Episode 265: Tiny Habits, Massive Results: How Small Changes Lead to Big Wins
A few days ago I was on a call with a new client who was facing a predicament almost everyone faces when trying to make changes to their nutrition and fitness habits.
She delayed scheduling her second call with me because she was embarrassed that even though we laid out a plan for her, she hadn’t followed through with it.
I explained how unbelievably normal this was. So many think if a coach just tells them what to do they’ll be able to go out and immediately crush it. But the truth is no one ever comes to me just needing a plan to follow. Plans are a dime a dozen.
We generally already know what we need to do, it’s getting ourselves to do it that’s the trick. And that’s the part that takes time and patience. It takes working through mental blocks and common obstacles. It takes screwing up and having a coach reframe those mistakes into lessons.
But since we don’t have that kind of time here, I’m going to tell you the single easiest way to get yourself to do the damn thing already…
Tiny habits.
The concept of tiny habits was developed and expanded upon by PhD, BJ Fogg, creator of the Fogg Behavior Model which states if a behavior is really easy, you don’t need much motivation to do it.
He figured out that simplicity is often the difference between a habit being a good idea and something that actually becomes ingrained into your life and identity.
According to him this is the equation you need if you want to transform your life without internal resistance and inconsistency getting in the way:
habit - complication + celebration + trigger = behavior change
What does this look like in action ?
You start with the habit you want (not the one you think you should do, the one you want to do).
Make it as simple and small as you can possibly imagine (we’ll go over some ideas in a minute).
Celebrate the habit as soon as you’ve done it to attach a positive emotion to it, making your brain more likely to seek it out again.
And then decide on the trigger for the habit. This is usually easiest done using the piggyback method: picking a current daily habit that you’ll attach the new habit to. Like meditating after drinking your morning cup of coffee. Or working out after brushing your teeth.
So what exactly are tiny habits? And just how tiny should they be? Here are some examples:
- Floss your teeth —> floss one tooth
- Workout every day —> do 3 squats every morning
- Wake up an hour earlier —> wake up 2 minutes earlier
- Eat 5 servings of veggies per day —> eat one carrot at every meal
- Read before bed —> read one paragraph before bed
- Meditate —> meditate for 3 breaths
You might already be experiencing some resistance thinking, “But doing 3 squats a day isn’t going to do anything."
And you’re right. It won’t.
This is where we have to change the goal of these habits in our mind. The purpose of tiny habits is not to transform your life. Their purpose is to create automaticity.
As these itty bitty behaviors become automatic actions that you don’t even think about anymore (like brushing your teeth) they’ll grow effortlessly and naturally into bigger habits that will in fact transform your life.
The trick is not to force this process. You allow yourself to do more as you find yourself wanting to do more.
One day, after those 3 squats you’ll realize you actually want to do a few more reps. Or when you’re reading that one paragraph you’ll find you want to keep going. But ‘more’ is never a requirement, it is only a bonus.
Think about it like growing a tree. You plant a seed in the right place with the right conditions and it grows without you forcing it to do so.
On the other hand, if you try to put unnatural pressure on it to grow faster - putting a magnifying glass up to it to intensify the sun’s rays or dumping water on it all day every day - with the belief that doing more will create faster results, you’ll end up killing the tree.
Don’t kill the tree.
Will this process take longer than jumping headfirst into a program that has you overhauling your entire diet and exercise routine? Well, yes and no. If you look at the first 30-90 days or so, you’ll get much further with the latter.
But pan back and you’ll find a year from now, 2 years from now, 5 years from now you’ll be lightyears ahead of the version of you still starting back at square one again and again because they can’t maintain such intensity for long periods of time.
If you don’t believe me, take it from the creator himself:
“I kept going with my Tiny Habits method, creating many new habits in my life. Over time, I dropped 10% of my body weight, and my blood pressure went down. All the while I felt more confident about everything I was doing. Why? I knew I could change my behavior quickly and easily.”
Are you going to try a tiny habit? Share what it is to your social media for some accountability and don’t forget to tag @follow.your.gut.nutrition on Instagram or @followyourgutnutrition on Tiktok!
Want help putting this into action and making consistency a top priority?? I’ll be hosting a tiny habits challenge inside The Club in the coming months. More details to follow, but click here to find out all the goodness you get inside The Club and make sure you’re subscribed to get notified when we have an official challenge start date!
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