Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything(5)

TINY IS TRANSFORMATIVE


With the Tiny Habits method, you celebrate successes no matter how small they are. This is how we take advantage of our neurochemistry and quickly turn deliberate actions into automatic habits. Feeling successful helps us wire in new habits, and it motivates us to do more. I see these results week after week in my Tiny Habits data. But there’s more: With Tiny Habits, you also learn how to feel good in your life. The ability to pat yourself on the back instead of beat yourself up grows solid, life-changing roots.

Linda planted her first Tiny Habit seed in the middle of what I would call a hurricane-strength life storm. About ten years ago, before she became a Tiny Habits coach, things fell apart tragically. In the course of only a few years, her son died of a drug overdose, her daughter was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and the family business was circling the drain. In the middle of this already overwhelming time in her life, Linda found out that her husband had been living with undiagnosed early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. As she began to take the reins of their business, she discovered another consequence of his illness: a decline in judgment. Bad business decisions coupled with a recession meant that they would be headed to bankruptcy court within months. They lost all their savings, their house, and the horse ranch that had been Linda’s dream. This was a series of catastrophes that few of us will ever face. And there wasn’t time for despair or shock. Linda had kids to raise and a business to save from bankruptcy. She was grief stricken with no time to grieve, and she quickly fell into a depression.

How to start digging out of such a hole? When Linda first started Tiny Habits, she told me that every morning she would find herself on the edge of her bed praying for strength. She wanted to feel better. She wanted to get out of bed. She wanted to be there for her kids. But she had trouble even putting her feet on the ground in the morning. When Tiny Habits came into her life, she could focus on only one thing: the morning challenge. She wanted to start the day off in hope, not despair. After experimenting with several habits, she finally found one—the Maui Habit—that she says “literally saved my life.” It turned out that this tiny tweak, this pivotal behavior, was a fulcrum. Every morning, she woke up, put her feet on the floor, and said seven words out loud: “It’s going to be a great day.”

Things soon started to feel different. Very different.

For Linda, tiny was the only option. She needed to start small to grow big, and she needed to feel good about something. This new habit led to others that helped her feel successful. They helped her to be more productive and get healthy and stay strong for her kids. But most important, her new habits were tiny seeds of positivity that she planted in the cracks of her life. And they grew and grew. Even as new cracks kept appearing, Linda could look around her and be reminded that she had the ability to feel successful. She was successful. The evidence was blooming around her. She just had to keep watering.

Six years later, Linda has coached thousands of people in the Tiny Habits method. She loves her work. She’ll be the first to say that her life is still a struggle. But she no longer hesitates when she wakes up in the morning. She knows that tiny is transformative, so she sits up and puts her feet on the floor and says those seven little words.

“It’s going to be a great day.”





The Anatomy of Tiny Habits


1. ANCHOR MOMENT

An existing routine (like brushing your teeth) or an event that happens (like a phone ringing). The Anchor Moment reminds you to do the new Tiny Behavior.



2. NEW TINY BEHAVIOR

A simple version of the new habit you want, such as flossing one tooth or doing two push-ups. You do the Tiny Behavior immediately after the Anchor Moment.



3. INSTANT CELEBRATION

Something you do to create positive emotions, such as saying, “I did a good job!” You celebrate immediately after doing the new Tiny Behavior.



Anchor

Behavior

Celebration





TINY STARTS WITH A KEY


I didn’t wake up one day and decide to take the idea of baby steps to an extreme. First I discovered how human behavior really works.

It took me ten years of researching human behavior to find the key that unlocked the mystery, but in 2007 I did. The answer is surprisingly simple. At first, it was hard to believe no one had discovered this before, but I now see that some mysteries are like riddles. When you don’t know the answers, riddles seem hard to solve. But once you see the answer, the solution seems obvious.

With the answer I discovered, you can decode behavior.

All behavior.

Putting your toothbrush in a new place. Unloading the dishwasher every morning before breakfast. Watering the garden in the evening. Doing two squats while your morning coffee brews. Taking the trash out on Wednesday. Smoking. Not smoking. Checking your watch for the time. Checking your phone for the time. Instagramming at three a.m. Kissing your husband when you get home from work. Making the bed. Not making the bed. Eating chocolate. Not eating chocolate. Reading this book. Not reading this book. That habit you have tried for years to cultivate. That habit you have tried for years to stop.

Some of these behaviors are positive habits. Some are not.

What I discovered is that all of these behaviors emerge from the same components. Their relationship drives our every action and reaction—they are the basic ingredients of human behavior.