Distance gives you perspective. Bestselling author of Turn the Ship Around! former US Navy Captain David Marquet and professor of psychology Michael Gillespie show you how to make better decisions by becoming your own coach.
Be yourself. Be fully present. Be in the moment. This is a message we hear constantly. While this may be beneficial some of the time, the biggest obstacle to making wiser decisions that actually drive lasting success is ourselves. Being fully immersed in our own limited point of view biases our decisions toward defending our previous actions and maintaining our self-image. We need to exit our me-here-and-now self and get an outside perspective that sees us and the situation we are in objectively. We need a coach.
This book shows us how to become our own coach by using a mental technique called psychological distancing. We do this in three ways: self-distancing, spatial distancing, and temporal distancing. First, we can be someone else, inhabiting another's perspective. This activates the neutral observer's outside point of view. Second, we can be somewhere else. We zoom out and see ourselves from afar, as just another person who is part of a larger context. Third, we can be sometime else, imagining that we are our future selves who are thinking back to what we wish we had done today. In each case, we can coach ourselves from this distanced perspective. The result is a powerful and immediate reframe of how we see ourselves, our situation, and what we should do.
Featuring compelling scientific research, business cases, and exercises, Distancing equips us with effective practical tools to reduce anxiety, see more clearly, and make better decisions for ourselves and for our organizations. L. David Marquet graduated at the top of his class from the U.S. Naval Academy, and commanded the nuclear-powered, fast-attack submarine USS Santa Fe from 1999 to 2001. Since retiring from the Navy, he has worked with businesses nationwide as a leadership consultant and gives presentations around the world. A highly sought-after speaker, his clients include Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, national sports teams, business schools, and government. He is the bestselling author of Turn the Ship Around! and Leadership is Language. He lives in Florida with his wife, Jane.
Dr. Michael A. Gillespie is an associate professor of psychology at the University of South Florida. He directs the Human Applied Cognition and Decision-making Lab on the Tampa campus. Prior to joining the faculty as USFSM, Dr. Gillespie was an assistant professor of assessment, research, and statistics in the School of Leadership and Policy Studies at Bowling Green State University (2008-2011), Research Director at Denison Consulting (2005-2008), and data analyst at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research (2003-2004).
