Book Review: Change Anything
Book Reviews October 28th, 2012The New Science of Personal Success
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Author: Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler
This is a superb book and while it makes high claims to be able to change your life which are hard to believe, it does provide some excellent guidance and methods if practiced consistently, I believe are foundation principles to change your life. Â The book has 3 main parts:
- The science of personal success
- The six sources of influence
- How to change anything
The concepts in these sections all examine personal success and how influence on oneself is what feeds change. Â Part 1 covers in great detail a section on willpower and the willpower trap. Â This trap is often thought to be why people can’t change and unfortunately, most people accept this too suddenly and think they know the issue, when in reality, they are blind to the other factors that lock them in to believing the willpower is the limiting factor, leaving themselves in an impossible to break cycle.
Change from these traps requires a specific approach for each specific problem and the usual ‘blamed’ willpower must be learned to not be the real cause of these limiting beliefs.  To discover these, you must understand the next section of the book, which is all about the sources of influence.  Its these areas that really reveal the brilliance of this book as it forces you to not only look at what you are likely used to doing unconsciously, but also to tackle things from new perspectives, despite your old habits or how ingrained they might be in your character.  These six sources may seem too simple or even counter-intuitive, which is why this book is so valuable, because as titles they are not that useful.  However, they are:
- Love what you hate
- Do what you can’t
- Turn accomplices into friends
- Turn accomplices into friends
- Invert the economy
- Control your space
That’s not a typo, there are two sections dedicated to turning accomplices into friends. Â Influences are covered from the 3 different sources, personal, social and structural. Â All of these are explored and the authors present tools to use each influence for good and for the change you want. Â This guidance itself is worth reading the book for, and it ties in to the whole purpose of the book, to change yourself first and get influence under control so you can change anything. Â If you are interested in this level of influence, you can read their earlier book as well, called Influence, which I reviewed here.
So, overall I definitely recommend this book to any of my readers and anyone interested in personal development, in changing or improving some of their habits and if you are wanting to influence others for good as a result of your own personal development. There is a lot to take in from these authors and a lot of great techniques and guidance to absorb and apply for change. Â I’m sure you will enjoy it like I have!
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October 29th, 2012 at 9:41 AM
Mike, good book and review. I put this book in play in several occasions and it’s proven to be working. The authors created very simple yet very powerful and actionable frame of persona, social, structural/motivation, ability framework. It amazed me how you could effectively engineer so effectively something that you wouldn’t consider even “engineerable”
October 30th, 2012 at 11:49 PM
Thanks Alik and welcome back, its been so long… I do am surprised how simply yet effective the authors distill what seems to be impossible information into a set of factors and influence elements that anyone can actually understand, but also implement for their situation. There first book had similar content with great value when implemented and so I’ve very glad to see you comment on results from this as well, as I hope it sparks more readers to get this book!
December 4th, 2012 at 6:28 AM
As I read the post above,nice book review.Book providing some awesome tips to change everything.Will definitely buy a copy of this great book ASAP.Thanks Mike.
December 4th, 2012 at 11:06 PM
As I study the publish above,nice evaluation.Book offering some amazing guidelines to modify everything.Will definitely buy a duplicate of this great guide ASAP.Thanks Scott.
December 14th, 2012 at 9:53 AM
This is truly amazing. I am very impressed on knowing that this information is being shared here and actively discussed by these commentators here. I do want to know certain updates though.
December 25th, 2012 at 4:41 AM
Hi Mike,
The book’s message that change what you can not, during the 2nd part shows that you must dare to win, and that you are changeable in most of things, if you just want it to happen.