Underlying the philosophy of Tiny Habits is the idea is that starting small makes it easier to complete the task. Completing the task makes you feel better, which creates a reinforcement loop that, over time, "wires in" new habits.
Three variables drive human behavior:
- **Motivation** - our desire to do something
- Motivation is largely only good for one-off feats - it's not enough for sustained change
- **Ability** - our capacity to do something
- This means that the easier a habit is, the higher the chances we'll adopt it
- **Prompts** - stimuli that trigger us to do something
- The best prompts are ones that already exist in our lives
- One potential example: If you regularly boil water for tea every morning, you can use that as a prompt to remember to take your vitamins
- The best prompts consider:
- Location: Is the prompt close to where you need to perform the habit?
- Frequency: Does the frequency of the prompt match your desired frequency of the habit?
- Theme: Does the prompt remind you in some way of your desired habit? Example: drink a glass of water every time you water a plant.
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