Switch, Chip and Dan Heath
I recently finished reading “Switch, How to change things when change is hard”.

It has some fairly tangible actions and crossover as a coach, especially in nutrition, where so many of my clients behaviours are engrained and they come to me to change them. Or at least they come to me to change the end result - their weight, muscle mass, health, energy, etc. what they may not gauge until we speak is that they need to change their actions in order to see the results they’re looking for.
The more I read of the book, the more they referred to businesses that required changes to happen to alter the culture, productivity, profitability, or general operations of the business. Which made me realise it would be so helpful to share with you - my clients that work in business and often need to make change in your workplace but often struggle. And that struggle prevents you from getting out of the office on time, taking on more work that you’re able, getting to the gym at night, or from eating healthily.
So this book could have huge benefit for both of us!
As a person who reads pretty slowly, one of the best things for keeping me engaged was that each chapter was broken down into smaller points. Each story of a business or person never lasted more than 3-5 pages, so it kept you reading and feeling engaged in the stories and reinforcing the points they were making. I often find it helpful to know the setup of the book before I get going - I don’t want a heavy, long chapter to chip through, I’ll never get past chapter two.
So the juicy bits inside.

Chip and Dan break down the book into three sections of change. The Rider, the Elephant and the Path.
The Rider is the decision making part of our brain, the part that often wants to research every eventuality, but finds it hard to take action. For example, searching for the absolutely perfect diet for every possible circumstance, but may spend so long researching that they pass the point of interest and action. They do all the rational thinking and understanding the science, logic and reasoning behind doing something.
The Rider must be guided to put the research down and take action. Using things like Bright Spots (our weekly wins!) is a helpful start point. Where someone may say the idea, or they are doomed and there’s no point, they can’t do something. Using bright spots helps to find previous actions and changes that had positive outcomes, and then find a way to replicate them. Instead of needing big picture views, the Rider needs a small, clear action to take - make a veggie bucket after shopping on Sunday each week. It is much more black and white, directive thinking.
The Elephant is the emotional part of the person. They may often feel that their small action isn’t enough to elicit change, so what’s the point in doing it. They may be more inconsistent in the process because they do not feel the drive to do it. For this part of our human brain, we want to get to the feeling behind it, why is the goal important, what does it allow you to do. We want to shrink the actions down so it doesn’t cause fear - we want to find an action they can start today, right now, something small enough that it makes more sense to do than not. We want to help them feel a sense of identity with the change and actions “I am a healthy person”, “I am a person that goes to the gym each week”, “I am a [insert career]”.
Together the rational and emotional work together by understanding the reason and the feeling.
But the bit that makes the biggest difference for success is the Path. The environment we surround ourselves with, that influences our decisions and ability to fulfill our identity. By smoothing the path of bumps, twists and turns, potholes, we reduce the opportunity to get lost or distracted. We take our bright spots to implement our clear and small actions and we move along through our paved path to success.
If the circumstance we’re in doesn’t work, but we’re not sure how, we can look at our bright spots from successful situations to see what may have worked then and adjust it. If we can see that on Thursday’s we’re exhausted and like to binge eat or order greasy takeaways to make ourselves feel better, we can change the environment before that point. Whether than being doing slightly less in the week so Thursday doesn’t feel so bad, or ensuring that our fridge is full of nutritious and easy food for Thursday night - maybe even a pre-prepared meal that we know we love.
When we have habits in place that come as second nature, we don’t have to think so much to achieve them. It takes time to build them up, but when we start small and gradually add with practice and experience we can make it easy to achieve more complicated things. So never underestimate the small things you can do - they will have a big impact.
The last element is the people in your path. Do they have the same goals and behaviours as you? Do they know what your goals are? We often work in a herd mentality. If the people around you are drink beer and pizza, but you want to eat salad and drink squash, you’re probably going to do what they do because it’s uncomfortable to behave differently.
So can you adjust your environment or circle to people that behave like you do? If not, how do you make your habits as easy as possible, so that it’s easier to do what you need to than act in the way everyone else is. How can you make your belief in the end point so strong that you want to keep working toward it?

There were a couple of really helpful stories throughout the book, but I’ll share one I really liked and think you could apply to a lot of things straight away.
This was based on an accountant repaying debt.
A couple had hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. Rather than trying to pay of the big, high interest one first, they were asked to make a list of all their debt, direct debits - small to big.
They were asked to stop spending (logically).
Make their minimum repayments each month.
Then rather than pay off the big one next, make payments on the smallest first. Until they’d repaid the small one.
Then go to the next smallest.
This meant they had a snowball of positive actions. They saw that their efforts were working in repaying the debt.
Until they just had the big one to pay off.
Sure the interest would have racked up more by that time, but they were in a better position to pay off that one, that having multiple to think off and stress them all the time.
This story got me thinking of to do lists.
I work with many people that have multiple to do lists. One for work, one for home, one for personal. Maybe a longer term work one.
Guys, let’s cut it back so you don’t lose the lists.
Make one list of the taks. The big, small, medium tasks. The long term future and the immediate.
Break down the things that need to be done each week and do the minimum required - answer emails, regular catch ups on projects, small things that feel irrelevant. Don’t take on more workload until you’ve started to clear space.
By clearing through the small pieces in the morning, you can start to build up a sense of success by lunch time. Then actually take a break for lunch, get good food, and have a walk. Allow your brain to re-calibrate after piling through a bunch of tasks.
Then you can come back and chip into the bigger projects, focusing on the smallest big project, or the one with the most imminent deadline.
I’d also recommend you turn off your phone and emails, or at least turn on do not disturb or focus mode to allow you to get through without distractions.
Gradually you’ll start to see more progress and feel that accumulating feeling of success. Reducing the feeling of overwhelm and anxiety.
So what does your list look like? What can you start to chip through first? Where can you say no to requests to give you the best shot of success with your small actions and reduce distractions?
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