The idea here is that you can change any aspect of your life-if you are just willing to follow a few simple steps. The problem, of course, is that most of us are unable to follow a few simple steps.
Near the beginning of Change Anything we are told that a recent study found that ALL diets work-if people are willing to do exactly what any given diet plan calls for. Most of us are pretty good at starting things, but not so good at the follow through.
So Change Anything takes a slightly different tack to the problem-it offers a series of techniques that, if used, can become second nature and we will automatically avoid those things we want to avoid and do those things we want to do. I usually have a hard time picking the Oatmeal over the Sausage, Egg & Cheese McGriddle. One solution to this problem would be not to go to McDonalds in the first place.
Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success is filled with stories of behavioral studies past and present-what happens when a four year old has to delay gratification or a teenager has to save money when the environment is geared to make him spend it all. The point of all these stories is to show us how we can use these techniques in our own lives-there are six tools and you need to use all of them.
1. personal motivation, 2. personal ability, 3. social motivation, 4. social ability, 5. structural motivation, 6. structural ability. These are the same basic tools that Madison Avenue uses to make us buy corn flakes and Cadillacs. They work. Will they work on individual lives the same way they work on consumers? Hey, it’s worth a try.
Like many other self help books, Change Anything has a core idea and lots of random stories designed to support that core idea. You can read the first half of the book and skip the rest and not really miss anything. Just remember, like a diet, the Change Anything plan will only work if you use it.
