The Achievement Habit By Bernard Roth

In the book, The Achievement Habit, by Bernard Roth, chapter two reasons are bullshit, he gives multiple examples on ethos, logos, and pathos. Logos which is the logical appeal, ethos are the ethical appeal, and pathos which is the emotional appeal to the reader. In chapter two, reasons are bullshit the author talks about the reasons people give are pointless. He also states that people should stop giving excuses. That any kind of excuse, besides being sick or a death in the family, should not be accepted. This book by Bernard Roth is intended for the audience of college students. I believe that chapter two is a very important chapter for college students. Most college students use excuses for a lot of things, even things that they don’t need

Habit as defined in Webster’s as a: a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance b : an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary (Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online, 2011). Behavior is the manner of conducting oneself or anything that an organism does involving action and response to stimulation. In everyday life habits are formed and intertwined with ones behavior. People are often associated with the way they behave

In chapter two of the book, The Achievement Habit, author Bernard Roth discusses the idea that reasons are hogwash. Roth feels that reasons are unnecessary and can be considered poisonous to people that use them. The second chapter describes how Roth developed this idea through his own experiences and those of others. A biography of Roth is claims that his main goal as a professor and author is to assist people to have a more successful lifestyle (“Bernard Roth”). Roth reveals stories to guide the audience in turning around their own lives. Roth’s development of ethos, pathos and logos is utilized to support his argument that reasons are bull.

In the first two chapters of the book The Achievement Habit, Bernard Roth talks about how “nothing is what you think it is” (Roth 14) and “reasons are bullshit” (Roth 37). Bernard Roth has been a professor for many years and in his book, he directs his message to college students and young adults. He introduces a perspective for life and gives other tips along the way in the first chapter. In the next chapter of the book he explains how reasons are prettied up excuses and how one must be confident in their actions. Throughout both chapters Roth tries to persuade young adults to open their mind and look at things with a different viewpoint. Roth uses the rhetorical approach of pathos and ethos very well, but his logical reasoning

There are similarities and differences when analyzing the components of biological and humanistic approaches to personality. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs express important aspects of biological factors that approaches personality.

In “Habit” Alain De Botton, the author mentions different ways one could travel without leaving the comfort of their home. The individual will come across the “traveler’s mindset” and see everything in a new light; what was the ordinary will become wonderous and exciting. One’s ordinary home will no longer be dull but quite entertaining. Developing the traveler’s mindset, one will start reversing the process of habituation; seeing the world through the eyes of the new. “Possible Worlds: Why do Children Pretend” Alison Gopnik, has many similarities to De Botton’s writing in subtle ways. Gopnik goes in detail on counterfactuals and the necessity of imagination in order to make possible worlds. Both authors explain the importance in realizing

The author of the book The Achievement Habit, Dr. Bernard Roth, presents a well structured argument about the ability to achieve, and how the world is perceived differently by everyone, which means it is a conscious decision to react negatively to conflict, or on the contrary, look at the situation with a different mindset and not see it as conflict at all. While being the author of this very popular book, Dr. Roth has been a Stanford Professor for over fifty years; at Stanford, he teaches a class on achieving which pertains to a lot of his stories in the book. Roth portrays his book as a series of events that occurred to him personally and establishes pathos, logos, and ethos in the first two chapters of his book as he describes how the events relate to his theories.

While watching “The Puzzle of Motivation” by Dan Pink, I was very intrigued. Throughout the entire talk, there were several interesting points that were made. It really interested me when Pink talked about the group that was rewarded. Pink stated that if the contestants were in the top 25% of the fastest times, they would be rewarded five dollars. With this incentive, most would hope to do well, if not better than the person that would not be rewarded. Pink then goes on to point out the results. How much faster did the group that was offered a reward actually do? On average, it took them three and a half minutes longer. This really stood out to me because when offered a reward for a task, normally a person would be more motivated and thus do better. What amazed me even more was that this isn’t just a one time thing. This is has been replicated over and over for nearly 40 years. As Pink says around 04:33, “These contingent motivators -- if you do this, then you get that -- work in some circumstances. But for a lot of tasks, they actually either don 't work or, often, they do harm.” These rewards that are being offered are being used to attempt to sharpen thinking and accelerate creativity, but instead it’s proving to do the opposite. It’s proving to dull thinking and block creativity.

"That’s a goooooood reason"(Roth 42). This is a quote from the second chapter of Bernard Roth's book, The Achievement Habit. Mr. Roth, a professor at Stanford, effectively uses Aristotle's Rhetorical Triangle containing ethos, pathos, and logos in chapter 2 of his book to show that reasons are bullshit.

When it comes to the topic of addiction, most of us will readily agree that it is a miserable trait to possess. An addiction is a physical and psychological state of being that if not treated correctly could result into harmful wrongdoing. In The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, he recounts a story in which a fatigued housewife named Angie Bachmann lost all of her family’s assets, amounting to a million dollars due to a gambling addiction. Every habit has three components: a cue or a trigger of an automatic behavior to start, a routine the behavior itself, and a reward which is how our brain learns to remember this pattern for the future. According to Duhigg, “you cannot extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it” (63). Duhigg

Motivation is Garbage or not The video by Mel Robbins “Motivation is Garbage” was about a method she discovered during a low time in her life after her and her husband lost their business. Mel talks about the 5 second rule that interrupts thoughts from wandering off from the original goal. For example, she talked about how difficult it was to get up in the morning when the alarm went off her mind would drift to all the worries she had with her house and finding a job. Furthermore to stop this from happening she would wake up in the morning and immediately count backwards before her thoughts strayed to her worries.

In the self-improvement book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents an integrated and principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional issues and problems. Covey uses real life examples as well as his own experience to reveal a step-by-step way for living with integrity, honesty, and self-respect. In the book he explains principles that give someone the comfort to adapt to change and the wisdom to take control and full advantage of the opportunities that the business world and personal lives create. This book seems very useful and I found a few habits that I plan to adopt and work at including in my everyday life. They are basic things in everyday life that can make things easier, more

Book Review of "Goal" 1. What is the problem? Alex Rogo was a plant manager at the Barrington Plant of Uniware, a division of UniCo. One day Bill Peach, division vice president visited his plant and found that there were lots of problems with schedule arrangement, quality, cost & inventory control in his plant. These problems had already made the organization lose money. At last Bill gave Alex three months to improve, otherwise, the plant would be closed. Three months?! That was all Alex Rogo was able to think about. Alex had to start to consider what was the goal of the manufacturing organization. What on earth was the GOAL of the manufacturing organization? Was it better customer service? Larger market share? Lower cost? High quality?

I know for certainty that this is a habit I desperately need to acquire because mostly everything that I do is based on urgency. I always feel like I 'm working with unreasonable deadlines. I know that I 'll be more effective and productive once I 've been able to prioritize my tasks based on importance rather than urgency.

Bernard Roth is a knowledgeable and widely respected academic who wrote The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life. It is a self-help book written to motivate people to become the designer of their own lives. Ethos, pathos, and logos were all utilized as a part of Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle by Bernard Roth in his book; specifically, in chapter one when he tells how nothing is as people consider it is.