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The Trigger Matrix: Identify and Define

Marshall Goldsmith | Methods of Behavioral Change

The interaction between triggers that are encouraging and discouraging with triggers that are productive and counterproductive expresses a timeless tension between what we want and what we need.

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“In order to fully understand the hidden dynamics of triggers, we need to focus on at least two dimensions, encouraging versus discouraging and productive versus counterproductive. They perfectly convey the tension between what we want and what we need. Everyone wants short term gratification while simultaneously needing long-term benefit. We never get a break from choosing one over the other. I believe this is the defining conflict of adult behavioral change. Luckily, their meanings lie in our hands, we get to define what makes a trigger. Encouraging: A bowl of ice cream might trigger hunger in you while it makes a lactose intolerant friend start gagging. Likewise, we get to define what makes a trigger productive. Everyone wants financial security, but when we get our yearly bonus, some people deposit the money and others might just gamble it away. Same trigger and goal, different response. The following matrix perfectly illustrates the conflict between what we want and what we need. There are four quadrants, click on the quadrant you’d…”