The older we get, the more set in our ways we become, and the harder it feels to change anything about our behavior.
In our 40s, 50s and 60s, it feels like the ship of creating new habits has sailed, and that it’s too late to put in place behaviors that propel us to our wellness goals.
We’re constantly told that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. #false. But the truth is, time doesn’t dictate whether or not a habit sticks, emotion does. With the right steps, it can be easy and even automatic to wire in new habits at any age.
What triggers a change in our behavior? Why do we fall into the trap of biting off more than we can chew when it comes to changing our habits? What mistakes do we make when putting new habits in place?
In today’s episode, I’m joined by Stanford behavior scientist and author of Tiny Habits, BJ Fogg. We discuss how the Tiny Habits method can bring us closer to our goals, and how we can make massive changes to our lives with small actions.
3 Things We Learned From This Episode
The factors that trigger behavior change
Behavior happens when 3 things come together at the same moment. We have to be motivated to do the behavior, have the ability to do it, and there has to be a prompt to follow through.
How good habits are created
When we do a behavior and our brain associates a positive emotion with it, it wires in and becomes more repeatable, which makes it more likely to become a habit. Emotion is how we signal to our brains that we want to repeat a behavior.
Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail
There are moments where the motivation to do something is high (like the beginning of a new year). What we don’t anticipate is the inevitable drop in motivation. At the moment of planning and deciding, we feel super motivated, but we ultimately set ourselves up for actions that are unrealistic to maintain in the long term.
Guest Bio
BJ Fogg is a behavioral scientist, founder and director of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford and the author of Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything.
In addition to his research, Fogg teaches industry innovators how human behavior really works. He created the Tiny Habits Academy to help people around the world, and he lives in Northern California and Maui.
For more information, visit https://www.bjfogg.com/ and https://www.tinyhabits.com/.
To sign up for the free Tiny Habits 5-Day Program visit https://www.tinyhabits.com/join, to buy the book visit Tiny Habits. Listen to the preface of the book for free on Audible.
