Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything(2)
I tinkered with the behaviors I wanted to incorporate into my life. I did silly things that turned out to be wildly successful, like doing two push-ups after every time I pee. I did seemingly rational things that totally failed, like trying to eat an orange every day at lunch. Whenever something didn’t work, I went back to my models and analyzed what happened. I started seeing patterns. I followed hunches. I pivoted. I iterated endlessly.
Even though I was a behavior scientist, I had to learn how to create habits in my own life. It wasn’t obvious or natural for me; it was a deliberate process. But with practice I turned a weakness into a strength, and six months later, I had significantly changed my life. I lost twenty pounds and felt healthier and stronger. I was working more productively and more effectively than ever before. I started eating eggs and spinach for breakfast and cauliflower with mustard as an afternoon snack, and I weeded out foods that weren’t helping me. I started each day with an uplifting series of habits, and I designed (and redesigned) my life and my environment to get better sleep. As I figured this out, with twists and turns along the way, I realized that my ability to change was increasing and my momentum was building. As I accumulated dozens of new habits—mostly tiny ones—they combined to create a transformation. Sustaining all this did not feel hard. Pursuing change in this way felt natural and oddly fun.
The results delighted me, and I started teaching my methods to others in 2011. My research showed this approach worked for other people, too, and it changed their lives. To my surprise and excitement, what started as a whimsical self-exploration in the Behavior Design universe became a proven method called Tiny Habits—the quickest, easiest vehicle for personal transformation.
Before I go on, let me set the record straight: information alone does not reliably change behavior. This is a common mistake people make, even well-meaning professionals. The assumption is this: If we give people the right information, it will change their attitudes, which in turn will change their behaviors. I call this the “Information-Action Fallacy.” Many products and programs—and well-meaning professionals—set out to educate people as a way to change them. At professional conferences they say stuff like, “If people just knew the facts, they would change!”
As you look at your own experiences, you’ll see that information alone did not transform your life. And that’s certainly not your fault.
In my research on habit formation, dating back to 2009, I’ve found that there are only three things we can do that will create lasting change: Have an epiphany, change our environment, or change our habits in tiny ways. Creating a true epiphany for ourselves (or others) is difficult and probably impossible. We should rule out that option unless we have magical powers (I don’t). But here’s the good news: The other two options can lead to lasting change if we follow the right program, and Tiny Habits gives us a new way to tap the power of environment and baby steps.
Creating positive habits is the place to start, and creating tiny positive habits is the path to developing much bigger ones. Once you know how Tiny Habits works—and why it works—you can make big one-time changes. You can disrupt unwanted habits. You can work up to bucket-list behaviors like running a marathon.
I’ll help guide you through each of the different behavior-change scenarios that you might encounter.
The essence of Tiny Habits is this: Take a behavior you want, make it tiny, find where it fits naturally in your life, and nurture its growth. If you want to create long-term change, it’s best to start small. Here’s why.
TINY IS FAST
Time. There’s never enough of it, and we always want more of it. We eat drippy hamburgers in our cars and take conference calls while we’re at the beach with our kids because we feel so pressed for time. This pressure leads to a scarcity mindset—we believe that there will never be enough time, so we say no to changes because we feel like we don’t have the hours to cultivate new positive habits. Thirty minutes of exercise a day? Cooking a healthy dinner every night? Writing daily in a gratitude journal? Forget it. Who. Has. The. Time.
You could scold yourself down the path of change. Or you could make your life a lot easier.
You could start tiny.
With the Tiny Habits method, you focus on small actions that you can do in less than thirty seconds. You will quickly wire in new habits, and then they will grow naturally. Starting tiny means you can begin creating a big change without worrying about the time involved. With Tiny Habits, I advise people to start with three very small behaviors or even just one. The more stressed you are and the less time you have, the more appropriate this method is for you. No matter how much you want to cultivate a healthy habit, you won’t be able to do it reliably if you start big. When you go big, the new habit probably won’t stick. In many people’s lives, tiny isn’t just the best option, it might be the only option.
TINY CAN START NOW
Tiny allows you to get real with yourself and your life. Tiny allows you to start right now. It meets you where you are—whether your life is in a desperate spiral or you are stressed out but otherwise fortunate. We all have our own life circumstances to contend with, ways of thinking that aren’t ideal, and quirks of psychology that hold us back. We could feel bummed and ashamed about it, or we could use the Tiny Habits method to hack the system.
I won’t prescribe exact habits in this book. I’m sharing a method for wiring in any habit you want. You pick the habits. But right here, right now, I’m making an exception. I invite you to start practicing a new habit first thing each and every morning. It’s simple. And it takes about three seconds. I call it the Maui Habit.