Book SummaryTriggers, by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Triggers

We have a hard time changing our behavior, especially in interactions with other people. We often encounter situations the writers call “triggers” that can sabotage even our best efforts at behaving more positively and productively in our relationships with others. For example, a trigger like an interruption to your work might make you speak curtly to your colleagues for the rest of the afternoon. Or a disagreement with a friend might put you in a bad mood that colors how you talk to your spouse when you get home.

In Triggers, published in 2015, executive coach Marshall Goldsmith and coauthor Mark Reiter assert that you don’t have to let these triggers control you. Instead, by understanding how you’re affected by your environment and how you naturally react to it, you can change your behavior...

Triggers Summary Why Triggers Are Problematic

Our environment (and our reactions to it) shapes our actions. We encounter environmental triggers everywhere, and even when they’re minor or short-lived, these incidents and situations bait us into acting in ways we know we shouldn’t.

Triggers can cause us to lose sight of the goals we’ve set for ourselves. When reacting to triggers, we might compromise on our plans, behave in ways that harm us or those around us, and generally fail to live up to our standards for the kind of person we’d like to be.

In this section, we’ll look at how the authors define triggers, examine how these stimuli affect our behavior, and explain how to spot them in your own life.

(Shortform note: A mismatch between your goals and the triggers you encounter in your environment makes it difficult to change your behavior. Atomic Habits author James Clear, in his guide to goal setting, proposes that many of your decisions are shaped not just by your environment but by the options you see as available to you. The easy decision becomes the default decision. While Goldsmith and Reiter focus on changing how you...

Triggers Summary Falling Prey to Triggers

The authors argue that, in some ways, giving in to triggers is human nature. In this section, we’ll look at some of the primary reasons why we succumb to the temptation of triggers, even when we know better and want to avoid them and their effects on our behavior.

We Don’t Do What We Planned to Do

No matter how realistic we think we’re being, we’re often overambitious when setting goals. As a result, we make plans that our environment—or our response to it—quickly derails. And no matter how often we’ve seen it happen, we don’t see it coming. For example, you might resolve to stay calmer with your children as you wake up in a quiet house but find yourself yelling when the morning chaos reaches a fever pitch.

Goldsmith and Reiter contend that this happens because each of us is part planner and part doer. The planner decides to change our behavior. But the doer has to enact that change. Often, the connection between the two breaks down, and we make plans that completely discount how we’ve behaved in the past, like putting a task on our to-do list and thinking we’ll get it done even though it’s been on every to-do list we’ve made for the last week.

(Shortform...

Triggers Summary Resisting Triggers

Understanding why we fall prey to triggers is the first step; the next step is actively resisting them. The writers argue that we can stop triggers from controlling our behavior. We’re not helpless against them. The authors offer many tools you can use to keep your environment from throwing you off course from the goals that you’ve set for yourself.

In this section of the guide, we’ve divided these strategies into two groups. The first group consists of plans or structures you can build ahead of time (or otherwise outside of the time when you’re in a triggering situation). The second group comprises strategies you can implement in the moment to stay focused on changing your behavior.

Before or Beyond the Triggering Situation

First, let’s look at some strategies that can help you get ahead of your triggers, either when you’re planning ahead and anticipating what your day might throw at you or when you’re recalibrating after a difficult day and trying to refocus on what matters most to you.

Ask for Help

The writers suggest that you ask the people around you to share their observations about the behavior you’re trying to change. You might not know...

Shortform Exercise: Set a Concrete Goal

One of the core tools of Triggers is the set of daily questions that you can ask yourself each night to assess the effort you made toward your most important goals. First, you’ll need to choose a concrete goal to pursue.

Think about one way that you’d like to change your behavior in your relationships with other people. (Maybe you’d like to be a more present partner, a calmer parent, or a more generous friend.) Write that goal down here.