Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything(48)
Ready?
I call this feeling Shine.
You know this feeling already: You feel Shine when you ace an exam. You feel Shine when you give a great presentation and people clap at the end. You feel Shine when you smell something delicious that you cooked for the first time.
I believe my celebration technique is a breakthrough in habit formation. I hope you can see why. By skillfully celebrating, you create a feeling of Shine, which in turn causes your brain to encode the new habit.
If I could teach you about Tiny Habits in person, I would start our training by focusing on celebrations. I would help you find celebrations that are natural and effective for you. We would practice them together and it would be a blast. I would train you in celebrations before teaching you about the Fogg Behavior Model, or the power of simplicity, or Anchors, or recipes for Tiny Habits. Celebration would be first—because it’s the most important skill for creating habits.
Since I can’t come to your home and personally teach you how you celebrate, here are a few exercises to help you find what works for you.
FIND YOUR NATURAL CELEBRATION
A natural and deeply felt celebration will give you superpowers for creating habits.
If you’re stumped on what might work for you, put yourself in the following scenarios and watch how you react. This will give you a clue about your natural ways of celebrating. Use that natural reaction to feel Shine and wire in your new habits.
(As you read these scenarios, don’t overthink or analyze. Just let yourself react.)
DREAM JOB SCENARIO
You decide to apply for your dream job with a company you love. You make it through the process all the way to the final interview. The hiring manager says, “We’ll send an e-mail with our decision.” The next morning the manager’s e-mail is waiting for you. You open it, and this is the first word you read: “Congratulations!”
What do you do at that moment?
OFFICE SCENARIO
Picture yourself sitting in your office. You have a piece of paper to recycle, and the recycling bin is in the far corner of the room. You decide to wad up the paper and throw it into the bin. You are not sure you’ll make it. You aim carefully and toss the paper. Up it goes into an arc. As it comes down, the wad of paper vanishes into the bin. Perfect shot.
What do you do at that moment?
CHAMPIONSHIP SCENARIO
Your favorite sports team is in the championship game. The score is tied and very little time remains. As the time on the clock runs out, your team scores, winning the championship.
What do you do at that moment?
Did you discover a way of celebrating that gave you the feeling of Shine? If not, it’s time to try out some other celebrations.
Here are some celebrations that you can try. They include ones you can do in the middle of a crowd or in the privacy of your own home.
Say, “Yes!” or “Yay!”
Do a fist pump
Smile big
Imagine your child clapping for you
Hum an upbeat song you like (maybe the theme from Rocky)
Do a little dance
Clap your hands
Nod your head
Give yourself a thumbs-up
Imagine the roar of a crowd
Think to yourself, Good job
Take a deep breath
Snap your fingers
Imagine seeing fireworks
Look up and make a V with your arms
Smirk and tell yourself, I got this
If you want to see a bigger list of celebrations, check out “One Hundred Ways to Celebrate and Feel Shine” at the end of the book.
Celebration in Different Contexts
I encourage you to cultivate a range of celebrations that you can do in public and private. One of my favorite private celebrations came from a Habiteer named Mike. A successful creative director at a marketing firm, Mike was trying to get back in shape and wanted to start with some stretching and short exercises in the morning. In creating his new yoga habit, he focused on a Starter Step. After he put water on for coffee in the morning, he would roll out his yoga mat in the living room. That’s all. Just put out the mat. To lock in this habit, Mike came up with a unique celebration. Pretending the yoga mat was a boxing ring, he’d pace back and forth singing “Eye of the Tiger” with his arms held high like Rocky. When he was singing at the top of his lungs one morning and holding his imaginary boxing gloves aloft, he saw the postman passing by the living room window. He’d seen Mike celebrating the pants off his Starter Step. Mike has a good sense of humor about himself, so he didn’t feel too embarrassed, but you can see how some celebrations might be done with the curtains drawn.
For habits you do at work, drawing a smiley face after you check your habit off your to-do list might be all you need to feel successful—or think, Yes, I nailed this! If you’re at the gym and you don’t want to make a scene, perhaps you could do a little drumroll on the handlebars of your stationary bike or hum the song “We Are the Champions” in your head.