Some of us have been toiling away and wondering where our Mojo went. If you are among the many who has lost your Mojo, this quick book review and summary of MOJO by Marshall Goldsmith can help serve as your guide to being energized again.
“Mojo” is that moment we do something purposeful, powerful and positive and the rest of the world recognizes it. It begins on the inside with a positive spirit toward what we are doing and radiates to the outside, according to Goldsmith. Thus, the tips here are more than career advice, by following the advice offered here you might achieve lasting happiness.
In Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back, If You Lose It, (2009) Hyperion, Marshall Goldsmith, provides a mojo toolkit that encompasses 14 lessons to guide us to mojo. Goldsmith explains that both our personal and professional mojo are impacted by four factors: (1) our identity, (2) our achievement, (3) our reputation, and (4) acceptance. The book is divided into four main sections.
Section one explains the concept of mojo and its opposite, nojo. It helps us to determine not only what we bring to an activity but to examine what the activity brings to us as well. It provides a chart to help us measure our mojo as we are performing tasks throughout the day. For each task ask yourself these two questions: (1) How much long-term benefit or meaning did I experience from this activity? (2) How much short-term satisfaction or happiness did I experience from this activity?
A profound insight is that our default response in life is not to experience happiness, or meaning, it is to experience inertia - more of the same. In other words, throughout the day, we will likely continue to do what we have been doing.
Section two shows us the building blocks of achieving mojo: (1) identity, (2) achievement-what have you done lately, (3) reputation - who do people think you are, (4) acceptance -what can you let go?
It also discusses some mojo killers: (1) overcommitting, (2) waiting for the facts to change, (3) looking for logic in all the wrong places - i.e., the world is not always rational, (4) bashing the boss, (5) refusing to change because of sunk costs, (6) confusing the mode you are in [successful people operate in two different modes, professional and relaxed. There are four pointless arguments to never have : (1) Let me keep talking, (2) I had it rougher than you, (3) why did you do that, (4) It’s not fair. Finally, recognize that job is gone. Many jobs no longer exist and are not coming back.
Section three is the mojo toolkit. It begins with the simple truth that you can only change what you can control: you or it. It is everything in your environment.
These are the fourteen tools:
(1) Establish your own criteria for what matters to you;
(2) Find out where you are living [how much short-term and long-term satisfaction you get from your activities;
(3) Be the optimist in the room;
(4) Ask the question, My life would actually be better if I took away___?
(5) Achievement - build one brick at a time but move quickly;
(6) love your mission in the small moments too;
(7) Swim in the blue water [go where no one else is competing];
(8) Know when to stay and when to go;
(9) Be good at both hello and goodbye [don’t burn bridges],
(10) Adopt a metrics system- measure both the good and the bad,
(11) Reduce time on nonproductive topics;
(12) influence up the chain was well as down the chain,
(13) Name it, frame it, claim it [give a name to things to increase our understanding of the situation,
(14) Give your friends a lifetime pass.
Section four, connecting to the outside, advises that although this is a self-help book, many people may benefit by finding a mentor and seeking input from others. In the final chapter, Goldsmith reminds us that if we want our children to be happy, we must set the example and be happy first.
Rating: $$$$$ out of five. I love Goldsmith's tip to ask, "Is this task providing any short-term happiness or any long- term benefit" and to modify that which isn't working..
Copyright @ 2016
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