Quotes About Behavior

75 percent of the television programs shown during hours when American children are most likely to be watching, the hero either kills people or beats them up. This violence typically constitutes the "climax" of the show. Viewers, having been taught that bad guys deserve to be punished, take pleasure in watching this violence.

Somos peligrosos cuando no somos conscientes de nuestra responsabilidad hacia cómo nos comportamos, pensamos y sentimos.

I believe that human beings are always acting in the service of needs and values. This is true whether the action does or does not meet the need, or whether it's one we end up celebrating or regretting.

Depression is the reward we get for being "good".

Conventional compliments often take the form of judgments, however positive, and are sometimes intended to manipulate the behaviour of others. NVC encourages the expression of appreciation solely for celebration.

If the way we evaluate ourselves leads us to feel shame, and we consequently change our behavior, we are allowing our growing and learning to be guided by self-hatred.

When we use language which denies choice (for example, words such as should, have to, ought, must, can't, supposed to, etc.), our behaviors arise out of a vague sense of guilt, duty, or obligation.

We are dangerous when we are not conscious of our responsibility for how we behave, think, and feel.

Don't mix up that which is habitual with that which is natural.

Accepting is most valuable when we are powerless to make a difference. Yet our ineffectuality is precisely the condition we are most loath to accept. It triggers our finest moments of counterproductive behavior.

In her zeal to be a professional negotiator, she behaved like an amateur human being.

We can change not only our behavior but how we define ourselves. When we put ourselves in a box marked "That's not me," we ensure that we'll never get out of it.

The only natural law I've witnessed in three decades of observing successful people's efforts to become more successful is this: People will do something—including changing their behavior—only if it can be demonstrated that doing so is in their own best interests as defined by their own values.

One of the greatest mistakes of successful people is the assumption, "I am successful. I behave this way. Therefore, I must be successful because I behave this way!" The challenge is to make them see that sometimes they are successful in spite of this behavior.

It's the little moments that trigger some of our most outsized and unproductive responses:

The most reliable predictor of what you will be doing five minutes from now is what you are doing now.

where there is no system for honoring the avoidance of a bad decision or the cessation of bad behavior. Our performance reviews are solely based on what we've done, what numbers we've delivered, what increases we have posted against last year's results. Even the seemingly minor personal goals are couched in terms of actions we've initiated, not behavior we have stopped. We get credit for being punctual, not for stopping our lateness.

Feedback—both the act of giving it and taking it—is our first step in becoming smarter, more mindful about the connection between our environment and our behavior. Feedback teaches us to see our environment as a triggering mechanism. In some cases, the feedback itself is the trigger.

The problem begins when this good enough attitude spills beyond our marketplace choices and into the things we say and do.

If I change I am "inauthentic." Many of us have a misguided belief that how we behave today not only defines us but represents our fixed and constant selves, the authentic us forever. If we change, we are somehow not being true to who we really are. This belief triggers stubbornness. We refuse to adapt our behavior to new situations because "it isn't me.

if you believe your colleague Bill is a jerk, you will filter Bill's actions through that belief. No matter what Bill does, you'll see it through a prism that confirms he's a jerk. Even the times when he's not a jerk, you'll interpret it as the exception to the rule that Bill's a jerk.

The reality for leaders of the past and leaders in the future is that in the past very bright people would put up with disrespectful behavior, but in the future they will leave!

Apology is where behavioral change begins.

Not all of us require a violent life-threatening knock on the head to change our behavior. It only seems that way.