Book

The Achievement Habit

Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life

Bernard Roth

HarperBusiness, 2015

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Recommendation

This book is a pleasure. It offers helpful advice and engaging, illustrative anecdotes. Bernard Roth calls upon his design perspective – and lessons he learned as academic director at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University – to offer workable suggestions for building an active, successful approach to work and life. He provides ways to achieve goals you might not otherwise reach and shares the motivational secrets he’s been teaching his graduate design students for years. Most of his ideas are easy to implement – like to stop making excuses – and can make a big difference in your life. Roth also suggests deep breathing, meditative exercises and visualization to assist readers in overcoming a negative self-image. Overall, Roth provides worthy assistance for setting and achieving your goals. getAbstract recommends his insights to anyone seeking to free themselves from destructive habits and become more productive.

Summary

“Nothing Is What You Think It Is”

Mike’s professor saw him as “a slacker” because he failed to complete a project. Years after college, Mike created an amazingly innovative exhibit at the annual Burning Man festival. The professor who considered Mike a talentless failure and totally dismissed him made a mistake. You, too, may perceive things in ways that might not be accurate. Be open to changing your mind and to seeing people and events in a new way. The professor clearly was wrong about Mike.

To escape your current perceptions, take these steps: Breathe deeply several times. Shut your eyes and sit quietly for two or three minutes. Open your eyes and scan the room slowly. Look around and say, out loud, that each thing you see “has no meaning.” For example, “The chair has no meaning,” and so on. Consider the people in your life and remove their meanings, one by one. After you are done, see how you feel. You can now relate to everything and to yourself in a fresh, new way. State that you have no meaning, and be open to discovering a new you. Don’t think of yourself as a loser because you failed at something. Your goal is to develop the skills to deal with life’s challenges...

About the Author

Engineering professor Bernard Roth is a co-founder and the academic director of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University (also known as the d.school).

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R. M. 7 years ago

8/10
D. B. 7 years ago

very nice and teaches you good stuff.
D. W. 7 years ago

Well written, very true #getbacktoschool #getbacktowork