Psychology Archives

Triggers: Book Overview and Key Takeaways

What is Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter’s book Triggers about? What’s the key message to take away from the book? In their book Triggers, executive coach Marshall Goldsmith and co-author Mark Reiter examine how triggers derail our efforts to behave in our best interests. They explain how you can become aware of your triggers, define the goals that will best serve you, and do the hard work of changing your behavior. Below is a brief overview of Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter.

How to Interact With People: Making Use of Power Dynamics

How would your personal interactions change if you understood human nature better? How might you adjust your behavior based on power dynamics? According to Robert Greene, everyone seeks power to some degree. Greene advises you to accept that the “game” of power can’t be avoided and learn how to play it to your advantage. If you refuse to accept this reality, you risk being manipulated or sidelined. Read more to learn how to interact with people in a way that minimizes this risk.

A First-Rate Madness by Nassir Ghaemi: Overview

What is A First-Rate Madness about? What are the main takeaways of the book? For years, abnormal mental health has influenced successful leadership decisions during critical times of war and conflict. In A First-Rate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi uncovers the pitfalls of being a mentally well leader and how mental health treatment affects leadership. Read below for a brief overview of Ghaemi’s A First-Rate Madness.

How to Stop Impulsive Behavior From Thwarting Your Progress

Do you struggle to resist your impulses? How does acting on impulse prevent you from achieving your goals? Our impulses often get the better of us, prompting us to behave in ways that contradict our best interests. In their book Triggers, Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter explain how to stop impulsive behavior by identifying your “triggers”—stimuli and situations that prompt you to react impulsively. Here are three strategies for keeping your behavior in check so that you can stay on track toward your goals.

Big-Picture Thinking: The Top 3 Methods (+ Examples)

Do you consider yourself a big-picture thinker? Do you try to understand every problem or situation holistically? When we’re faced with a problem or a difficult decision, we tend to resort to our usual cause-and-effect, detail-oriented type of thinking. While this type of thinking is useful in some situations, it can obscure the bigger picture. As a result, the optimal solution may evade us because it lies outside the range of ideas where we are looking for it. With this in mind, here are three ways you can apply big-picture thinking to solve problems and make decisions.

The Difference Between Mental Health and Mental Illness

What’s the difference between mental health and mental illness? Why do so many people confuse the two? Sometimes, people interchangeably use mental health and mental illness, as if they mean the same thing. While they’re closely related, there’s actually a meaningful difference between the two psychological terms. Here’s how A First-Rate Madness defines mental health and mental illness so you won’t get confused anymore.

How to Maintain Mental Health: 3 Tips From Michelle Obama

Why is it important to take care of your mental health? What are some things you can do to maintain a healthy state of mind? If your mental health is not in order, you’ll struggle to make meaningful progress toward your goals. As a result, you’ll feel like a failure, initiating a vicious cycle. To achieve success in any endeavor, you must take care of your mental health by minimizing stress and doing activities that make you feel fulfilled. Here are some of Michelle Obama’s tips on how to maintain mental health.

How Many Teens Have Depression & Why Is It Happening?

How many teens have depression in the US? What are the causes of teen depression? Teenage depression is on the rise in the United States. According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of high school students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2021, up from 28% in 2011. Read on to learn how many teens have depression, which groups are at high risk, and some of the causes.

The Psychology of Triggers: What They Are & How They Affect Us

What are behavioral triggers? Why do certain stimuli or situations push us to act in ways that sabotage our best efforts? Every day, we encounter triggers that prompt us to behave in certain ways. A trigger can be positive or negative, pleasant or unpleasant, productive or unproductive. Similarly, some triggers push us toward our goals while others pull us away from them. Keep reading to learn about the psychology of triggers.

The Slow Hunch: How Small Inklings Become Novel Inventions

Do you have any half-baked ideas rattling around in your head? What if you could turn them into fully-baked brilliance? Sometimes hunches lead to full-fledged ideas. If you’re patient and keep working on them, you could end up with something quite usable. In Where Good Ideas Come From, best-selling author and theorist Steven Johnson explains how good ideas grow from minor inklings to groundbreaking inventions. Keep reading to learn how the “slow hunch” can mature into something of great value.