Know Your Elephant and Come Prepared: A Review of Switch: How to Change when Change is Hard

In the book Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard, authors Chip and Dan Heath talk about habits, changing them, and why it’s so dang difficult.

The problem, they write, comes from the dual nature of two forms of power we each have inside of us: the elephant and the rider. The elephant represents the emotional side that provides you the motivation, passion, and energy to accomplish your goals. The rider is the logical side of us that steers the elephant in the right direction. How many times have you found yourself motivated and working hard toward your dreams – only to sputter out in exhaustion days later after expending an enormous amount of energy in a million different directions?

Likewise, who here among us has sat down and crafted a brilliantly structured seven-step plan, complete with hand-made binders and a color scheme, only for that same plan to sit around and gather dust while Netflix is asking us if we’re still watching? (The answer is yes. I’m always still watching. You don’t have to ask).

The thing about change and living your best life is that you need both the rider and the elephant to get where you’re going. The rider gives you structure, focus, and a clear vision of the way ahead. Without the rider, the elephant is running amok in every direction and probably crushing everything in its path. But the elephant gives you the motivation, drive, and passion. Without the elephant, your rider is just ambling slowly towards their destination, and we all know riding an elephant is way faster (and way cooler).

I constantly struggle with my rider and elephant. I can never seem to get them in the same room together at the same time. Sometimes my life seems like it’s full of nothing BUT elephants. I wake up early on a Saturday morning chock full of pep and ambition and manage to work a little bit on everything in the whole world, but with no clue where I’m going or what it’ll even look like when I get there. I’m just an out-of-control elephant stomping around the house at seven in the morning with a cranky husband. On other days, my rider can lay out every step I need to accomplish for every goal I could ever dream up, but the motivation just isn’t there and before I know it, I’m two bowls deep in a box of cereal. Also, it’s not MY fault they don’t make big enough bowls these days. That’s someone else’s problem.

I don’t know the solution to my rider and elephant problem yet. Maybe they both need a new watch. I do know that when you’re having trouble whipping your rider and elephant into shape, it’s okay to let someone else take the reins every once in a while.

May is National Mental Health Month, so spend some time thinking about your elephant, its rider, and where you think they can take you. And if you happen to see my elephant on your path along the way, please tell him I’m looking for him. There’s still a lot more I want to accomplish this year.