Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success

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Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success

by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 · rating details · 445 ratings · 112 reviews

A stunning new approach to how individuals can not only change their lives for the better in the workplace, but also their lives away from the office, including (but not limited to) finding ways to improve one's working relationship with others, one's overall health, outlook on life, and so on.

For example, why is it that 95% of all diet attempts fail? Why do New Year's Re...more

Hardcover, 262 pages

Published April 11th 2011 by Business Plus (first published April 1st 2011)

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Sep 06, 2012 Cody Calahan (The Boyish Booklover) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: owned, reviewed-tbb, hardcover

Synopsis:
A stunning new approach to how individuals can not only change their lives for the better in the workplace, but also their lives away from the office, including (but not limited to) finding ways to improve one’s working relationship with others, one’s overall health, outlook on life, and so on.

For example, why is it that 95% of all diet attempts fail? Why do New Year’s Resolutions last no more than a few days? Why can’t people with good intentions seem to make consistent and positive st...more Synopsis:
A stunning new approach to how individuals can not only change their lives for the better in the workplace, but also their lives away from the office, including (but not limited to) finding ways to improve one’s working relationship with others, one’s overall health, outlook on life, and so on.

For example, why is it that 95% of all diet attempts fail? Why do New Year’s Resolutions last no more than a few days? Why can’t people with good intentions seem to make consistent and positive strides in the way they want to improve their careers, financial fitness, physical fitness, and so on?

Based upon the latest research in a number of psychological and medical fields, the authors of CHANGE ANYTHING will show that traditional will-power is not necessarily the answer to these strivings, that people are affected in their behaviors by far more subtle influences. CHANGE ANYTHING shows how individuals can come to understand these powerful and influential forces, and how to put these forces to work in a positive manner that brings real and meaningful results.

The authors present an array of everyday examples that will change and truly empower you to reexamine the way you go about your business and life.

My Thoughts:
Whew! Well, I was going to say some things about the idea behind Change Anything, but I think that synopsis pretty much covered everything. My job here is done! **dusts of hands and walks away**

**runs back** JUST KIDDING!! While I don’t have a lot to add, I will say that this book is chock-full of tons of useful information, statistics, and studies that back up these ideas. I was honestly not aware of all the sources of influences affecting my daily decisions down to the very last detail. I’m now motivated to develop my change plans, and get to altering the things in my life that have needed change for a while.

If there are areas in your life you want to change (and I’m pretty sure there are) then you NEED the information in this book. Great things take hard work. Why not have a little help?(less)

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Feb 24, 2013 Heather Branstetter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book breaks the art of persuasion down into a self-help book that is actually useful, once you get over the tone, which felt to me like the authors were condescending. A more generous reading would call the tone "accessible," but it took me some getting used to. I listened to the audio version, and in that edition, you can hear one of the authors literally talk down to you. I appreciated that it is science-based, and that the authors discuss experiments and research along the way.

The author...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Greg rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: health-and-fitness, personal-development, professional-development, thought-provoking

I appreciated the counsel in Change Anything and have already used it to good effect in my weight loss efforts. The book is an extension of concepts and ideas first encountered in their book Crucial Confrontations, building on and applying the six source framework of motivation and ability. It also incorporates ideas found in Influencer, such as the roles of critical moments and vital behaviors, the need for positive deviance research, and so forth. However, where Influencer deals with large sca...more

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Mar 16, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

As the subtitle suggests, Change Anything is about applying what we know from science to changing things we're unhappy with in life. The case studies pointed to emphasize certain areas of life that people commonly want to change--getting ahead at work, diet/fitness/weight loss, substance abuse, personal and professional relationships--but the real idea is to get to the underlying forces that help us to change, well, anything. Although willpower and building it are a part of the book, willpower i...more As the subtitle suggests, Change Anything is about applying what we know from science to changing things we're unhappy with in life. The case studies pointed to emphasize certain areas of life that people commonly want to change--getting ahead at work, diet/fitness/weight loss, substance abuse, personal and professional relationships--but the real idea is to get to the underlying forces that help us to change, well, anything. Although willpower and building it are a part of the book, willpower is far from the central concern. In fact, they talk about "the willpower trap," believing that our failures to change come primarily from weakness of will. In fact, what's central to all of the successful change talked about in the book is making decisions to alter one's environment to achieve the desired outcomes. It is the people, places, and things that surround us that have the greatest impact on our behaviors and habits--and our ability to change them.

Not only does Patterson bring together a number of things that we've learned from science (and I should add that most of this isn't really new--you may very well, as I did, find quite a few of the studies and insights familiar. But Patterson does do a good job of bringing them all together and offering examples of how people have applied these principles to making changes in their own lives.

Science finds its way in not only through the research, but also in the overall approach--Patterson stresses that while we use these insights to craft a change plan, that we may very well encounter failure initially. Much like a scientist forming a hypothesis, we make our best effort to match the insights of the book to our own lives and needs, but failure just means we need to go back to the drawing board and that we've learned about something that didn't work.

For better and or worse, the book is an entryway to a website, so that besides offering you what information it does, you also have the opportunity to tap into a community of people and some on-line tools to help in your own changes. Of course, the site is only free for the first month, so it may be worth weighing the costs and benefits of taking advantage of that particular service.

Regardless, Change Anything has a lot of good material in it and should be a go-to for anyone looking to make change or to help facilitate change in others. (less)

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Jan 30, 2012 Lindsay rated it 4 of 5 stars

How many of us have set out to lose weight, conquer an addiction, or improve a relationship and failed. How many of us have blamed that failure on the lack of willpower? Yup. Me too. More than once!

Patterson and his cohorts, however, argue that willpower is just one, rather small aspect of what keeps us from changing things in our lives, and it is not genetically given. So willpower is not our answer, it's a trap. What does affect our ability to make changes in our lives? Both our motivation and...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book takes a very practical and realistic approach at making desired changes in our lives. Rather than rely on just willpower, we need to take a holistic look at a wide range of influences. We then need to align these influences to help enable us to make the desired change.

The book provides numerous examples of not only different changes, but different ways in which people have modified the influences to help make the change possible. These are real-world, doable examples to which we can ad...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Bookseller Cate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Often when we set out to change something about our lives, a stalled career, a shopping habit, a diet, a failing relationship, we use only one tool: willpower (aka Bootstraps, dammit!).

The trouble is, if willpower were enough, we would have changed long ago. The authors of Change Anything set out six ways our selves, our companions and our environments may be sabotaging us, and explain ways that we can turn those handicaps into assets -- so we have not only willpower, but a host of other techni...more Often when we set out to change something about our lives, a stalled career, a shopping habit, a diet, a failing relationship, we use only one tool: willpower (aka Bootstraps, dammit!).

The trouble is, if willpower were enough, we would have changed long ago. The authors of Change Anything set out six ways our selves, our companions and our environments may be sabotaging us, and explain ways that we can turn those handicaps into assets -- so we have not only willpower, but a host of other techniques at our disposal to make change easier.

The authors are quite obviously trying to begin a movement. They've set up a website, ChangeAnything.com, and are unashamed in the number of times they encourage the reader to log on to watch this video or get that resource, or join the Changer community. There is a code in the book for a free trial of the premium subscription (the website also offers a free membership), but I closed the book feeling a little oversold on the idea.

I also smirked every time they referred to research done in the Change Anything Labs (I kept waiting for the TM to start appearing) and referring all the people in their examples as "Changers", always with a capital. A little too cutesy for my taste.

That's not to say the advice in the book isn't useful. A lot of it we've heard before, but the authors do lay it out in a systematic way. They are careful to remind us that the stories told to illustrate each section are examples and not instructions.

The best nugget of wisdom in the book is to remember that "bad days make good data". So often, when we make a resolution to change, we don't succeed the first time. The trouble is, we use that first failure as any excuse to stop trying. ("I just don't have the willpower.") The authors adjure us to play the role of both "scientist and subject". By stepping back and analyzing why that failure occurred in those particular circumstances, we can put tools in place to keep it from happening again.

Originally published at catherineduthie.com(less)

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May 15, 2011 Brigitte is currently reading it

I found out about this book in one of my Alumni BYU Magazines. This is truly different from other self help books I've read.

This book starts out talking about the famous marshmallow experiment tested to see what kids were willing to have delayed responses to gain more marshmallows. They helped me see that there was more to this experiment than willpower (tough it out model).

This was enlightening and comforting for me to me to read "Will is a skill, not a trait" and I also liked in reading that i...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Jay rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

Change Anything provided methods to accomplish personal change. While similar to many other self-help books out there, the pointers felt more rigorously defined and backed-up. Part of that feeling, I think, is that it seemed like the authors mined studies on addiction to come up with their personal change strategies. I dislike repeating things in a book, and this one repeated, of all things, a web site and password multiple times. It also repeated the name of the author's consulting company too...more

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Apr 21, 2011 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, psychology, own

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. MY SUMMARY AND NOTES: The authors replicated Mischel’s marshmallow study and taught some participants to use distraction and distance techniques and showed that self regulation scores changed tremendously. They have footage of their experiments on changeanything.com/exclusive website.

***The authors argue that there are six sources of influence: 1. Personal motivation – interrupt your impulses by connecting actions to goals during crucial moments. 2. Personal ability – learn new skills to change...more MY SUMMARY AND NOTES: The authors replicated Mischel’s marshmallow study and taught some participants to use distraction and distance techniques and showed that self regulation scores changed tremendously. They have footage of their experiments on changeanything.com/exclusive website.

***The authors argue that there are six sources of influence: 1. Personal motivation – interrupt your impulses by connecting actions to goals during crucial moments. 2. Personal ability – learn new skills to change persistent and resistant habits 3. Social motivation – if those around us model and encourage bad habits we are likely to maintain them; turn accomplices into friends 4. Social ability – deeply entrenched habits require real support from others (e.g., a coach). 5. Structural motivation – Make use of things; directly link short-term rewards and punishments to new habits 6. Structural ability – small changes in your environment can have a surprising effect on your choices; add a few visual cues that help you focus on your goals

***Social science of personal change: 1. Identify crucial moments – focus on the handful of moments when you’re most at risk; where do you face the most temptation 2. Create vital behaviors – create rules to follow when temptation pays you a visit (e.g., implementation intentions and contingencies for when you fail). 3. Engage all six sources of influence 4. Turn bad days into good data – use failure as a learning experience – note what happens when you fail and adjust methods accordingly (START TAKING NOTES).

***The authors mention the benefit of a “motivational interview” asking a person the future he/she would like to live, how they were going to get there, and so forth. This requires the person to create the default (where you’ll end up if you keep going this way) and desired futures.

***1. Personal/motivation: Visit your default future (how you will end up if you continue in this direction 1. Tell the whole vivid story - be descriptive about where you will end up so it sticks in your head 2. Use value words - connect your goal with a really important "why" for what standard you are adhering to 3. Make it a game - set up a time frame or small milestones or make it a competition 4. Create a personal motivation statement - during crucial moments reconnect with your motivation through your statement that incorporates all of the previous parts of your personal motivation

***2. Personal/ability: Do what you can't: 1. Start with a skill scan – figure out what skills you do have, and if you have the ones necessary to complete your plan 2. Employ deliberate practice – what are the component parts of the skill you are learning; break them down and practice each deliberately 3. Learn the will skill – determine your tempting scenarios and discover how to avoid them and practice withstanding them.

***Another famous obedience study: Orne & Evans (1965) JPSP – social control in the psychological experiment

***3.&4. Social motivation/ability: Summary of turning accomplices into friends: 1. Be aware of who is going to help encourage vs. discourage you towards your goals. 2. Redefine "normal" to fit with your new goals. 3. Hold a transformation conversation with close others about your new goals. 4. Add new friends, 5. and distance yourself from the unwilling.

***On loss aversion - study done by authors on iPhone - if you just bought one, it would take $1218 more than purchase price to sell, but if they hadn't bought one yet, they would only pay $97 more than purchase price in order to make sure they got one.

***When creating rewards for yourself when working towards a goal, make sure the rewards come during the pursuit (after achievement of small goals) rather than a reward for your final goal.

***5. Structural/motivation: invert the economy: 1. Use carrots and the threat of losing carrots, 2. use incentives in moderation and in combination (so you aren't doing it solely for the rewards), 3. and reward small wins (i.e., don't just have a reward for at the end of the goal, they are much more effective is used throughout).

***6. Structural/ability: control your space: 1. Build fences - set rules to keep you acting in healthy ways. Don't use fences as sole source for change or you will relapse when they are gone. 2. Manage distance - remove bad things from your immediate environment and keep good things closer. Your physical space determines a lot of how you behave. 3. Change cues - reminders for things you want to be doing and remove reminders of bad behaviors. Especially important where you crucial moments take place. 4. Engage your autopilot so the positive path is the path of least resistance (ie, it would take more effort not to follow the path). 5. Use tools like electronic reminders, etc. to help you stick to your goals. (less)

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Jul 11, 2011 Taka rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2-nonfiction-you-must-read, japan_jul07-aug10

Read it with the Influencer--

In this book, the authors of The Influencer apply the model of changing human behavior to changing YOUR own behavior, from kicking a bad habit like smoking to losing weight.

Their argument is basically this: if you know the six sources of influence and align them to your advantage, you can pretty much change anything about yourself.

And their model is an incredibly powerful tool—you're basically missing out if you don't know them.

In short, the six sources are:

1) Person...more

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Jul 09, 2011 Laurie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-general

If you're interested in personal change, I can't imagine you'd find any clearer, more action-oriented resource than this one. This book's unique take: not one, but six different categories of approach must be tailored to your own personal situation and temperament, then employed, monitored, and adjusted if you want the best chance at making any lasting change.

The authors draw on years of research in the field of personal change, in addition to their own current studies, to offer many ideas for...more

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Jun 09, 2011 Pulkit Kriplani rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This is a great book, really, but requires you to be serious beforehand. It begins with breaking down the myth that willpower and determination are the sole criteria for one's success and behavior. There are invisible (unless you try to see) forces influencing every action you take and thereby designing your future without you knowing. It sounds creepy, almost as if some devil, say Satan, is planning your future and you have non control over it. But that's the core point of this book - you CAN...more This is a great book, really, but requires you to be serious beforehand. It begins with breaking down the myth that willpower and determination are the sole criteria for one's success and behavior. There are invisible (unless you try to see) forces influencing every action you take and thereby designing your future without you knowing. It sounds creepy, almost as if some devil, say Satan, is planning your future and you have non control over it. But that's the core point of this book - you CAN take over that power and it teaches how to in simplistic yet effective (I've tried) ways.

Personally, this book was ordered by me to establish a working time-table to study and learn new things everyday, without being distracted by the evil forces of the Internet and actually do something worthwhile which will benefit me in the future. In short, I wanted to diminish my Internet-addiction. I've tried to read so many Time-Management books but nothing really works. It's too difficult to order yourself around like a robot - it's way too simple to do the similar with other which is therefore unfair unless you can deconstruct your own autonomy by means of dichotomy of yourself into your physical body and your better-knowing consciousness and allow the latter to order the former around like every human desires to order around others.

Withholding excessive details, here is the outline of six influences that shape human destiny:

--> Personal motivation
--> Personal ability
--> Social motivation
--> Social ability
--> Structural motivation
--> Structural ability

So to say, our behavior is dependent on our own selves, the people around us and even the things around us. The book has a chapter devoted to each of these (except three and four, which are combined) with experiments and real-life example supporting each, like evidence ought to support each scientific theory. At the end of the book are four chapters to solve specific problems, namely, Weight Loss, Financial Fitness, Addition and Relationships.

I didn't read any of those because I didn't need to and they are optional anyway. To sum up in a single sentence, it's a book worth reading whether or not you think you need to.

Psychology has been neglected for centuries, but with advanced research, I think psychology will make a great breakthrough in science with all its fascinating revelations about human behavior and working of unarguably the most important organ on Earth, without the usage of which even this website wouldn't exist. (less)

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Feb 11, 2013 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, self-help, meridian

Patterson, et al., identify Six Sources of Influence that work together to motivate our behaviors and, therefore, need to be adjusted when we want to make a change. They arrange their Six Sources in a matrix with three categories (Personal, Social, and Structural) with two facets each (Motivation and Ability). Using all six of the sources, rather than just one or two, greatly improves your chance of success. And the authors go in to great detail on specific tactics for each. For example, under S...more Patterson, et al., identify Six Sources of Influence that work together to motivate our behaviors and, therefore, need to be adjusted when we want to make a change. They arrange their Six Sources in a matrix with three categories (Personal, Social, and Structural) with two facets each (Motivation and Ability). Using all six of the sources, rather than just one or two, greatly improves your chance of success. And the authors go in to great detail on specific tactics for each. For example, under Source 1: Personal Motivation, they recommend five tactics to increase your personal desire to change and keep it strong:
* Visit your default future. Figure out what your future will look like if you don't change.
* Tell the whole vivid story. Describe that future as vividly as possible to make it seem more "real."
* Use value words. Articulate the "why" for your change in positive terms.
* Make it a game. Set a time frame and smaller goals to help you reach the big one.
* Create a personal motivation statement. This will help you stay on track when you hit those crucial moments when you are more likely to fail.

And that's just one of the Six Sources.

One thought I found particularly insightful was regarding willpower. "Will is a skill, not a character trait. Willpower can be learned and strengthened like anything else, and...it is best learned through deliberate practice." This makes sense. If we view willpower as a static character trait, we're more likely to think that because we've failed once, there's no use in trying again; we just can't do it, it's hopeless. If instead, we, view will as a skill that can be improved, there's always hope for that improvement and the encouragement to keep trying. Also, a good reminder for any goals we set, "Reward your actions, not your results. Results are often out of your control...so link your incentives to something you can control." We can't set goals for what others are going to do because we have no control over that. Our goals must be based on actions we can control or it will be too easy to lose heart.

Read more at my blog: Build Enough Bookshelves (less)

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Feb 03, 2012 Tara rated it 4 of 5 stars

A unique approach for trying to kick bad habits or establish good ones. The basic premise is that there are a lot of forces working against you at any given time to keep you entrenched in your unhealthy behaviors. Sheer willpower is never enough to break out of your rut. You need to tackle the problem from several (specifically 6) different angles all at once to make the change, and if you apply all the tactics, they insist you're almost guaranteed to succeed. I like the line, "All diets work......more

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Apr 22, 2013 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

This is a book with useful information about changing, and affirms that willpower alone doesn't lead to change; Otherwise it wouldn't be so difficult. Two of the best pieces of advice involve distancing one's self from the factors that lead to negative accountability and "inverting your economy", where you provide incentives both for successes and in consequence of failures.

This book, especially in the audio format, reads like an extensive infomercial for VitalSmarts, the company that owns the w...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Izmael Arkin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This is an excellent book if you are working on changing a negative behavior. Much of the book focused on finding ways to get rid of bad behaviors and replacing them with positive behaviors. My one critique of this book is that it tends to focus on changing negative behaviors rather than improving on behaviors that are already strong. This is why I gave it three stars instead of four.

If you are struggling with weight loss, relationships, or addiction issues I think this is an excellent book. If...more

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Dec 08, 2011 Jane rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: self-help

While making clear that change takes hard work and far more than willpower, this book highlights the patterns and tools that have helped people change. What worked well for one person may not work for another; you need to be a student of your own habits, weaknesses, triggers, etc. And, I know the techniques work--they're the ones I've used for years without really understanding what I was doing or why I was successful. Consider this book a great framework for helping people understand why they t...more

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Sep 07, 2012 Brian Berrett rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not a bad read for someone who has been wanting to change something in their life but has been unable to do do. The basic premise is that "willpower" is irrelevant or perhaps non-existent. The way to true change is to be the scientist and the subject is you. The book provides methodology to enable change. You, as the scientist, study what works for you as the subject.

The framework is provided and more is available from their website.

They do tend to focus on subjects such as weight loss and exe...more

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Jan 16, 2012 Tresuiri rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For the audio book, I didn't care for the author's casual tone. It was probably to connect to the average joe who is theoretically picking up this self help book, but it rubbed me the wrong way. This book is somewhat simplistic; it can be summed up in one phrase: apply the scientific method to your problems. They do share a couple of insights, i.e. our culture leads us to believe change is only a function of will power. And, like the movie "It's a Wonderful Life", we are all connected to the peo...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Gerald rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: self-help

Change Anything is a how to manual based upon the work discussed in the authors previous book, Influencer. Change Anything was more believable than other books I have read on changing human behavior because of the studies the authors referenced. The principles provided in the book can apply to virtually any behavior one might want to alter. I liked the book because the premise was, we have discovered commonalities in those who have sought to change their behavior and were successful and the auth...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Robert Chapman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: self-help

There are lots of books about personal change, but this one stands out because of it's system - the 6 sources of influence:

1. love what you hate
2. do what you can't
3. and 4. turn accomplices into friends
5. invert the economy
6. control your space

Two of the gems in this book are around studying yourself and envisioning your default future. When we study ourselves, through our trials and errors, we can build a home grown change plan. Our default future is the outcome that will occur if we do not ch...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book offers practical and scientifically tested advice for breaking bad habits and creating good ones. The first part of the book outlines six sources of influence often used against us to encourage bad behaviors, either intentionally and unintentionally, of which willpower is only the most used and abused one. The authors then outline highly specific tactics for turning them to your own benefit. In the latter part of the book, you should probably pick and choose---if you don't struggle wit...more

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Sep 11, 2011 Rolando Gill rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked the book a little. It seemed to me to be a restatement of the book Influencer. They used similar studies to reinforce the exact same principles that were used in Influencer. The first half of the book restated their major points from the previous book. The second half of the book was stories of different change situations and I don't feel that they illustrated their points very well. I appreciated the effort to reinforce their ideas and I am glad it was refreshed in my mind but I am not...more

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May 10, 2011 Alissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, nonfiction

I like books that give concrete action steps. This started out with some fascinating experiments and hooked me right away when they said it wasn't about willpower. I found myself nodding as they described the 6 drivers of change. I liked how at the end they provide case studies for hot topics in change (career, weight, addiction, debt).

My big complaint and the reason this got 3 vs. 4 stars is that the authors kept referring you to their website for forms, and more tips. While this kept the book...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology, self-help

Why is it just so hard to change bad habits? This book attempts to answer this question and, more importantly, teach readers how to use the brain chemistry that creates bad habits to make good ones instead. The authors present six "sources of influence"--personal motivation (what we want and why); personal ability (our natural strengths and weaknesses); social motivation (how others' beliefs influence us); social ability (how the things other people do affect us); structural motivation (how thin...more

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Feb 15, 2012 Tracy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book caught my attention as I was shelving books at work. It's a quick read, and has some very practicable hints on how to change bad habits, from not exercising, losing weight, addictions, overspending, and relationships. For anyone who needs some easy-to-understand hints on getting motivated and how to implement change, I highly recommend it. I'm actually thinking about buying my own copy to refer back to, and also because it comes with a code to access supplemental materials on the websi...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Scott Taylor rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio, psychology, self-improvement, nonfiction

A non-fiction book on how to improve behavior. Most examples were on conquering unhealthy habits with higher level thought, planning, and practice. Finances, relationships, diet, exercise, and addictions were described as being products of various influences. Internal personal influences and social influences were described as factors to be assessed for change. Routines for changing the patterns were described as a means of encouraging new good habits to replace old bad ones.

I only found the spe...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Mark Vandervinne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I've read a ton of self-help books. This is arguably one of the best.

It's not a motivational book to inspire and get you moving. It's not a vapid self-affirmation book or one with silly pundits that don't mean squat. Most of these kinds of books give you simple quotes or sayings; i.e. "The past does not equal the future." or "Inspiration comes from perspiration." Some tell you in vague terms what to do or how to be; i.e. "Don't look for heroes. Be one." or "Commit to your own personal code of c...more

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Dec 23, 2011 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am reading this for my work book club, and so far it is interesting and it seems like it is going to be a good book for discussion.

Finished this book and thought it was a really good book about skills to build when desiring to change something in life whether losing weight, kicking a habit, improving job performance, saving/strenghtening a relationship, etc. I really like how it minimizes the importance of "willpower", which is what most people think is what they most need in order to change....more

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About Kerry Patterson

Kerry is a prolific writer who has coauthored numerous articles and award-winning training programs. Kerry taught at Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management and then cofounded Interact Performance Systems, where he worked for ten years as vice president of research and development. Kerry is coauthor of the New York Times bestsellers Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial...more

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Books by Kerry Patterson

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High

Influencer: The Power to Change Anything

Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior

Crucial Conversations Audio Mastery Course

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Quotes from Change Anything: The N...

“For example, obesity costs the average person an extra $1,429 per year in increased health care costs. But since we’re not required to set aside money for every burger we consume (to cover the real financial cost of the burger), the long-term costs of carrying extra weight remain invisible.” — 1 person liked it

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Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success

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