It's the time of year to be thinking about setting goals and making resolutions. While I do think New Years Resolutions are crock, I still find myself in an aspirational state of mind as the New Year approaches. It's something to do with going back to day one. You have a chance to make yourself anew and be something bigger, better than you were before. Any day can be day one, of course it can, but the New Year provides us with a bit of collective momentum. And if any day can be day one, well, the first of January is as good a day as any. Which makes the release of Tiny Habits rather timely.
Author BJ Fogg has a PHD and works in the field of behavioural scientists. He has years of experience helping a wide range of people form better habits, along with all the scientific understanding about exactly why his method works. The method doesn't rely on you having contacts with lots of money and influence, nor does it require you to spend any money. It's something you can action instantly in your own living room with nothing more than a bit of thought, and maybe some scrap paper and a pencil. Which I always appreciate - too many 'change your life' books don't feel immediately actionable by the average layperson.
The basic principle of Tiny Habits is to form good behaviours by doing the smallest possible action, anchoring those actions to another behaviour you already do automatically, and then celebrating when you successfully complete the behaviour. For example, if you want to form an exercise habit, the smallest possible action might be to put your gym kit on, the anchor to do it straight away when you get home from work. While this doesn't make you exercise, it's the first step in the sequence to completing exercise, and more often than not, once you've taken that first step, the rest become much easier. So you put your gym kit on and then congratulate yourself for doing it, celebrating the success.
It's about building habits from the ground up. Fogg recognises that the New Year's Resolution of going to the gym three times a week is going to fail in 99% of cases, because it's too much. You go once, you feel great, then the next day you ache, or might even be injured because your body isn't used to it, and two days later when it comes to your next session, you're not ready to go back, so already on the second time you're failing. Failing makes us feel bad, so we never try. This is why the 'Tiny' element works so well. Fogg would advocate for doing one press up before bed. Because no matter how tired you are, how much you ache, you can do one press up (or modified against the wall press-up for weaklings like me with no upper body strength!), you'll not fail to keep with the habit. And if you do one press-up... you'll probably do more on a number of the days.
Full of step by step breakdowns, diagrams and scientific theory enough to help you understand fully, without being overwhelmingly academic, Tiny Habits is a recipe book to help you be your best self. Starting small can lead to big changes, and I'm already implementing a lot of the techniques Fogg discussed. Plus I've recommended the book to my sister, who is going to buy it as soon as it comes out. I enjoy self help and personal development books, but I'm rarely as excited about one as I am about this one. If you're looking to make some good habits - or break some bad ones - I highly recommend you check this one out.
My thanks to Netgalley for my review copy.