Tiny Habits - Chapter 1

Question 1

What are the 3 universal elements of every behavior?

Answer 1

The 3 universal elements of every behavior are motivation, ability and prompt (MAP).

Question 2

What is the Fogg Behavior Model?

Answer 2

B = MAP

Question 3

What is Motivation?

Answer 3

Motivation is your desire to do the behavior.

Question 4

What is Ability?

Answer 4

Ability is your capacity to do the behavior.

Question 5

What is Prompt?

Answer 5

Prompt is your cue to do the behavior.

Question 6

When does a Behavior happen?

Answer 6

A behavior happens when the three elements of any behavior, Motivation, Ability, and Prompt, converge at the same time.

Question 7

What are the 2 components of behavior design?

Answer 7

The 2 components of behavior design are models and methods.

Question 8

What are Models?

Answer 8

Models help us think clearly about something, in this case, how to think clearly about behavior change.

The Fogg Behavior Model is B = MAP.

Question 9

What are Methods?

Answer 9

Methods are how to design for something to happen, in this case, how to design for a behavior to happen.

Tiny Habits is one example of a Method.

Question 10

What 2 things do you have to do to change a behavior?

Answer 10

The 2 things we have to do to change a behavior are:

1. Make the old habit that you want to stop harder to do (ability and prompt) or decrease your motivation to do it.
2. Make the new habit that you want to start easier to do (ability and prompt) or increase your motivation to do it.

Question 11

What is a key feature of behaviors that ultimately become habits?

Answer 11

Behaviors that ultimately become habits reliably fall above the Action Line, meaning both Motivation and Ability are high.

Question 12

As a Habits Coach, what do you do to help your client create the behavior they want?

Answer 12

Adjust the 3 components of behavior (Motivation, Ability, and Prompt) until you find the combination that works best to get the behavior the client wants.

Question 13

When we analyze behavior, what are the 4 Core Principles that we can rely on to adjust the dials of motivation, ability, and prompt?

Answer 13

1. The more motivated you are to do a behavior, the more likely you are to do it.
2. The harder a behavior is to do, the less likely you are to do it.
3. Motivation and ability work together like teammates.
4. No behavior happens without a prompt.

Question 14

Motivation and Ability have what kind of relationship?

Answer 14

Motivation and ability have a Compensatory Relationship.

You need to have both motivation and ability for a behavior to land above the Action Line, but motivation and ability work together like teammates. If one is weak, the other needs to be strong to get you to do the behavior. In other words, the amount you have of one affects the amount you need of the other.

Understanding this relationship of motivation and ability opens the door to new ways of analyzing and designing behaviors. If you have only a little bit of one, then you need more of the other—i.e., they compensate for each other.

Question 15

What insight do we know about a behavior that can transform your life?

Answer 15

We know that the easier a behavior is to do, the more likely the behavior will become habit.

Question 16

What do we know about ability and repetition?

Answer 16

We know that the more you do a behavior the easier it gets.

Question 17

When do you need high levels of motivation?

Answer 17

When a behavior is hard to do, because high levels of motivation are required to do difficult behaviors.

Question 18

What are 3 important qualities of Motivation to remember in behavior change?

Answer 18

1. Motivation is great for helping you complete one-time actions.
2. Motivation is unreliable and inconsistent. It fluctuates depending on many factors.
3. Motivation is necessary to change any behavior.

Question 19

No behavior happens without a what?

Answer 19

No behavior happens without a prompt.

If you don’t have a prompt, your levels of motivation and ability don’t matter. Either you are prompted to act or you’re not. No prompt, no behavior. Simple yet powerful.

Question 20

What’s an important distinction between Motivation and Ability, and a Prompt?

Answer 20

Motivation and Ability are continuous. You always have some level of both for any given behavior. Both are always there in the background. But a Prompt is like lightning. It happens and then it’s gone.

(Example: your Motivation and Ability to answer the phone when it rings are always there to some degree, but the Prompt to answer it, the ringing, happens and then it’s gone. The phone stops ringing. No more Prompt!)

Question 21

What is the best first move to stop a behavior from happening?

Answer 21

You can disrupt a behavior you don’t want by removing the Prompt. This isn’t always easy, but removing the Prompt is your best first move to stop a behavior from happening.

Question 22

If you can’t change one component of the Behavior Model, then you do what?

Answer 22

If you can’t change one component of the Behavior Model, then you focus on changing the other two.

Question 23

What makes abstract behaviors hard?

Answer 23

Because abstract behaviors are not specific, it can be difficult to understand what someone is asking you to do.

Love and beauty are examples of abstract concepts, and can mean very different things to different people. The same is true of requests. One person’s idea of a clean kitchen can be very different than someone elses, often people who live together. And more times than not, once someone understands what the other person is wanting, it no longer seems difficult or unreasonable.

Asking with genuine desire to understand, “Will you show me exactly what you want me to do” sets a tone of love and support for this and future interactions.

Question 24

What are the 3 steps for troubleshooting a behavior?

Answer 24

1. Check to see if there’s a prompt to do the behavior.
2. See if the person has the ability to do the behavior.
3. See if the person is motivated to do the behavior.

Question 25

Let’s say you don’t meditate in the mornings as you’d hoped. Instead of blaming yourself for a lack of willpower or motivation, what 2 steps should you walk yourself through?

Answer 25

1. First ask yourself, do you have something to prompt you?
2. If you do have a prompt, then ask yourself what is making this hard to do?

In many cases, you’ll find your lack of doing a behavior is not a motivation issue at all. You can solve for the behavior by finding a good prompt or by making the behavior easier to do.

Question 26

When it comes to long-term change, in other words, making a behavior become a lasting habit, which is the more reliable factor, simplicity or motivation?

Answer 26

When it comes to long-term change, simplicity is more reliable than motivation.