Use The Science of Behavioral Design To Bring Out The Best In Yourself!

Experts in Behavior Science have made some exciting discoveries and inroads in human behavior.

Now, there are new tools to use to design your behavior to continuously shape and reshape all that your presence offers to the world.

Would you like to learn how to change habitual behaviors for the better? Scientific discoveries by leading experts in human behavior have enabled people to achieve success in forming and stopping behaviors, even after prior failures.

This article is part one of two in a new mini-series. Read on to find out how you can successfully manage your own behavior and make changes for the better.

Willpower Doesn’t Work

Most of us have walked away from more than a few unsuccessful efforts to make change using our willpower. Then, we blame ourselves. But, failure to manage our behavioral habits through willpower is not our fault. Willpower is not an effective tool for lasting change.

This article describes a proven-effective approach and associated tools. It throws light on human behavior, making it easier to understand both your own behavior and that of others. With it, you’ll be equipped to drive and sustain desired personal change.

The B.J. Fogg Model: Your Proven-Effective Approach

The Behavior Model by B.J. Fogg – Source: YouTube by Optimize Nurse – LINK:?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqzh7_Zc3jM

Note: Clicking this link will take you away from this webpage.

Much of the behavior we do every day is routine and automatic. For example: Have you ever left home on a day off and, without thinking about it, gone in the direction of your workplace, even though that isn’t where you intended to go? That’s because you have a habit of taking your route to work when you leave home. It has become automatic. You do it without thinking about it. We all have lots of habits.

What Drives Behavior

Science has identified three factors that drive behavior:

• Motivation
• Ability
• Prompt

When these three factors converge at the same moment, behavior results. The Fogg model is your map to managing your own behavior. Using it, you can establish desired, new habits and stop doing existing, undesired habits much more easily and successfully than the traditional approach of relying on willpower. Following is an overview of the science behind the model.

Looking at the graphic, you see the following:

• Motivation?is measured on the left vertical axis from Low up to High.
• Ability?is measured on the bottom horizontal axis, from Low (Hard to Do) to High (Easy to Do).

Each of these two factors can range anywhere between the High and Low points.

Now, let’s look at the?Action Line, the curved, orange line. The Action Line shows how Motivation and Ability jointly determine behavior.

• When Motivation and Ability are strong enough, the Behavior will be charted to the right of the Action Line and you’ll do it when prompted.
• When there’s not enough Motivation and Ability to do a behavior, it lands to the left of the Action Line and you won’t do it when you’re prompted.

While both Motivation and Ability are both required, it’s their combined strength that determines whether a behavior lands to the left or the right of the Action Line.

If one dimension is Low and the other is High enough, the behavior can still land to the right of the Action Line. The amount you have of one affects the amount you need of the other. You can assess the overall strength of these two factors by making a judgment call or by assigning numeric values and taking an average. Your method of measuring them is up to you.

You Can Strengthen Your Motivation and Ability

Strengthening Motivation

The more motivation you have to do something, the more likely it is that you’ll do it.

Think of a behavioral habit you have desire (motivation) to adopt. Assess your desire from Low to High. How strong is it? Is your desire to do a behavior stronger than your reasons not to do it?

You can find ways to strengthen your desire, in three simple steps. Identify and write down the following:

1. What will you gain – as rewards and benefits – from doing the specific behavior?
2. What will you lose – as consequences – for not doing it?
3. How will doing the behavior enable you to accomplish something bigger and important to you?
4. Reflect on these to identify ways you can make the behavior more desirable.

Strengthening Ability

The harder a behavior is to do, the less likely you will do it. The key here is to make the behavior easy, even ridiculously easy to do. You may need to break it down into tiny actions so that you’ll be able to get yourself to do it.

Think about what you’ll need in order to do the behavior. Needs often include time, money, physical effort, mental effort and/or existing routines. Assess how hard or easy it is to do the behavior.

To find ways you can make it easier for you to do the behavior, identify and write down the following:

1. What makes the behavior hard to do?
2. List ways you can make the behavior easier to do.
3. Consider the difficulties and the solutions above. Ask yourself: Will I be able to get myself to do this behavior?
4. If not, re-think 1 and 2 and keep repeating this step until the behavior is doable.

Once you’ve identified a new behavior/habit you’d like to form and you’ve strengthened your Motivation and Ability to do it, use the model to ensure the behavior is over the Action Line. Then, you will be able to get yourself to do it. You’re ready to begin.

Choose An Anchor

Much of the behavior we do every day is routine and automatic. For example: Have you ever left home on a day off and, without thinking about it, gone in the direction of your workplace, even though that isn’t where you intended to go? That’s because you have a habit of taking your route to work when you leave home. It has become automatic. You do it without thinking about it. We all have lots of habits.

We all have routines, that consist of a string of little habits strung together. For example, I have a work-day morning routine that I employ when I wake up. There are seven little habits and I do them in the same order every day:

• Wake up at 5:30 a.m.
• Morning greetings with the dog
• Vacuum one room of the house
• Shower
• Coffee while doing Computer tasks
• Get ready for work
• Leave for work at 7:30 a.m.

To form a new habit, we need to fit it into an existing routine, where it makes the most sense to do. You can see an example of that in the morning routine above — the vacuuming! The vacuuming has been locked into my routine for several years.

The routine we add our new behavior into is called an Anchor Behavior. The anchor behavior is well established as a fixed part of every day. It’s guaranteed to happen. It works for adding a new behavior you want to become a habit.

Once you identify your anchor behavior, write down, in order, the steps of that habit or routine. Identify the optimum place to slide in your new behavior and write it in.

Write Your Recipe

Sample Recipe Template

Once you’ve identified the anchor for your new behavior, A tool called a?Recipe?comes into play to guide you in forming a new habit. Following are the ingredients:

• Anchor Behavior
• New Habit
• Celebration

The written recipe for the routine sample provided under "Choose An Anchor" looks like this:

After I: Enjoy morning greetings with the dog

I will: Vacuum the chosen floor

Then I'll: Do a little victory dance and say, "Yay, me!"

Apply Your Recipe

1. Choose Your Anchor Routine:?An Anchor is an existing routine or habit that is securely locked into your day; adding a new tiny behavior to an Anchor Behavior helps to set you up for success. The last step of that Anchor behavior can serve as a Prompt for a new tiny behavior. To work well, the new tiny behavior should be a logical addition to the Anchor routine. It should make sense to you to do the new behavior after completing the last action of the chosen Anchor behavior.
2. Insert Your New Behavior:?Reduce the behavior to make it tiny. It could be an easy activity that will be part of the new behavior. The key to success is to make it tiny, easy for you to do.
3. Celebrate Each Time You Do It! Have?an immediate, quick and fun celebration, such as saying “I’m awesome!” or “Yay Me!"

Your Routines Provide A Selection of Anchor Behaviors

Think about all of the routines or habits you do each day. Following are some examples, to help you to think about it.

1. I have another routine or habit, of going out for a run. I put on running clothes and running shoes, put on sunscreen, go; return, stretch, drink a large glass of water, and have a snack. Stretching was the new habit I added to this routine!
2. Yet another routine or habit I have is preparing and eating dinner, followed by doing the dishes, cleaning the kitchen and programming the coffee maker, to be ready for the next morning. The new habit I added to this routine is setting up the coffee maker!

Remember: There's a special value in having routines or habits that are so well-locked into each day: These can serve you well as Anchor Behaviors for new behaviors you want to do, because the Anchors are a certainty in your day. You can use any action in an Anchor routine as a Prompt for a new behavior. For this to work, it needs to make sense to you for the new behavior to be done right after you complete the last action in the Anchor.

Example:

Refer to the morning routine I have set up. I had originally tried to set up a room for vacuuming, including removing clutter and things I keep on the floor such as waste baskets or end tables, but this didn't work. It was too hard to do, because I didn't want to spend the time required to do the room set up, the vacuuming, and putting everything back in place, as part of my morning routine.

I had to be flexible and a little creative. To make it easier, I put the set-up of the room into an evening routine. It had its own recipe card and steps. It works beautifully.

Your Next Steps

It's important to gain experience in managing behavioral habits by mastering the addition of several new behaviors into your day-to-day life. This builds your skills in managing behavior change. It builds your self-confidence in your capability to succeed in managing your behavior. I strengthens the credibility and trust you have in your reliability to follow through on commitments to yourself. It demonstrates to others that you do what you say you'll do.

Mastering this skill means introducing and sustaining a desired new habit. You'll know it's locked in when you do it automatically, without first thinking about it, as an automatic part of your routine.

Now, it's your turn! Is there a behavior -- something you already know how to do, but that you haven't been able to get yourself to do as a routine or habit? Now's your chance to make it happen.

Choose a behavior you want to become habitual.

It could be something you recently learned about in a training program. It could be something you read about in a book or article. Maybe you heard it in a podcast. It could be something you saw done by someone else. It could also be something you have had in mind for a while. The only requirements are:

1. You want to do it!
2. It's either tiny enough -- or it can be broken up into small enough parts -- to be easy for you do.

Consider keeping your recipes in a file or box where they will be in your sight, for instance on the kitchen counter. You might prefer another place, or perhaps you'd like to add a monthly check-sheet to track your success!

Support Ideas

• Consider keeping your recipes in a file or box where they will be in your sight, for instance on the kitchen counter. You might prefer another place, or perhaps you'd like to add a monthly check-sheet to track your success!
• Some of us find working with a partner helps us to make changes. If you prefer being part of a team with one or more other people who have a strong desire to make behavior changes, explore the idea of joining forces with a friend or a group. Other people can help hold you accountable as well as join in your celebrations to make the most of your successes.
• Let others know what you're doing. Sometimes sharing what you learn can reinforce and strengthen both your knowledge and your motivation.
• Track your progress using a chart or graph. It's very satisfying to see your new behaviors being accomplished time after time, in a visual tool.
• Work on one behavior at a time, and hold off on adding another until you've made it automatic (a behavior you do without even thinking about it - a habit, as a fixed part of your routine. It's better to take your time and lock in the new behavior than to take on too much change at once, which can cause set-backs and failure.
• The celebration needs to be immediate upon doing the new behavior, every time, until it's securely locked in. The joy it causes builds your motivation to continue time after time.
• Be aware of and manage your self-talk. Thinking poorly of yourself, giving yourself criticism in a non-constructive way and judging yourself negatively contaminates your state of mind. People do much better at making changes and improvements when they are confident and happy.
• Research, watch videos, listen to podcasts and read high quality material, to learn about behavior change, learning theories and social theories. You'll not only become very knowledgeable, but you'll also find your motivation continues to grow and you'll experience even more satisfaction in your success.

What's Next?

Our next article focuses on stopping a behavioral habit.

Please share your opinions, suggestions and comments.

Recommended Reading & Sources

Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg, Copyright 2020 by B.J. Fogg, Published by Mariner Books

The 15 Minute Rule, by Caroline Buchanan, Published in Great Britain by Robinson, 2012

Atomic Habits, by James Clear, Copyright 2018 by James Clear, Published by Penguin Random House