I’ve been spending a lot of time with my nose in this book.

It’s something that Walt bought and left on the shelf. ( I know!  Nothing better than having two readers in the family who think nothing of spending thousands of dollars on good books.)

I picked it up because one of my book-writing clients is working on a project about how to manage a lot of vital data coming at you hard and fast, and endure discomfort. How to embrace the disciplines of the fighter pilot for peak performance.

We’ve been talking a lot about the brain lately, which, no duh, is involved in change. Specifically, we talk about the two halves that are always battling each other: The immediate gratification, emotional side vs. the long term benefit, analytical, executive functioning side.

Switch really makes me understand our brains on change (as opposed to drugs).

To inspire change in ourselves, and/or in others, we must address both the emotional side of the brain, and the analytical side. That’s why we all know what we should be doing, or want to be doing, but we don’t necessarily do it. (I mean, I know that eating a box of See’s chocolates–NEVER DO THAT AGAIN, STEVEN– is going to make me fat, and I don’t want to get fat, but there’s just NO holding back when it’s laying there on the table all unwrapped!)

The emotional side of us, the part that wants immediate gratification and comfort, needs to be corralled into the change process. That emotional side wants to take the easy way out, which is based in autopilot, habit, so you’ve got to trick it into behaving the way you want it to, or, no matter how well thought out your plan is, you’ll get derailed sooner rather than later. (Seriously, doesn’t that make you feel better to know?!)

The other half of our brain loves to contemplate and analyze. This analysis almost always focuses on problems rather than brightspots, which sort of terrifies the emotional side of our brain, makes it cling to the status quo.  The more options one has available, even good options, the more likely paralysis will set in and you’ll go absolutely NO WHERE. And this book has tons of tricks to override this tendency. (One of them is shrinking the change into manageable bits, which is what I address is MY BOOK. Hint, hint.)

I could go on and on.

If you need to inspire change in yourself or in others, you’ll definitely want to read this book.

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