Anyone who wants to succeed in their chosen careers needs a self-help guide. One of them is the Psychology of Achievements by Heidi Halvorson. This book is about how to set yourself up for success, how to work with yourself and how to plan your projects.
Numerous reviews of the book suggest that it is popular. However, this is literature from the experience of American researchers, and some do not like the overseas view of things. However, the work has many wonderful aspects, which we will discuss in this article.
Book Author - Heidi Halvorson
Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D., an employee of the NeuroLeadership Institute who advises on business situations, and freelance writer of Psychology Today, is also the author of several books on self-development worldwide.
The psychologist advises businessmen and conducts various studies at the university. Heidi lives with his family in New York.
Best-selling book Psychology of Achievements
Another work on the psychology of motivation, Heidi Halvorson, was released in Russian in 2017. The book has life examples, tests. On the last pages there are some exercises that help change the way you think.
The motivational book Psychology of Achievements was written by a social psychologist. The writer builds all evidence of the allegations based on social experiments and statistics obtained on their basis.
The book is written in simple language, without the use of scientific terms. Nevertheless, everyone who reads it will be able to clearly understand how to achieve their goals and how to motivate themselves correctly. By the way, the book is not only about motivation, but also about goal setting.
How to achieve what is intended?
First you have to honestly admit to the usual mistakes. What do we do after we set goals? Reach them or drop them?
The social psychologist recommends the following. First, you need to make plans. This is not just a listing of the individual steps, but planning, which provides for all the subtleties of the path, all the strategies with which you can overcome the obstacles that arise. After all, no important thing can be done without difficulty. Everything must be taken into account - time, motivation, costs.
You may need to find a consultant on the issue you need or sign up for courses. Then you need to clearly know when you will find money for these events.
Goals can have a different direction. Some are aimed at prevention, others at promotion. That is, some help us to feel “good,” doing our duty, and no more. The second type of goal makes our whole being work hard to achieve the best results. However, then we do not regret either health or the psyche.
Another important remark of the author should be given in the form of a quote:
Promoting goals increase enthusiasm and motivation for a short time, but the results of their achievement are more difficult to maintain for a long time.
Key Steps to Achieving Goals
What does it take to see yourself on the winners' podium not in your dreams, but in reality? First, it is important to draw up a concrete plan of action. And secondly, to think over even those pitfalls that are usually encountered along the way in your business. Does the person know how to solve such problems? Does he have sufficient ingenuity and willpower to "break through the barriers"?
The second necessary action is a daily exercise of willpower. Willpower, Heidi Grant explains, like any muscle in the physical body, needs training. You need to get up every morning at the same time, do exercises or go to the gym. All these trainings are necessary, otherwise the person ceases to control himself, laziness begins to "eat him".
And the third rule for success is to avoid the thinking of a failure. You should not constantly think about what is not working out and regret it. You need to calmly, without losing confidence, go to the goal.
These three points are the most important thing to learn for someone who does not want to be a gray mouse, but wants to achieve something in life.
Reader Book Reviews
Mostly readers are satisfied with the book. Their reviews give the writer feedback so that he knows in what direction to "dig" further, what else to explore. And is it generally readable what he wrote?
Reviews on the book "Psychology of Achievements" are different. Those who really work with themselves, pass the tests given in the book, and try to change, get the results. But for those who, having started reading, put aside a book about motivation and look for a reason to justify failure, instead of working with attitudes, the book will be useless. As you know, work on yourself must begin with faith in success. If you are depressed already at the beginning of the road, then not a single book will help.
Can all be successful?
According to psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson, anyone can succeed. All that he needs is motivation and knowledge of how his psyche works. The psychologist has repeatedly insisted that volitional efforts are not all.
Of course, they are needed, but only for crucial moments in life. For the daily movement on the path to success and achieving your goals, you need something else. What is needed is understanding — where and why to go; and it’s also important to know the methods of dealing with despondency and depression when it is impossible to reach the goal even from the 5th attempt.
In the first chapter of the book "Do you know where you are going?" the author reveals some little-known facts. For example, that you can think from the perspective of "What exactly am I doing?" And it is possible with another - "Why am I currently busy with this (busy)"? Those people who are more focused on the concept of “why” better understand their goals, but do not always know how to achieve them. While others who are more practical, think about how, forget goals and give up. The secret is to master both ways of thinking and know which and when to use.
Zest book
How is this book about psychology and motivation different from hundreds of other publications on these topics? By the fact that here it is proposed to go some way under the guidance of the author and understand the main reason why people used to fail.
And also an important feature is the availability of exercises. If a person goes through them all and honestly answers within himself some questions about the main motivation, then he is on the right track.
What is paramount: improve your professional qualities and skills or get recognition for a specific job? Psychologist Heidi Grant suggests reflecting on this issue to his reader. After all, the deep goals of the soul are sometimes not realized. But the wrong settings are the cause of the failure of many thousands of people.
If all the problems within oneself can be resolved, then we can assume that a person will certainly go all the bumpy path to the end and get his result.
Other Heidi Grant Books
In addition to the Psychology of Achievements, the author has a number of popular science publications on strategies for achieving success.
- "Nine things successful people do differently."
- Together with Torrey Higgins, the book Psychology of Motivation. How Depth Attitudes Affect Our Desires and Actions was released.
- There is another popular book, Nobody Understands Me. The publication refers more to the psychology of understanding. This work has also become a bestseller and made millions of people happier.
Heidi Grant Halvorson is a successful and qualified specialist in the field of social psychology. And all those stories that she cites in her works are real and instructive. Of course, everyone is looking for a book "on their own," one that is easy to read, without violence against oneself. And the works of this psychologist are therefore successful because they are not written in a dry scientific language, but in an accessible, human language.
How to set goals?
Based on some research, Heidi Grant and Torrey Higgins noted that there are 2 types of people. Some are always optimistic and set themselves high goals. Their enthusiasm is justified by the fact that they have previously achieved success.
Others in the past experienced more failures, and they are aimed at preserving what they have, and not at gaining new heights. The motivation of the participants of the second group is "not to lose." It comes from pessimism and anxiety. Therefore, before setting goals, you need to distract from anxieties and become a little optimistic.
The goal should be achievable and feasible if the person is pessimistic. Failures unsettle such a person. You can’t set a transcendental goal and believe that you can cope if in the past not too difficult tasks were given by hard work. Optimists, on the contrary, need even more ambitious goals, since their motivation is to improve their skills in the chosen business.
findings
So, we discussed some chapters of the book "Psychology of Achievements", reviews about it and to whom it is addressed to a greater extent. The author of the work teaches his readers to set goals correctly, carefully plan their plans and strategies. And also teaches to think positively and on a large scale. If a person is interested in how to achieve their goals, this book will be a good assistant to him.