Switch By Chip and Dan Heath Book Summary

If you really want to accomplish your goals you have to really want it, want it so badly you do whatever it takes to make it happen. If you heard that and found it that's not necessarily true this might be a book for you, Switch by brothers Chip and Dan Heath.

You could want something so badly but maybe you don't have the knowledge, maybe you don't have the motivation every single day and maybe there are obstacles in your path.

First off I want to say that this book is highly under-rated no one talks about it but the inside I got from this book is easily worked ten grand possibly more. There's a fantastic metaphor that's ongoing throughout this book, the writer, the elephant and shaping the path.

The rider sits on top of the elephant, the rider provides the direction of where you need to go but the elephant drives you, that's your motivation that's the emotional,

That's your why, it is what Simon Sinek says and then the path exactly where you need to go and the importance of shaping that path because you could know what you need to do, you have the motivation, the drive but if there are obstacles in the way it makes it much more challenging.

In this book we will discuss the ten ideas to get your rider in the right direction to provide motivation for the elephant to move down the path and then to remove all the obstacles that are in the path, to shape it.

Let's discuss the first idea now, the first idea is incredible, it's in the rider section bright spots it's so easy to look at what you're doing wrong and say, what do I need to fix?

Why can't I make this right? When in reality you could look and see what's working from someone else and just try to copy them, try to model them and get the same results and in this book they discuss in Vietnam

There's a bunch of villages, these kids are suffering from malnutrition because of poverty levels of sanitation just lack of knowledge of how to provide the proper nutrition to these kids.

There's so many brilliant people, they team up together and they can't seem to find a solution but one guy has this idea of the bright spots, he goes to a village and finds that these kids in this village are rather healthy, they have the same conditions of all these other villages but somehow they're getting amazing results, somehow these kids are healthy.

Bottom line is what they found for the most part is that these kids were eating shrimp from the rice paddies that were in the fields and all this guy did was see what was working in that village and went to the other village and show these mothers how to add protein into their kids' meals and then all the sudden they didn't have the product provides so much information, they didn't to change the sensation, the poverty level did not increase or decrease it stayed the same but all the sudden that bright spot made all the other bright spots possible.

Think about your life; is there something that you want to do so badly but just not working out?

I've been working so hard for the past couple months but the thing is I've been putting out things that no one wants. Look what I have here? No one cares about that, I was about to give up but I learned about these bright spots and I started to look at people who had success,

What they were doing and once I started looking at the bright spots, applying what I saw from those other people I started to get more views. So don't beat yourself up if you're not getting results, just look and see what's working and try to model it, find the bright spot.

Idea number two, script and key moves, the main theme of this section of the book the rider section is that it's not resistance but lack of clarity that gets in the way of your goals.

One example here in this segment is with a small town these people wanted to decrease the saturated fat intake of the people in this town, they could provide them all this information on how it clogs your arteries, leads to heart attack things they already know but it's not a resistance it's a lack of clarity.

So what they do is they start running ads that say, when you're in the grocery store and instead of reaching for whole milk reach for one percent instead. Scripting a key move, something very simple,

Something that they would do and what happened over months of time these people became healthier, they decreases their saturated fat intake largely because they had something specific that they could do. They went instead for a whole milk and grabbed the one percent instead, script your key moves if you want to be successful.

Idea number three have a destination postcard, it's so easy to look at where you want to go, whatever your dream is to make it a reality to realize all that you have to do it's just so daunting, it's stressed you out, you may not even take the first step realizing how much work that needs to be done.

But just focus on where you'd like to go and focus on where you're starting to piggy back off that second idea scripting your key moves. Take the action steps today, the little steps, the first ones to move forward but then have that vision of your mind knowing that all the hard work you need to do will pay off one day.

I know I did that for school to become a pharmacist and a look at stuff, and I would go, that was kind of boring to be honest with you, gout, that's not a sexy topic but all I did was focus on the next tests and then from time to time

I would visualize just being completely done with school, having my diploma, having my degree and that provided the drive to study when I didn't feel like it. Don't get caught up in the middle, focus on where you need to go right now, the first step and then the end destination, your destination postcard.

Idea number four, fix your swing. This idea highlights on solution focused therapy, let's say I'm a golfer, I'm terrible I'm the worst I suck, true story but I decided I'm going to get help. I hired a professional, we go to the driving range, you think he asked me about my childhood, if my parents are divorced, if I'm afraid of being successful.

No, he offers me advice on how I can fix my swing today and start hitting the ball straight. That's the idea with solution-focused therapy. In traditional therapy they try to excavate what they highlight in this book, is they try to dip up your past try to find your problems and then come up with a solution, but it takes a long time to dig up the pass.

In reality all you need is a solution just like fixing your golf swing. Maybe hide this with your fears, I know I did and it was an irrational one, you may not be able to tell but I'm a pretty big guy, I'm about six three, two hundred pounds but I would get absolutely terrified with roaches, even if it was fifteen feet away I would just, do that number.

Even around pretty girls it was absolutely embarrassing, I could dig in my past, try to find out why but in reality I just needed to face it. I changed my mindset and realized that roaches are very tiny, they're not going to hurt me and the other day there is one in the corner of my room and I picked it up with a paper towel and put it in the trash. Solution focused therapy, looking into it. Fix your swing, the next few ideas will be from the motivate the elephant section.

Idea number five it's more motivating to be partially finished with a longer journey than it is to be at the starting line of a shorter one. Think about loyalty programs, what I mean by that is a sandwich shop where you need to get eight sandwiches and after you get those eight sandwiches, you get a stamp for each one then you get a free sandwich.

Well on this study they did with car washes, you needed to get eight stamps after the eighth stamp you got a free car wash but what's interesting here they had two separate groups. The first group they offered a stamp where they needed to get eight stamps,

They complete it they get their car wash. However in this group they needed to get ten but they had two stamps already punched for them. In reality, they both needed eight stamps but this group got a free car wash months later at a nineteen percent success rate. Well this group had thirty four percent, that does seem small but the reality is they both needed eight stamps, you would think that the percentages should be the same,

But if you believe that you've already started on your journey, it becomes easier. Isn't it the hard part just getting started on a journey? Apply this in your life; let's say you're at the gym you want to get ten pull-ups. How about starting at two and counting to twelve, you might be more motivated, you might be more driven and you might actually get ten easier than if you just started counting at one, give this a try.

Idea number Six, go from a vicious cycle to a virtuous cycle, let's discuss a vicious cycle in that what they discussed in the book with a dirty house. You look around and you see that your house is absolutely filthy but you know that it will take hours and hours of work. You look at all the work that needs to be done and you just don't even want to get started but what happens is because there's so much work to be done and lack of doing things, it continues to get dirtier and dirtier, it's just a vicious cycle.

It's just so daunting to get started and because you don't get started it gets worse and worse but if you have a new approach, a virtuous cycle you can start cleaning your house and instead of going for a clean house shoot for a cleaner house and in this book they discuss the five minute rescue,

There's a cleaning guru in this book that advises to go into the dirtiest room of your house, set a five minutes timer and for those five minutes clean and once that timers up, you can go back to whatever you're doing.

You can have a feeling of accomplishment but what happens often is that you feel really good about getting started and you might do another five minutes and another five minutes and before you know it you have a clean house.

It was all because you motivated your elephant, you got the elephant moving, he started feeling good and then he wanted to keep moving, so instead of a clean house shoot for a cleaner house. One example could be writing a book, eighty percent of people want to do it only one percent actually do because a book is daunting

but what if you look at it like this, you're going to sit down to write a paragraph that's it you write your paragraph and after that paragraph you can leave do whatever you want, it's often just getting started you get started you want to keep going. So great whatever goal you have into small chunks of five-minute rescues, and see what happens.

Idea number seven will bring you so much success, it's been working for me I've been using it on other people, it's been working for them too it is the miracle scale. Think about an amazing wild dream you have, on a scale one a ten, a ten being that dream being a reality, where are you?

In this book they highlight a young kid who is shy, he says that he's a two out of ten, he has no problem admitting it and he hates that he shy. Ten being the life of the party, here's the approach now if ten is being the life of the party being social outgoing.

The key here should not be to go from two to ten overnight, it should be to go from two to three. You asked this kid, what would it take to be a three? He might say something like, going to the grocery store and asking the clerk where the toothpaste is.

Now think about this if he goes to the grocery store and does that and in his mind he's moved from two to three and what happens here with this miracle scales that it builds hope. This young kid will start to say; maybe I don't have to be shy forever. May be with your goal, it might seem impossible, you might be as two out of ten right now but what if we can move you to a three? A three to a four a four to a five and if it takes a couple years so be it but one day if you're ten, wouldn't that be pretty awesome. Start using the miracle scale and move one number at a time.

Idea number eight changes your identity. You can change your behavior but if you want to consistently change in habits stick, you need to change your identity. In this study that they discussed in this book it's just absolutely incredible, there's a manufacturing plant in Brazil that makes steel cans. What's interesting here is that the company they don't call their employees, employees they call their employees, inventors.

They even have them sign a contract that says that they're inventors but what was so amazing is that because these employees saw themselves as inventors, they all of a sudden became creative. In two thousand and eight this company submitted one hundred thirty four thousand eight hundred forty six ideas collectively.

That is over one hundred forty five ideas per employee or per inventor. Bottom line, if you want to make change, the fastest way could be just the change how you see yourself, to change your identity. The last two ideas come from the shape your path section, which is basically changing your environment.

Idea number nine, said, set action triggers, knowing what you want to do beforehand will make it so much easier to make the right choice. What's actually so draining to our elephants is just not knowing what to do if we know beforehand will be better off and this one study they had college kids over winter break the had the option to do an extra credit assignment on writing a paper what they did on Christmas.

The people in the study tracked two separate groups and this group right here they said, okay you have a extra credit assignment that you need to do by December twenty sixth, that was it.

In this group right here they did the same thing but added, tell us when you plan on doing it, so for example Christmas morning. What they found is that in this group where they were given the assignment but no action trigger thirty three percent of them completed the assignment

However in this group where they did have an action trigger for example Christmas morning, seventy five percent of people finished the assignment. Bottom line, it's so draining to make decisions if you make them beforehand, what they discussed in this book to preload your decisions you'd had more success, thirty three percent versus seventy five percent the evidence is right there.

One thing that you can do is the night before just spend a couple minutes writing out what you want to do for the day. An hourly increments for example it could be eleven o'clock but you wrote down in your schedule that you want to be reading, you want to be studying, you want to be at the gym, you likely do what you wrote out because you had an action trigger, you preloaded your decision, there is no faking you just do it.

This is key to your success, start setting action triggers. Idea number ten, rally the heard. This idea highlights when you're uncertain, don't know what to do you generally look around see what other people are doing and try to follow them, just make sure you're following the right people.

In this study there was over twelve thousand people trapped for thirty-two years what they found is that when these people were obese their mutual friends were three times as likely to be obese.

That's insane but when you think about it it's not really, when you're on uncertain on how to behave or a certain standard to have for your life you look around at the people closest to you and say, okay, that's expectable the lack of exercise, lack of diet, whatever it is and because of the people you're spending time with you generally become them over time, just make sure whoever you want to follow, whoever you want to copy just make sure you're following the right herd.

My friends those are the ten ideas remember that change is not going to happen overnight it is a process, it's not going to be easy but hopefully with these ideas it will be easier.

There are three parts to making changes you can direct your rider motivate, your elephant and shape your path. Remember the four ideas we discussed in directing your rider, you're not my mom that's key that looking at what's working and trying to copy it is a way to be successful.

Number two to script key moves, not to be vague with your new year's resolutions just like with the milk reaching for the whole milk instead of reach for the one percent. To have a destination postcard, not get caught up in all the work you need to do but visualize what all your hard work will lead to and focus on what steps you need to take right now.

Fix your swing, it doesn't matter why you're hitting the ball wrong it doesn't matter what fear you have just address it, find a solution to the problem. Fifth idea, remember it's more motivating to believe

You've already started a longer journey than it is to be at the starting gate of a shorter one. Think about the carwash study, how eight stamps compared to ten stamps led to more success believing that you've already started your journey.

Number six, the five minute rescue going from a vicious cycle to a virtuous cycle, the chunk of your big goal in the small task and to satisfy your elements to provide them the immediate gratification and to build on that success.

Next the miracle scale, on a scale of one to ten, ten being a miracle where are you, if you're to try to get two, getting to ten is not crucial right now, let's move you up one number. And lastly, change your identity remember the people of that company who believe there are investors they come up with one hundred forty five ideas per year that's amazing, change your identity.

The last two ideas from shaping your path, changing your environment setting action triggers and preloading your decision, remember that writing study other people who decide a Christmas morning to do the assignment were more successful, start writing out your plan for tomorrow, the night before and when the time comes you'll be more successful, and lastly rally

The hurt remember the obesity study, if you have an obese friend, you are three times more likely to be obese. Surround yourself with the right people, rally the herd and follow the right people.

I stand by what I said this book is worth it least ten grand to me it will probably give you the same results if you apply what you learned. Apply these ten ideas, this is the first book review.

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