The Achievement Habit by Bernard Roth Review

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Some great takeaways I got from reading this book are:

How I can adapt a more productive perspective

Why I must stop making excuses

How I can move beyond certain specific roadblocks to reach my goals.

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The Author of this book, Bernard Roth, who is an engineering professor and a 

co founder, and the academic director of Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University (aka the d.school)  ____________________________________________________________________

This book is about microscopic insights from a great mind, that any individual can use, to live a better life. When I was reading it, I felt as if Bernard Roth, was some kind of Yoda (from star wars) like, life expert, sent here to help me avoid certain mistakes. The scary part was some of the life lessons he preaches about in his book, I had to learn about the hard way, an there are a few activities and tweak, I'm yet to try in my life, but Roth, has already have me sold, and I cannot wait

to try them out.

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Here are a few of the major takeaways I got from reading his book:

1. How I can adapt a more productive perspective
1. A step by step activity I can use to get myself to react with the best possible response, rather than the first response, which Roth says is not always the smartest course.
2. A tweak I can use to remind myself, of how our world really works, with regards to taking on certain tasks, with low probability for success. Roth, emphasizes, for a person to think about how he/she would approach that project, if he/she no longer worried about there mistakes.
3. A tweak I can use to redefine my efforts, Roth says that we should praise how hard we try, and not our outcomes, (which is exactly what made me think of him like Yoda from star wars) in order to focus less on negative thoughts, and more on positive self affirming comments.
2. Why I must stop making excuses
1. A tweak I can use to help me stay the course, by keeping the big picture in mind.
2. A step by step activity I can use, to change my self image, Roth, also does a great job of helping me (the reader) understand the importance, and beginning stages, of our self image. (read this book!)
3. How I can move beyond certain specific roadblocks to reach my goals.
1. A step by step activity I can use to escape my current perspective to see things in a different light.
2. A tweak I can use in my day to day activity to help me redefine how I feel about certain mundane activities. (just this one tip alone was worth the time I invested into reading this book)
3. A step by step activity I can use to better understand the meaning of my life, (this one sounds cheesy but OMG!!! the results of this one is astronomical, consider this quote from his book to better understand the importance of this activity, “Once you accept that you give everything in your life its meaning, you feel like the master of your life, not a powerless victim of circumstance and chance.”

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This book is intended for everyone, (Buy the book here) especially if you are fairly young in life, and haven't had much guidance, I can say without a doubt, I wish I had read this book earlier on in my life, it would have prevented me from so much unnecessary routes and wasting of my energy.

Make It Matter by Scott Mautz

My biggest takeaways from reading this book are:

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1. Employees finding meaning in the work they do for an organization can lead to higher productivity rates, and more fulfilling time for the worker.
2. If a person is unhappy with where they work, there are steps that can be taken to readily, assess their situation, and create meaning in the job they are doing, in all cases.
3. Accepting feedback about the job from employees, and objectively considering their input, to see if it can improve the day to day tasks of the job in a positive way, and putting that new idea, into place, can help foster meaning for that employee, since these actions indicate that the employee is treated with respect, and the manager cares about that employee and his/her feedback.

Mautz, goes in depth, on ways having meaning can benefit the overall business, and employees. and gives step by step approach to finding meaning for employees. 

There is not much to be said about this book, that wouldn't be obvious. 

I highly recommend this book to any employee who is more curious about finding a meaning in their work and also any employer who has yet to instill a program of instilling meaning in the culture of the work place.

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The Marshmallow Test by Walter Mischel

The main takeaways I got from reading this book, were:

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1. Self control in all humans can be learnt overtime, since our brain is malleable.
2. The Marshmallow test experiment, was a phenomenal indication of the importance of delayed gratification vs immediate gratification.
3. Teaching young children traits to help them develop self control, can have extreme long term benefits, in terms of how they deal with stress and their overall development as humans.

Mischel, is a cognitive researcher, and his research will stand the test of time, for years to come. In his book, he speaks about several ways, to increase self control. and ways to improve a person's ability to delay gratification. Some of which, he recommends are:

• Meditation (20 minutes daily)
• Making the gap between your future self and your present self, smaller and more realistic, that way a person is likely to act in the best interest of his future self (doing things like investing into his/her retirement, etc)

In my personal studies, I found other aspects to also improve self control, after learning that our willpower(or self control) is like a muscle, based on research conducted by Roy F. Baumeister. In Mischel's book, he speaks about self control being based on context as well, saying a person is likely to be strong in one area, (such as resisting chocolate for example) and be weak in other areas(such as resisting sex for example)...I disagree, and I think our brain does too. In Mischel's book, he speaks about the cool system(prefrontal cortex) and our hot system(limbic system) in our brain, saying how the hot system, is likely to make a person excited about the temptation, whereas the cold system, would be direct strategies a person would use, to calm their desire for gratification now, in order to delay the gratification for a better reward later! I read a study once that was done in 2012, that 25% of Americans, have at least six months of their rent saved, I strongly believe this is also a result of a lack of self control by three(3) in every four(4) Americans!

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Remember, Reading makes you unsuitable to live like a slave!