Author Chat Book Club

Join us as we chat with New York Times bestselling author Adam Alter about his new book Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most. 

Almost everyone feels stuck in some way. Whether you’re muddling through a midlife crisis, wrestling with writer’s block, trapped in a thankless job, or trying to remedy a fraying friendship, the resulting emotion is usually a mix of anxiety, uncertainty, fear, anger, and numbness. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Anatomy of a Breakthrough is the roadmap we all need to escape our inertia and flourish in the face of friction.

The solution to becoming unstuck rests on a process that Alter calls a friction audit—a systematic procedure that uncovers why a person or organization is stuck and then suggests a path to progress. The friction audit states that people and organizations get unstuck when they overcome three sources of friction: HEART (unhelpful emotions); HEAD (unhelpful patterns of thought); and HABIT (unhelpful behaviors).

Artfully weaving together scientific studies, anecdotes, and interviews, Alter teaches us that getting stuck is a feature rather than a glitch on the road to thriving, but with the right tweaks and corrections, we can reach even our loftiest targets.

Books are available to check out from the Reference Desk on the second floor. Join us here at the library or pre-register here to receive a link to join the discussion from home.

Brought to you in partnership with the Library Speakers Consortium and the Council Bluffs Public Library Foundation.