Rebooting Your Brain: Using Motivational Intelligence to Adjust Your Mindset, reviewed

Rebooting Your Brain: Using Motivational Intelligence to Adjust Your Mindset, Reach Your Goals, and Realize Unlimited Success
by David Naylor (ISBN: 9781394157853). Published by Wiley in hardcover and ebook, priced £21.99. See more about the book here.

Rebooting Your Brain: Using Motivational Intelligence to Adjust Your Mindset, reviewed

The author suffered a seriously close near death experience, nearly dying from Covid. As you can imagine such an experience is going to empower you to reboot what you do, how you do it, and give you the motivation to just get on with it and make it so. At the same time there are lots of re-do your lifestyle, follow me, drink my particular flavour of guru juice, and we have had to review some recently too. This book, thankfully is a better read than that.

The author is relatable, both from his own experiences, and then in looking around him to assess, uncover and share examples of science, research and other experiences of successful reboots. We enjoyed reading the book and it takes in a wide range of anecdotes and actionable ideas. Most are fresh and interesting, which is always good. Though the one about which wolf inside you do you chose to feed, is one that we have heard more than once around the block.

At the same time, if it is new to the reader, and helps them to recognise that we are our own agents of change, then that is a good thing. The sooner we realise we can control and affect our own outcomes, the sooner we can stop blaming others for not being where we would like to be. Naylor does include a good narrative to remind the reader that no one, from Messi to Edison was ever an over night success.

There is a good dissection of the use of the word lucky, and how it is invariably backed up by laying down plenty of hard work to be open to those ‘lucky breaks’ when they come your way. Or, as Chumbawumba once said, I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never going to keep me down…

It is a positive book, not patronising, with an accessible approach. Worth checking out.

More about the book.

Rebooting Your Brain delivers an expert compilation of life-changing findings from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology, as well as three decades of practical experience uncovering what makes real-world teams work.

In it, author David Naylor reveals critical insights into what holds people back from what they’re truly capable of, and how to remove those shackles.

Working with researchers at Harvard University, the author and his colleagues discovered that even more important than a person’s intelligence quotient (IQ) or emotional intelligence (EQ), is a person’s Motivational Intelligence (MQ). MQ defines how people act and react to everything they experience.

It predicts whether you will move forward with a growth mindset or fixed mindset, and if you will make excuses for your mistakes or take ownership of them with a view to changing outcomes in the future.

This book is all about harnessing the power of MQ to answer crucial organisational questions: How do we retain people? How do we engage with the public and our team members? And How can we get people to embrace change?

More about the author

DAVID NAYLOR is the Executive Vice President of Global Learning and Development for 2logical, a trusted advisor and strategic consultant to CEOs and executive leadership teams around the world. He has worked with leaders at American Express, AXA Financial, General Electric, Time Warner, and other globally recognized firms.

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