Book Review
By Henry Holtzman

“Breaking the Pattern: The 5 Principles You Need to Remodel Your Life.”

Charles Stuart Platkin

Red Mill Press, New York, N.Y.

2002; 271 pages; Only $24.95 at Amazon.com

It should be no surprise that many books these days are little more than thinly disguised public relations efforts. They often promote the authors or their business interests. Despite the fact that “Breaking the Pattern” promotes bits of both, something surprising happens during the first few pages. The book is interesting, well written and, above all, makes a great deal of sense.

            Author Platkin is an attorney and entrepreneur. He has had numerous guest appearances on television and has written many articles for newspapers and magazines about goal-planning methods and techniques. As a result, he became very interested in why so many people set goals, but didn’t reach them.

During his research he discovered that there appeared to be an almost self-replicating pattern among those who failed to reach their goals. They never spelled out and internalized them. Nearly all blamed other people or outside events for their failure. In Platkin’s view, not accepting personal responsibility for failure establishes the foundation for a pattern of behavior that virtually guarantees failure in the future. He states:

            “We may not be fully responsible for every event in our lives; accidents do happen, both lucky and unlucky ones. However, we are solely responsible for how we respond to these events, and how we allow these events to shape us. Many of our patterns–which we are in control of–bring us opportunity, success and failure.

            “In breaking patterns we must recognize them as our own creations and transform them through concentrated goal setting, discipline, perseverance and achievement.”

            Platkin structures his book on five key principles that he believes, if followed, will break a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. These include identifying all your failure patterns, not being afraid to risk failure, accepting the responsibility for the choices you make in life, setting goals you can visualize and pursue, and understanding that achieving your goals depends on developing “action-oriented strategies and tactics.”

            Largely because Platkin has made his reputation in the area of setting goals, the chapter on goals is clearly the best. He summarizes each element in goal setting as an acronym–S.M.A.R.T.–explaining its meaning as:

“Specific and clearly defined

“Motivating and stimulating

“Achievable (especially in terms of time frame) and honest

“Rewarding

“Tactical (have tactics, strategy and discipline)”

            Although the author’s approach is excellent and the advice is, for the most part, sensible and interestingly presented, the book has several flaws. The most annoying one is the lack of an index. The book makes extensive use of “how-to” information and readers may want to cross reference one area with another. Unfortunately, it takes about five times longer to accomplish this without an index.

            There are often examples cited referring to weight loss. This reflects the book’s promotional side. As suggested earlier, “Breaking the Pattern” seems to be part of the public relations effort for the author’s own interest in a weight-loss program.

            Another minor flaw is the occasional cheerleading that takes place in the chapters focusing on behavior modification.

In his introduction Platkin said he would try to eliminate the “yes, you can” comments, but many are still there. While it’s true they are someone else’s quotes, that’s like cheating.

            The real service that Platkin has done for us is identifying counter-productive behaviors that result in failure, and offering modern-day approaches to correct them. That achievement more than makes up for the book’s flaws. “Breaking the Pattern” certainly passes the test of offering banquet-sized ideas for the cost of a moderately priced dinner.