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Upshift: Turning Pressure into Performance and Crisis into Creativity
With over two decades’ experience both observing and interpreting how people channel disaster into opportunity in the most extreme circumstances and environments on Earth, Ben Ramalingam has a unique vantage point from which to identify the key principles that can enable anyone to use stress as an opportunity for change.
In Upshift , Ramalingam distils this expertise into an insightful, powerful, and engaging book that will show you how to reframe your set responses to stress and pressure and instead use them to harness the potential they hold not just for improving your work, your relationships, and your mindset, but for transforming them.
Upshift takes readers on an epic journey from early humans’ survival of the Ice Age to present times in our inescapable, pernicious and ever-shifting digital landscape. You will hear remarkable stories from a vast range of upshifters―all of whom carved new routes around perceived barriers using their powers to upshift. Underlying stories of how city commuters navigate train cancellations to how astronauts deal with life-threatening incidents, is one key message: We all have the power to innovate, whether or not we identify ourselves as creative or extraordinary.
Maybe you’re the challenger , who thrives by constructively disrupting the status quo like Greta Thunberg. Or perhaps you find yourself constantly tweaking, prodding, breaking, rebuilding, and improving like crafters such as the team that revolutionized space travel called the NASA Pirates. Do you love introducing people whose combined efforts will lead to greater achievements? You might be a connector , like master networker Ariana Huffington.
In a runaway world that is an engine for perpetual crisis, Upshift is not only an essential toolkit for survival, it is a roadmap for positive, and potentially life-changing transformation and influence. You don’t have to shut down – you can upshift.
In Upshift , Ramalingam distils this expertise into an insightful, powerful, and engaging book that will show you how to reframe your set responses to stress and pressure and instead use them to harness the potential they hold not just for improving your work, your relationships, and your mindset, but for transforming them.
Upshift takes readers on an epic journey from early humans’ survival of the Ice Age to present times in our inescapable, pernicious and ever-shifting digital landscape. You will hear remarkable stories from a vast range of upshifters―all of whom carved new routes around perceived barriers using their powers to upshift. Underlying stories of how city commuters navigate train cancellations to how astronauts deal with life-threatening incidents, is one key message: We all have the power to innovate, whether or not we identify ourselves as creative or extraordinary.
Maybe you’re the challenger , who thrives by constructively disrupting the status quo like Greta Thunberg. Or perhaps you find yourself constantly tweaking, prodding, breaking, rebuilding, and improving like crafters such as the team that revolutionized space travel called the NASA Pirates. Do you love introducing people whose combined efforts will lead to greater achievements? You might be a connector , like master networker Ariana Huffington.
In a runaway world that is an engine for perpetual crisis, Upshift is not only an essential toolkit for survival, it is a roadmap for positive, and potentially life-changing transformation and influence. You don’t have to shut down – you can upshift.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published February 7, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 19, 2026
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to change their mindset toward embracing adversity and better understand how they can improve it.
Read below my summary of the book:
The book explores those moments when we “click” — when we respond to a situation in a way that creates better outcomes instead of reacting automatically. The author call this "to upshift".
At the core are 3 key elements that enable an upshift:
Mentality – Reframing a threat as a challenge, which changes our physiological response and makes it easier to think clearly under pressure. We can rewire our brain to find opportunities in challenges rather than seeing danger in threats.
Originality – The brain’s imagination, salience, and executive systems working together, allowing us to approach problems from different angles. The more these 3 networks work together the more our brain learns to fire these connection faster, and the more we can think of a variety of approaches from different angles.
Purpose – A deeper drive that builds resilience and shapes not just decisions, but daily actions and mindset.
The book also introduces six archetypes of upshifters:
Challengers – Question the status quo.
Crafters – Patiently refine and improve ideas.
Combiners – Merge ideas from different domains.
Connectors – Build bridges between people and perspectives.
Corroborators – Test and strengthen ideas through evidence.
Conductors – Orchestrate people and systems toward results.
Although the stories in the book are grand, I do believe they serve a real purpose. They show that behind these big moments are people like you and me who were able to upshift. These results are not reserved for a special few — they come from understanding how those few have wired their thinking and responses.
Read below my summary of the book:
The book explores those moments when we “click” — when we respond to a situation in a way that creates better outcomes instead of reacting automatically. The author call this "to upshift".
At the core are 3 key elements that enable an upshift:
Mentality – Reframing a threat as a challenge, which changes our physiological response and makes it easier to think clearly under pressure. We can rewire our brain to find opportunities in challenges rather than seeing danger in threats.
Originality – The brain’s imagination, salience, and executive systems working together, allowing us to approach problems from different angles. The more these 3 networks work together the more our brain learns to fire these connection faster, and the more we can think of a variety of approaches from different angles.
Purpose – A deeper drive that builds resilience and shapes not just decisions, but daily actions and mindset.
The book also introduces six archetypes of upshifters:
Challengers – Question the status quo.
Crafters – Patiently refine and improve ideas.
Combiners – Merge ideas from different domains.
Connectors – Build bridges between people and perspectives.
Corroborators – Test and strengthen ideas through evidence.
Conductors – Orchestrate people and systems toward results.
Although the stories in the book are grand, I do believe they serve a real purpose. They show that behind these big moments are people like you and me who were able to upshift. These results are not reserved for a special few — they come from understanding how those few have wired their thinking and responses.
January 10, 2024
This is the worst self-help book I’ve ever read with overarching lavish examples filling out pages when all of the actual information about the upshifting method could have fit into one essay. The examples are all about extravagant world leaders or changemakers, who have nothing to do with us regular people, it’s impossible to relate to them or their stories.
March 13, 2023
This book helped change my mindset in stressful situations (is this a challenge or a threat?) and revealed a lot of the mindsets and circumstances behind enormous moments and figures in history. I’m glad I received it as a gift from my fiancé!
July 1, 2024
The premise was fascinating but I found the insights and learnings pretty light.
October 31, 2024
3.5 stars. I really liked the storytelling approach which made the book and its message much more understandable and relatable to readers
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews