Behavior Modification

Secrets for Changing Our Behavior for Good—No Willpower Necessary!
Article

Possibilities open up when we don’t have to rely on motivation or willpower to claw our way through creating a change in our lives. We can hack our own daily, automatic, habitual mind to create a new routine.

The method
To form a lifelong habit, our focus should be on training our brain to succeed at small adjustments and then celebrating those victories, says BJ Fogg, PhD, the creator of the Tiny Habits Method. To do this, we will need to design whatever behavior change we’re keen on making so that we can easily slip it into our existing routine—like brushing our teeth before bed.

Identify the goal and the easy-win behaviors
We first have to identify a very specific desired goal. Next, choose the easy-win behaviors or, as Fogg calls them, the “tiny habits” that will get us to our particular outcome. These are very small things that we can learn to do automatically and that set us up for success—like having a goal of flossing just one tooth after brushing our teeth or doing just one push-up before getting dressed.

Pick a prompt
Next, we find something we already do as a habit and piggyback the new habit onto it. We can all find things we do every single day—make coffee, brush our teeth, go to the washroom, get dressed etc., and then graft a new, small habit onto this already-existing daily habit. Start modestly and add something to a regular activity slowly, until it, too, becomes automatic.

Intentional mind vs. habitual mind
Our habits are deeply ingrained in all of us. In fact, studies show that about 40 percent of the time, we’re not thinking about what we’­re doing—we’re using our habitual mind, says psychology professor Wendy Wood. Therefore, if we’re cognizant of this and try to engage our intentional mind, that is, to act mindfully, we can be more in control of our behavior.

Disrupt old cues and create new ones
We must first derail existing bad habits and create a window of opportunity to act on new intentions, explains Wood. When the cues for existing habits are removed, it’s easier to form a new behavior. For example, if our goal is healthy eating, “try moving unhealthy foods to a top shelf, out of reach, or to the back of the freezer instead of in front.” This way, the cues to eat less healthy food are hidden and harder to access, making it easier to choose healthful food instead.

Celebrate the small victories
In behavioral science, giving rewards for actions along the pathway toward the ultimate desired behavior produces more of that behavior. A familiar term is “positive reinforcement.” So, while it may seem ridiculous to pat ourselves on the back or do a fist pump for flossing just one tooth, this praising (especially out loud) has been shown to pave the way to another action further along the path to our goals.