We all have habits we want to change. Whether it’s eating healthier, exercising more, or taking more time to relax, making a change can be challenging. One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to change a habit is starting too big. They try to overhaul their entire lifestyle in one go, and when they inevitably slip up, they feel like a failure and give up altogether.

If we think back to the Fogg Behavior Model again, a behavior occurs when three things come together at the same time: Motivation, Ability, and a Prompt. And there is a relationship between motivation and ability. When motivation is high and you are prompted, you are able to do really hard things, although usually not for long. We can imagine a mother whose child is trapped under a heavy object mustering incredible strength to move that object and save their child.

That is usually the approach people take when trying to get healthy. They embark on a grand plan because they are really motivated, and for a time, they can do something that is really hard for them. Unfortunately it doesn’t take long for the motivation to wane, and what was hard now seems impossible. That’s when most people give up, believing change is too hard.

The Fogg Behavior Model also shows us that even when motivation is low, if something is easy enough to do, we will be able to do it if we are prompted to do so. Take an example of forming a habit of regularly doing 20 push-ups. For most people, the motivation for doing twenty push-ups every day would be pretty low, so getting yourself to do this habitually would be pretty hard. But what if you did just two push-ups standing up against the wall. If reminded to do so, you could get yourself to do this reliably every day because it is easy.

According to Wendy Wood and David Neal, habits are formed when people do behaviors in the same context, while receiving some sort of reward for doing so. Would it be easier to do 20 regular push-ups or 2 wall push-ups with enough regularity to make it a habit? Of course it would be easier to do 2 wall push-ups. In his book Tiny Habits, Dr. Fogg says, “When you are designing a new habit, you are really designing for consistency.” This means that with any change you are trying to make, you do not have to rely on motivation to start making a change. Consistency will come from keeping your behavior small.

Consistency also helps a habit grow. If you were to do those same two-push ups daily, over time your body will get stronger, allowing you to naturally increase the number of push-ups you do, still without having to rely on motivation. By getting stronger and doing more push-ups over time, you feel successful, which naturally increases your motivation to do more. This formula can be applied to any habit you are trying to make. Big changes can be made by getting 1% better every day.

Putting this work:

Make a behavior easier to do in one of two ways.

Take the behavior you chose during our initial workshop. Ask yourself:

Can I make the habit easier to do? Like turning 20 regular push-ups into 2 wall push-ups or

Can I do a Starter Step? If you want to start walking 10,000 steps per day, the starter step would be to put on your walking shoes.