MM#271--Tiny or Atomic Habits = Still Flourishing

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. Did you know that our habits play a significant role in shaping our lives? Studies actually show that over 50, 50% of our daily actions are driven by our habits. Is that not fascinating? Now you may wonder. Well, how can something seemingly trivial have such a profound impact on my life? After all, 50% is over half of my life. Well, it's all about the power of repetition, and here's the basic science of the thing. When we perform an action repeatedly, our brains begin to automate that process and eventually we will turn that into a habit. Bad habit can be good or bad, and we've all established good and bad habits repeatedly in our lives. In fact, there's probably a reasonable chance. Right now you are creating good habits and bad habits, because they're always getting created. Right now, if you're living, you are creating habits. They're running on background in our lives and in the end, most of the science believes that this automation frees up our mental resources for other tasks. In essence, habits enable us to function efficiently throughout our day. And here's the kicker Not all habits serve us well, and some might even hold us back from reaching our full potential, and, sadly, if that's the case, then we're not flourishing, and this podcast doesn't want that. Our goal here is for everybody to be flourishing. We need everyone to be journeying toward building and creating a flourishing life. And now here's the good news you have, and we have, the power to change these habits. In fact, way back in Mojo Minute number three yes, indeed, mojo Minute number three we introduced you to one of the more remarkable books out there, in James Clear's Atomic Habits. And to understand and get a hold of your habit creation and that habit systemology, you can certainly go grab that free content there at Mojo Minute number three. Or if you want to take a deeper dive into it, you can go and see our Academy review of atomic habits by James Clear. In the Academy we break down James's understanding about how to build new habits and how to essentially install those new habits, and then you can be off and running and making progress on building those new habits. He actually suggests five easy yet powerful strategies for changing habits that can help you on your journey. So again, if you want to take that deeper content, be sure to sign up at the Mojo Academy teammojoacademycom. Details are up in the right hand corner. Click on the button to become a new member, you also get access to the rest of the library over 27 books in there. Now here's the cool thing that you discover after posting your 270th Mojo Minute and over 340 total podcast episode. The cool thing is, in reading these books you start to find the best nuggets of wisdom. And then you start to find the commonalities and the overlaps of these nuggets of wisdom from one author to the next author. And once you start to discover that, over book after book after book, it really becomes a validation that all these authors and these folks are circling around the truth or putting their finger directly on the truth. And today we have another example. Bj Fogg has written a book titled Tiny Habits the small changes that change everything, whereas BJ tells us the essence of the tiny habits is this Take a behavior you want, make it tiny, find where it fits naturally in your life and nurture its growth. If you want to create long term change, it's best to start small. And when we look back at James Clear and his book Atomic Habits, bj Fogg writes a book about tiny habits. So we have tiny habits and we have atomic habits. Now, both books are worth checking out tiny or atomic habits, both of them serve you well, but they're both circling around and over the truth on behavior change and habit formation. Now these guys could help us start a Habits 101 course or thread, and I know you guys like the 101 episodes, so we're going to try and keep those going. I hear you out there. But back to our task at hand. Who is this, bj Fogg? Well, he's the dude that founded the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University way back in 1998. Now, another great point that BJ brings up in his book is, quote we are not the problem. Our approach to change is the problem. It's the design flaw, not a personal flaw. In fact, let's go to the book to read this quote in its entirety. It's quite powerful. When our results fall short of our expectations, the inner critic finds an opening and steps on stage. Many of us believe that if we fail to be more productive, lose weight or exercise regularly, then something must be wrong with us. If only we were better people, we wouldn't have failed. If only we had followed the program to the letter or kept those promises to ourselves, we would have succeeded. We just need to get our act together and pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and do better, right? Nope, sorry, not right. We are not the problem. Our approach to change is it's a design flaw, it's not a personal flaw. Now, that's a solid nugget of wisdom for us to remember that our habits are not who we are at our core. Our habits can direct our actions, which can affect who we are. They can validate our character or invalidate our character. They can certainly give us a direction on who we're becoming. If we are bearing fruit, as the good book says, and what kind of fruit are we bearing? Good fruit or bad fruit? You shall know them by their fruit. But we have to keep in mind that these habits are indeed changeable. Our society has been drum-beating into us that if we have bad habits, and bad habits of thinking or faulty habits, we will be able to change our character. That we are okay. That's just the way you're made. Your habits are not your fault. No, our habits are not who we are at our core. It's a design flaw of our approach, not a personal flaw, as BJ tells us, and it's not a design flaw from our creator If you are thinking to go down that route. It's a design flaw of how our first ancestors fell. So just that we are clear on that. In the beginning it was not so A little PS on that point. It's a design flaw in how we approach our habits. It's a design flaw in how we are conducting ourselves on autopilot. Our beautiful design in the human body is that we can put things on autopilot very quickly and very effectively. So it's easy to change the programming. The computer is not broke, so to speak. The computer language in the computer just needs updated to make it very simple and for our 21st century mind. So if we take a step back and we change our automations, then we have an easy day. So what can we do next is, or what can we do about? This is our next logical question. Well, we can do a lot, and here's another gem that BJ tells us in his book Tiny Habits. Going back to the book, building habits and creating positive change can be easy if you have the right approach, a system based on how human psychology really works, a process that makes change easier and tools that don't rely on guesswork or faulty principles. Popular thinking about habit formation and change feeds into our impulse to set unrealistic expectations. We know habits matter. We just need more good habits and fewer bad ones. But here we are still struggling to change, still thinking that it's our fault. All my research and hands-on experience tell me that this is exactly the wrong mindset. In order to design successful habits and change your behaviors, you should do three things. Number one stop judging yourself. Number two take your aspirations and break them down into tiny behaviors. And number three embrace mistakes as discoveries and use them to move forward. Now this may not feel intuitive. I know it doesn't come naturally to everyone. Self-criticism is its own kind of habit For some people. Blaming yourself is just where your brain goes. It's like a sled in the snow, slipping into a well-worn path down the hill. Now, if you follow the tiny habits process, you'll start taking a different route. Snow will quickly start covering those self-doubting grooves and the new path will soon be the default path. This happens quickly because with tiny habits, you can change best by feeling good, but not by feeling bad. The process doesn't require you to rely on willpower or set up accountability measures or promise yourself rewards. There is no magic number of days you have to do something. Those who purchase aren't based on the way habits really work and the result. They aren't reliable methods for change. They often make us feel worse rather than better. Ah, how great is that In fact. How refreshing is that People change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad. So perhaps we can say there should be no more white-knuckling our habits and bear down just to install those new habits. And here's the cool thing you know the guy who helped us kick off our self-assessment into habits, that guy, james Clear, in Atomic Habit. That guy, james Clear, learned from this guy. Yes, james Clear learned from BJ Fogg Kinda cool way. So in today's Mojo Minute, let us consider some vital questions. What if you could harness the power of habit to achieve your goals and live a more fulfilling life, a flourishing life in fact? Would that motivate you? And how much you could accomplish if over half of your daily actions were intentionally designed to bring you closer to your aspirations. Is that not exciting? So today, why not take a moment to reflect on your habits, the good ones and the bad ones? Which ones are serving you well, which ones might be holding you back? Remember, every step you take towards changing a habit is a step towards a better you. It's not a design flaw in how you were made. It's a design flaw in how you are conducting yourself on autopilot, so we can take a step back and change our automations for the better, and that can be an easy day. Tiny habits or atomic habits, both of them serve us well and who knows, once you make those changes, you might you might just surprise yourself with what you can achieve. And you can indeed achieve a flourishing life.