Top Insights from Marshall Goldsmith

Changing Your Habits
Marshall Goldsmith is an expert on habits and triggers. A trigger is any stimulus that might impact our behaviour. We traditionally face a trigger, which leads to an impulse, which results in continuous behaviour. Goldsmith challenged us to take control and form new habits by doing things the new way: face a trigger, have an impulse, but become aware of this impulse and make a different choice. This will shape our new behaviour.

To Have a Great Life, Live Your Own Life
We are too competitive all the time. Ask yourself: am I willing at this time to make the investment required to make a positive change on this topic? If not, don’t go for it. We waste a lot of time on things we know we will never do anyways. If the answer is yes, however, go for it.

Asking for Help is Okay
Changing your habits is not easy, and Goldsmith reminds us that it’s okay to ask for help (and he even encourages it). He requires help himself too and shares his technique; he has a woman call him every single day and listen to him read off questions he wrote and his answers.

Engage Yourself
Companies always make the effort to engage their employees but there is more to this equation. We must engage ourselves too. We can do this through asking ourselves a series of questions like Goldsmith’s. To have the best results, make sure they are active questions – for example, instead of asking “Did my company engage me?” ask “Did I do my best to engage myself?”

The Six Active Questions
The six active questions Goldsmith suggests are to ask yourself if you did your best to: be happy, be engaged, find meaning, build positive relationships, set clear goals, and make progress towards goal achievement.

Instead of asking "Did my company engage me?" ask "Did I do my best to engage myself?"