Big Idea Daily | Tiny Habits

We now know that B = MAP.

 

Now it’s time for the ABC’s of Tiny Habits. We’ll talk about Anchors and Celebrations more in a moment. For now, let’s talk about the TINY in Tiny Habits.

 

Stephen Guise wrote a whole book on the theme called Mini Habits. Recall that he tells us to make our habits “stupid small” and “too small to fail.” Well, as you might have guessed, BJ Fogg was the source of a lot of his practical tips.

 

BJ tells us that one of THE best ways to put the Prompt above the Action Line is to make the behavior REALLY (REALLY!) (REALLY!!!) easy to do.

 

It’s funny because I’m writing this days after we moved to our new property in the country outside of Austin. We’re blessed to have 8.5 acres of wooded tranquility. Emerson and I weed-whacked a running trail around the property last weekend and I’m typing this with chickens pecking around my new outside desk. (Ahhh… My heart rate variability is going through the roof. Laughing as I type this but I hit an average of 100 on Oura the other night which is crazy.)

 

Now, the place is wonderfully, minimally landscaped right around the house but a few of the areas in our backyard and walkways have a bunch of weeds.

 

So… I decided to approach those weeds with a Behavior MAP. Although I’m not a weed-pulling guy by nature, I am highly Motivated as I love this place and want to make it even more Zen beautiful. But… What really did the trick was making the Behavior EASY. As in: Crazy Easy.

 

How? I went TINY. I told myself that if I saw some weeds while walking in or out of the house, I’d pull out one weed. Just one tiny little weed. THAT would be a win worthy of a celebration.

 

B = Motivation (create a Zen sanctuary = High) + Ability (pull one weed = Easy!) + Prompt (see a weed = Obvious and above the Action Line!)

 

And, you know what happened? I rocked it. And, as you can guess, it’s hard to stop after pulling after just one weed. Although I didn’t REQUIRE myself to pull out more than one weed (which is a key part of the whole Tiny Habits approach), once I got in action, I tended to stay in action.

 

And, well, let’s just say that our landscaping is looking epically weed free and I’m about to enter the weed-pulling Hall of Fame. (Hah.) Seriously.

 

All part of a longer chat BJ goes OFF on in the book but for now, what’s a habit you’d like to build? How can you make it TINY? Like JUMBO CRAZY TINY?!

 

Make it REALLY EASY to win, anchor that behavior to something you already do and celebrate those tiny wins then let me know what happens. :)

 

P.S. There are seven steps in the Behavior Design process.

 

Step 1: Clarify the Aspiration. (Aka: What do you want to achieve?)

Step 2: Explore Behavior Options. (Aka: What can you do to achieve that aspiration?)

Step 3: Match with Specific Behaviors. (Aka: What SPECIFICALLY can you do?)

Step 4: Start Tiny. (Aka: SUPER tiny.)

Step 5: Find a Good Prompt. (Aka: Connect it to something you already do; see next Idea!)

Step 6: Celebrate Successes. (Aka: Hack your brain’s reward centers immediately and intensely!)

Step 7: Troubleshoot, Iterate, & Expand. (+1 +1 +1 for the win!)