The Tiny Habits That Change Everything

Today's blog post is based on a podcast from The Art of Manliness.

It looks like we're continuing with the subject of habits. This actually wasn't the post I was planning, but it's timely.

We’re a month into the new year now. How are you doing on your resolutions? Have you already fallen off the wagon? Maybe the goal you set for yourself was just too big to successfully tackle. You need to think smaller. Tiny, even. 

That’s the argument my guest makes. His name is Dr. BJ Fogg, and he’s the founder and director of Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab, as well as the author of the new book Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything. Today on the show, BJ walks us through the three components that drive our behavior, including the simple yet overlooked relationship between motivation and ability. He then explains how to build habits that feel easier and require lower levels of motivation by picking behaviors that are good matches for you and breaking them down into smaller parts. We also talk about the need to tie your habits to turnkey prompts, the importance of celebrating your successes, no matter how small, and the way tiny habits can lead to bigger changes. We end our conversation with why you should think about the process of getting rid of your bad habits as untangling them rather than breaking them.

I found the podcast pretty interesting. I'm going to have to find the book and read it, it sounds pretty good.

Here are the highlights from the show:

• What is the Fogg Behavior Model?
• The relationship between motivation and ability in our behaviors
• Why relying on motivation isn’t the best bet for behavior change
• The 3 characteristics of Golden Behaviors
• How to make behavior change easier for yourself
• Making behavior prompts more effective
• BJ’s pee/push-up prompt, and why it works
• Creating tiny habit “recipes”
• Celebrating when you’re successful with your recipes
• Using these tips with kids
• Why we should “untangle” habits rather than “break” them

They talk a lot about motivation and ability, which reminds of this quote by Lou Holtz:

In the book, he talks about how the simpler the task is...that is you have a high ability to complete it, the less motivation it will take to accomplish that task. Some examples are flossing one tooth when you brush your teeth...you'll probably do more but even with little motivation you'll be able to floss one tooth. Or commit to doing 2 pushups, etc.

Here's what his model looks like:

I'll have to read the book to see whether it agrees with yesterday's discussion about habits and routines. And be aware that there will be more discussion of this next week.

Interesting days

Today - World Nutella Day, Weatherman’s Day, Western Monarch Day and Chocolate Fondue Day

Tomorrow - Frozen Yogurt Day and Lame Duck Day

Next Wednesday - Darwin Day, Lost Penny Day and Plum Pudding Day

Week long celebrations:

February 9 - 15: Kraut and Frankfurter Week

March 5 - Cheese Doodle Day, Dissociative Identity Disorder Awareness Day, Name Tag Day, World Book Day and Absinthe Day