Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg : Book Summary

Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything

by BJ Fogg

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Tweetable summary

You can start making major changes by taking minor actions. The notion that all change is hard is a myth. In reality, change can be easy if you know the simple steps of behavior design.

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Crucial quotes

“If there’s one concept from my book I hope you embrace, it’s this: People change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad.” —BJ Fogg, from Tiny Habits

“…bad habits are not fundamentally different from good habits when it comes to basic components. Behavior is behavior; it’s always a result of motivation, ability, and a prompt coming together at the same moment.” —BJ Fogg, from Tiny Habits

“Once you remove any hint of judgment, your behavior becomes a science experiment. A sense of exploration and discovery is a prerequisite to success, not just an added bonus.” —BJ Fogg, from Tiny Habits

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THE BIG IDEAS

1. TINY IS MIGHTY
2. THE FOGG BEHAVIOR MODEL (B = MAP)
3. PLACE YOUR PROMPT ABOVE THE ACTION LINE
4. THE ANATOMY OF TINY HABITS
5. THE 7 STEPS OF BEHAVIOR DESIGN
6. ANCHOR PROMPTS
7. EMOTIONS CREATE HABITS
8. CELEBRATE AND FEEL THE “SHINE”

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1. TINY IS MIGHTY

It’s likely that you’ve got at least one thing in your life that you’d like to change—most people do. Take a moment to think of that thing you want to change right now…

Would you like to change your diet, and begin eating healthier?

Would you like to change the way you look, by losing weight?

Would you like to change your way of life, by exercising more?

Maybe you want to reduce your stress, or get better sleep. Maybe you’d like to make more money. Maybe you want to become a better parent or partner.

What about your productivity? Are you as effective and efficient as you could be? Or is that an area you’d like to improve as well?

Almost everyone wants to make some kind of change.

But there’s a painful gap between what many people WANT and what many people actually DO.

Most people don’t eat the way they want, look the way they want or feel the way they want. Despite what they want, many people continue to be over-stressed and under-rested. Their finances are not where they want them to be, their relationships are not where they want them to be. They’re not as productive or creative as they want to be.

Why is there such a disconnect between what people want and what people do?

Should people be blaming themselves for not doing the things they know they need to do, in order to see the results they want to see? No.

Should you be shaming yourself if you don’t exercise as often as you want? Should you shame yourself if you don’t get enough work done today? No, and No.

BJ Fogg, the author of Tiny Habits tells us that it’s not your fault if you’re not doing everything you want to do. And it isn’t as hard as you think to create positive changes in your life either.

It’s not you that’s the problem. It’s your approach to change that’s the problem. “It’s a design flaw—not a personal flaw.”

When it comes to change, “tiny is mighty.“

“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.”

2. THE FOGG BEHAVIOR MODEL (B = MAP)

“Behavior happens when Motivation & Ability & Prompt converge at the same moment.”

Most people know that if you want to change your life, you’re going to need to change your behaviors.

But what most people don’t know is that there are only three simple variables that drive those behaviors.

ENTER: The Fogg Behavior Model.

The Fogg Behavior Model is the framework you’ll be using to understand and unlock the mystery of how habits take hold. It’ll help you install helpful habits and un-install unhelpful ones.

As Fogg puts it in the book, his Behavior Model “represents the three universal elements of behavior and their relationship to one another. It’s based on principles that show us how these elements work together to drive our every action—from flossing one tooth to running a marathon. Once you understand the Behavior Model, you can analyze why a behavior happened, which means you can stop blaming your behavior on the wrong things (like character and self-discipline, for starters). And you can use my model to design for a change in behavior in yourself and in other people.”

If you want to understand why you do what you do, or don’t do what you know you should do, it’s important to understand the following formula:

B = MAP

BEHAVIOR is the result of our MOTIVATION + ABILITY + PROMPT.

That’s the basis of the Fogg Behavior Model.

B = MAP. A simple formula that can lead to incredible results.

Here’s how its works:

A behavior happens when the three elements of MAP—Motivation, Ability, and Prompt—come together at the same time.

• MOTIVATION (M): Your desire to execute a behavior.
• ABILITY (A): Your capacity to execute a behavior.
• PROMPT (P): Your cue (or trigger) to execute a behavior.

Your Motivation can be either High or Low depending upon your level of desire to create change.

Your Ability can be either High or Low depending upon whether something you want to do is Easy to Do (High) or Hard to Do (Low).

Your Prompt is what triggers you to do (or not do) your desired behavior.

Let’s take two examples with the exact same Behavior goal and run them through this model.

Let’s say you’d like to create the behavior of writing in your journal every morning:

EXAMPLE #1

• BEHAVIOR (B): Write in journal immediately upon rising every morning.
• MOTIVATION (M): High—you really want to make this a habit.
• ABILITY (A): High—taking a few minutes to sit down and write in your journal is Easy to Do, therefore your Ability is High.
• PROMPT (P): Your Motivation is High and your Ability is High, so now all you need is a simple Prompt that triggers you to take action. This might be as simple as keeping a pen and a notebook on your bedside table so that it’d easy to grab and write in each morning.

Now, on the flip side, let’s take the same desired Behavior (of journaling each morning), and tweak the variables a bit:

EXAMPLE #2

• BEHAVIOR (B): Write in journal immediately upon rising every morning.
• MOTIVATION (M): Your Motivation level has decreased to Low—you no longer want to write in your journal every morning.
• ABILITY (A): Your Ability level remains High—since it’s still easy enough to actually write in your journal.
• PROMPT (P): Your Prompt has now been removed altogether—your notebook is now hidden in a drawer instead of placed at your bedside table to see first thing every morning.

Now, let’s compare the aforementioned scenarios, shall we?

Example #1 was setup in such a way that would effectively help you install your desired Behavior.

But Example #2 is a different story…

In the second example, you don’t feel like writing in your journal anymore—so your Motivation is gone. Your Ability level remains the same, since it’s still pretty easy for you to actually write in your journal. But now your notebook is hidden in a drawer, which means your Prompt—which reminds you to execute the Behavior—is gone…

Now that we’ve decreased your Motivation and removed your Prompt, how likely are you to do the Behavior of journaling every morning? Not very.

Two things to remember here:

1: “A behavior happens when the three elements of MAP—Motivation, Ability, and Prompt—come together at the same moment. Motivation is your desire to do the behavior. Ability is your capacity to do the behavior. And prompt is your cue to do the behavior.”

2: “You can disrupt a behavior you don’t want by removing the prompt. This isn’t always easy, but removing the prompt is your best first move to stop a behavior from happening.”

B = MAP. It’s a simple formula that applies to ALL human behavior—and it can become a catalyst for change if you use it. And that’s great news, because you can run any and all behaviors through this model. You can use it to create new habits, and you can use it to break habits you want to get rid of.

Actionable insight:

Try running one of your own Behaviors through the Fogg Behavior Model: B = MAP

• BEHAVIOR (B):
• MOTIVATION (M):
• ABILITY (A):
• PROMPT (P):

3. PLACE YOUR PROMPT ABOVE THE ACTION LINE

“When a behavior is prompted above the Action Line, it happens.” —BJ Fogg, Tiny Habits

In the last Big Idea, you learned about how B = MAP: Behavior happens when Motivation + Ability + Prompt come together at the same time.

In the book, BJ provides us with a simple graph to drive this idea home.

Here’s what it looks like:

Let’s take a quick moment to break this graph down:

First, along the vertical axis, we’ve got Motivation (M)—which can be High or Low.

Next, along the horizontal axis, we’ve got Ability (A)—which can be Hard to do or Easy to do… 

And finally, we have our Prompt (P), which lands either above or below a curved plotline on the graph, which is called the “Action Line.”

The position of your Prompt in relation to the Action Line is crucial because it determines whether you’ll do a Behavior (B) or not. 

– If your Motivation is High and your Ability is High (meaning it’s Easy to Do), your Prompt lands ABOVE the Action Line. This is as good as it gets, which means your chances of doing your desired Behavior are high. (Success!)   

– If Motivation is Low and Ability is Low (making it Hard to Do), then your Prompt lands BELOW the Action Line. This means your chances of doing your desired Behavior are slim to none.

As BJ puts it: “When a behavior is prompted above the Action Line, it happens. Suppose you have high motivation but no ability (you weigh 120 pounds, but you want to bench-press 500 pounds). You’re going to fall below the Action Line and feel frustrated when you are prompted. On the other hand, if you are capable of the behavior but have zero motivation, a prompt won’t get you to do the behavior; it will only be an annoyance. What causes the behavior to be above or below the line is a combination of motivation pushing up and ability moving you to the right. Here’s a key insight: Behaviors that ultimately become habits will reliably fall above the Action Line.”

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