Small Move, Big Change

December 1, 2013
Goldman Sachs managing director and technology leader Arnold tenders some advice you may have heard from your kindergarten teacher: Focus, and take smaller bites. The author does not claim to be offering revolutionary insights--indeed, at times, it feels as though she is reinventing the wheel--but she does have a calming and anecdotally rich way of presenting the idea that small changes lead to big change. Why do we fail to attain our well-intentioned resolutions? Why do, according to one study, 88 percent of resolutions falter and fizzle, raining guilt and demoralization down on our heads? Very simply, writes Arnold, we fail to be strategic and targeted. The author is low-key in an encouraging way, and she lays out a method of conduct that is small but meaningful, a compact commitment designed to overpower a precise target and deliver the immediate benefits of achievement--in other words, a sustainable act of willpower, working from the edge of the issue to the heart of any matter. "Microresolutions," writes the author, "are designed to help you repeat a behavior until it becomes habit." Arnold presents a number of guiding lights: Micro moves must be easy and explicit (you up the ante when you are ready--don't let "scope creep" make you take on too much too early); an immediate payoff is important, and it resonates with satisfaction; and it must be personally achieved without relying on others. Then comes anecdotal material about how Arnold and others went about various projects: getting more sleep, getting fit, controlling eating and honest communication (though not necessarily the art of honest conversation--that's a whole book in itself). Wisdom from time immemorial--take it a day at a time and moderation in all things--reworked by Arnold to morph broad goals into manageable, measurable microresolutions.

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April 1, 2014

By the time this review is published, most of us will have made and broken many of our New Year's resolutions. Wall Street technology leader Arnold hopes to help readers stop that cycle by learning to separate their goals into smaller--micro--components that are concrete and measurable. Instead of aiming to "be neat," for example, one can adopt zero tolerance for leaving anything in the car at the end of the day. The author's method, clearly detailed, applies to dieting, relationships, and spending. VERDICT Arnold's useful guide transforms the vague into the specific and helps make change something anyone can achieve.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2013
Arnold, corporate executive, finds from personal experience that microresolution is the first long-term success she achieved in realizing her resolutionsfrom losing weight to spending more time with her family, to going to the gym regularly, to being better organized. How she achieved these successes is presented as her system for readers of any age to make resolutions that they can sustain by developing new habits. Arnold's seven rules of microresolutions include: don't make resolutions you can't keep, a microresolution is easy; make resolutions that are explicit and measurable actions; make resolutions in which the payoff is immediate, obvious, and sustainable; practice, practice, practice (a new habit takes time to become automatic); and make resolutions personal (what change in personal behavior meets your objectives?). Her chapter on sleep contains important insights for readers of all ages. Arnold concludes her thought-provoking road map to successfully transforming ourselves with new habits with this line, Learning how to do just one thing differently punches your ticket for a voyage of continuous self-improvement. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)