate about your endeavors.

Measuring Your Mojo

Goldsmith suggests a practical approach to measure your Mojo. He proposes evaluating your activities based on two questions:

1. How much long-term benefit or meaning did I experience from this activity?
2. How much short-term satisfaction or happiness did I experience in this activity?

By scoring your daily activities on a scale of 1 to 10 based on these questions, you can create a chart that tracks your experience of happiness and meaning. This practice helps you become more aware of what activities contribute to your overall well-being and guides you in making more intentional choices.

"If you journey through life knowing that all of your activities will be evaluated on these two simple questions, you will tend to experience more happiness and meaning in each activity." - Marshall Goldsmith

The Mojo Paradox

Goldsmith introduces the Mojo Paradox, stating that our default response in life is not to experience happiness or meaning, but inertia. Our most common process is to continue doing what we are already doing. Recognizing this paradox helps us become more thoughtful about our actions and encourages us to seek activities that bring both short-term satisfaction and long-term benefit.

This paradox is critical because it highlights the human tendency to stick with the familiar, even when it doesn't bring joy or fulfillment. By understanding this, we can become more proactive in breaking the cycle of inertia and making conscious choices that enhance our Mojo.

"Our default response in life is to experience inertia." - Marshall Goldsmith

The Building Blocks of Mojo

Four key factors impact our professional and personal Mojo: