Credit where it is due
This book is a synthesis. The ideas below come from researchers and clinicians; the diagrams and the way they fit together are my own. Summaries are in my words. Read the originals.
A survey of 106 self-help books and 23 therapies, distilled from roughly 500 techniques into 12 broad strategies grouped in four successive categories. Its ABC Analysis helps locate the causes of a problem you can actually control. It draws on CBT, ACT, DBT, Schema Therapy and more.
Lands onBeliefThoughtEmotionAction
Most of its levers work on the internal half of the loop.
Makes the case that change works best upstream, because situations prompt the thoughts that follow. Looks at how the objects within reach, the peers and mentors around you, and even where you live shape what you do, and names four elements that successful situations share.
Lands onSituationConsequences
The external half of the loop: choosing and designing situations.
The earlier book whose limits led to Situated: grit matters, but on its own it is sometimes not enough. Context matters too.
Lands onAction
Activating event, Belief, Consequence: the root of the situation-to-belief-to-consequence chain this book builds on. The loop adds the arc that closes it.
Lands onSituationBeliefConsequences
The well-tested link between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors at the heart of the internal half.
Lands onThoughtEmotionAction
Describes the habit loop of cue, routine, and reward. It is a useful idea and a different loop. This book’s loop is about how situations and beliefs shape thoughts, feelings, and actions, and how consequences feed back into both.
Next up: placing each of the 12 Levers and each of the four elements of successful situations fromSituated onto a specific step of the loop. That map is the backbone of the decision tree.