While flying to Kentucky a few years ago, the gentleman next to me took note of the book in my lap and, much to my delight, said he was a big reader, too. (Isn’t it wonderful when you meet someone who shares your passions?!) 🙂 He spoke so highly of the book Made To Stick by Chip & Dan Heath that I purchased it the following week – and immediately became one of the Heaths’ many fans.
Their latest release, Switch: How To Change When Change Is Hard, brings together their thorough research along with their light-hearted attitude to help us make the changes we need to make to enhance our work and lives. Using an analogy from Dr. Jonathan Haidt, they refer throughout the book as our emotional side being the Elephant and our rational side, the Rider. “Anytime the six-ton elephant and the Rider disagree about which direction to go, the Rider is going to lose,” they write. “He is completely overmatched.”
The same goes for change. Let’s say you, as the rational Rider, want start arriving to the office at 7:30a.m. When the alarm goes off early the next morning, however, your Elephant (emotional side) automatically hits the snooze button and makes some justification such as, “I’ll work late instead” or “I’ll get there early tomorrow.” That powerful Elephant will beat the Rider every time – unless we learn how to clear the path, steer the Elephant, and make the switch.
A few takeaways:
Remove ambiguity. Get crystal-clear about the change you want to make. I’d also add to connect with the purpose behind your change. Arriving to the office at 7:30 so you’ll be home in time to bond with your family over dinner each evening will connect your change to your bigger purpose. “What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity,” Chip & Dan conclude.
Break down the task, or “shrink the change” in the Heaths’ words. Identify all the little steps that will lead to your overall change, then…
Start small. This is tough for us all-or-nothing personality types. 🙂 Rather than thinking we need to make a huge overhaul – which typically leads to procrastination or overwhelm – we usually need to just take small steps. “Big problems are rarely solved with commensurately big solutions,” Switch asserts, “but rather a sequence of small solutions, sometimes over months, sometimes over decades.”
Interestingly, the same strategies for creating change apply to setting goals. (If you haven’t yet registered for my free teleseminar taking place next week, by the way, click here to do so!)
So, what change do you need to make in order to elevate your success? Whether it’s arriving to the office early, growing your business, investing more time with your family, or sustaining an exercise routine, you’ll reap greater benefits by removing any ambiguity (and connecting to the purpose), breaking down the task, and starting small. With each step, you’ll find you can change – even when change is hard.