Triggers

About the Author

Marshall Goldsmith is recognized as one of the top 10 most influential business thinkers in the world. He has authored or edited 35 best-selling books, translated into 30 languages, and has advised over 150 CEOs and their management teams. Mark Reiter, a literary agent and writer, has collaborated with Goldsmith on Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts - Becoming the Person You Want to Be, which aims to help individuals achieve meaningful and lasting change in their behavior.

Main Idea

Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter explores the concept of behavioral triggers—stimuli that impact our behavior—and offers strategies to overcome them, enabling us to become the person we want to be. The book emphasizes the power of daily self-monitoring and "active" questions to create lasting change.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Why Don't We Become the Person We Want to Be?
• Identifying Our Triggers
• Try the Power of Active Questions
• Planner, Doer, and Coach
• More Structure, Please
• No Regrets
• The Circle of Engagement

Why Don't We Become the Person We Want to Be?

Goldsmith identifies two immutable truths about behavioral change: it's incredibly hard to achieve, and no one can make us change unless we truly want to. He discusses common belief triggers that prevent change, such as denial, resistance, and self-delusion. These belief triggers include ideas like "If I understand, I will do" and "I have all the time in the world," which sabotage our efforts by justifying inaction.

"Even when the individual and societal benefits of changing a specific behavior are indisputable, we are geniuses at inventing reasons to avoid change." - Marshall Goldsmith

belief triggers include:

• "I have willpower and won't give in to temptation."
• "Today is a special day."
• "I shouldn't need help and structure."

Goldsmith emphasizes that our environment plays a significant role in shaping our behavior. Situational triggers, like the frustration of traffic, can cause us to act in ways contrary to our desired behavior. To counteract this, we must recognize these triggers and choose how to respond.

"Our reactions don't occur in a vacuum. They are usually the result of unappreciated triggers in our environment." - Marshall Goldsmith

Understanding that change must come from within is crucial. Goldsmith asserts that meaningful change requires a genuine commitment and cannot be imposed externally. The difficulty of maintaining change in an imperfect world full of triggers makes it even more challenging, but not impossible.

Identifying Our Triggers

Goldsmith explains that a behavioral trigger is any stimulus that impacts our behavior, and it can be direct or indirect, internal or external, conscious or unconscious, and encouraging or discouraging. To control our environment and trigger desired behaviors, we must first identify our triggers and classify them as encouraging or discouraging, productive or counterproductive.