From Tiny New Habits, Sustainable Changes Grow.

by Dr Tim Williams 

We know from the COM-B model (Michie et al) and BJ Fogg’s very own B=MAP, that there’s more to behaviour change than Motivation….a whole lot more.

Susan Michie and her team, identified that as well as motivation, people also need the Capability to do the behaviour, as well as the Opportunity to do it – we spend a bit of time on this in our Intermediate Certificate in Health and Wellbeing Coaching programme. 

In his book ‘Tiny Habits’, BJ Fogg, suggests that:

Behaviour = Motivation x Ability x Prompt.

He also emphasises that motivation is not constant – my reading of this, is that there is no such thing as a ‘motivated person’, motivation goes up and down.  We know this to be true for ourselves – sometimes we feel motivated and other times,  less so!

We therefore need to adapt what we are doing accordingly.  When we are super-motivated, we can do things that are quite hard (ie our ability to do them is low).  In the same way, when are less motivated, we need to do things that are easy.  And by easy, we mean ‘Tiny’.  The other thing that helps, is for these new behaviours to be prompted (or triggered), by something else we do.  In fact, BJ Fogg has a template for this too.  It goes along the lines of “After I…., I will….”

By far his most famous example is, “After I brush my teeth, I will floss one tooth.” or “After I pee, I will do two push-ups”.

This is called ‘habit stacking’.  Another component is to add a mini celebration after each time you complete the new habit – something as simple as saying to yourself,  “Good Job”, or “You’re Awesome”, is all that is required. (To be honest I don't do this...but you might klike to!)

It maybe useful to share this formula with some of your clients, by way of information,  so they can start to think, which tiny (to start with) new behaviours, they’d like to stack on another habit that they already have established. If you want sustainable change - start Tiny!

As BJ Fogg says “Plant a tiny seed in the right spot and it will grow without coaxing”