Dr. B.J. Fogg joins me to share his tremendously helpful (and easy) method for how to take small actions that bring about huge shifts.

When we decide to pursue a goal that requires changing our behavior, one of the biggest problems is that we tend to fall off the wagon.

Whether it’s quitting smoking, losing weight, getting better with our finances or changing our mindset, every change requires new habits to support them. But when we try to make a massive change all at once– like setting the Ironman as your first fitness goal– it sets us up for failure. Dr. BJ Fogg, Behavior Scientist and director of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University, has created his Tiny Habits program to combat that problem.

Here are three key insights that you can immediately put to use to reach your goals:

1. Habit formation is a skill that gets better with practice. So the more you make take tiny actions and maintain them, the easier it gets to add in new ones.

2. It’s much easier to make small changes than big changes. For small shifts your motivation level doesn’t have to be super high; for big hard changes, your motivation has to be high and stay high.

3. Pick small behaviors you actually want in your life. Don’t pick things that feel like an obligation or that you “should” do.

Though it may seem counter-intuitive, setting goals for teeny-tiny changes (like flossing one tooth every day) gives you the sense of accomplishment and momentum that makes you want to keep going. As this feeling snowballs, you’ll look forward to adding more behaviors that ultimately result in accomplishing your dreamed-of change!

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