How do you run that 10K you’ve been dreaming of for years?
How do you finally save enough money to cover your bills in case of emergency?
How do you start that business you’ve been talking about for months?
How do you lower your cholesterol levels and keep them there?

In this article, I’ll teach you a step-by-step, science-backed process for creating new behaviors in your life, even in areas where you’ve previously been unsuccessful.

I’ve had the honor of studying with and becoming certified by BJ Fogg, head of Stanford University’s behavior lab. BJ has dedicated his life to understanding the science of habit formation and wrote the New York Times bestseller Tiny Habits.

Your health, wealth, happiness, fitness, and success depend on your habits. You’ll never achieve the changes you desire without altering your daily routines. The secret to success lies in what you do every day.

As Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks, but I do fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

The scientifically validated framework I’m about to teach you will work in areas where motivation and willpower have failed in the past. If you want to create change in your life, this is the only article you’ll ever need to read.

Unfortunately, most people fail at creating change because they don’t know how. They’ve been trying to bake a cake without a recipe, relying on motivation and willpower, which are the least important ingredients for creating change. Our lives must be designed to minimize reliance on willpower and motivation.

Four Reasons People Fail at Creating Successful Habits

Overcomplicating things: In Western society, we’ve learned “no pain, no gain.” But behavior change follows a simple recipe—one of ease, not struggle.
Not feeling successful: The habit doesn’t make them feel successful (notice I’m not saying help them be successful).
Lack of strategy: They aren’t strategic about where and when to place the new habit during the day.
Believing in the 21-day myth: Emotions create habits, not repetition.

We can all relate to New Year’s resolutions that quickly become dissolutions, right? The reason we often bang our heads against the wall when trying to change is that we don’t understand this: behavior happens when three things come together at the same moment—motivation, ability, and a prompt.

Let me explain step-by-step:

Step 1: Don’t rely on motivation when creating new habits

Motivation is fickle and we can’t rely on it! Some days we’re highly motivated, and other days we have none. I can’t tell you how many marathons I’ve signed up for but never ran (or even trained for). Your motivation will come and go, so your new habits must be designed in a way that you can do them even when you have no motivation whatsoever.

Step 2: Ability is King When Forming New Habits

Most people make the mistake of trying to increase their motivation when creating a new habit. Instead, make the new habit easier to do. Make it tiny!

Example: Let’s use flossing your teeth as a new habit you’d like to create.

How to make flossing your teeth tiny? Instead of using willpower to floss all your teeth every night, floss just one tooth.

When designing habits, always plan for your worst days. If you have the flu or you’re hungover, you won’t want to floss all your teeth at night. But if your flossing habit is tiny—just one tooth—then flossing one tooth becomes your measure of success. You can always floss more tomorrow, but the minimum is one tooth. This keeps the habit alive and automatic. Automaticity is the goal, and we achieve it by giving ourselves permission to consider one tooth a success.

Did you know that Stanford’s research confirms that success leads to success? Here’s something surprising: the size of the success doesn’t matter! When you feel successful at something, even if it’s tiny, your confidence grows quickly.

Tiny Habit Examples:

Instead of going to the gym for 60 minutes, do just 2 pushups per day.
Instead of meditating for 20 minutes, start by closing your eyes and taking 3 deep breaths.
Instead of jogging for 30 minutes, start by simply putting on your running shoes.
Instead of reading for an hour, read 3 pages.
Instead of eating healthy all day, start with two baby carrots.

The beauty of tiny habits is that they grow organically into bigger habits without force or struggle. People change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad! With ease, flossing one tooth becomes flossing all your teeth every day. A series of small, quick successes is much more effective than one large success that takes a long time. This phenomenon, known as Success Momentum, is surprisingly created by how often you succeed, not by the size of each success.

Step 3: Choose the Right Anchor Moment for Your New Habit to Take Off

You’ve scaled back your habit, making it tiny, but now you must attach it to the right anchor moment. We all have daily routines we perform without fail: waking up, getting out of bed, eating, checking our phone, etc. These routines are ideal anchor points for new habits.

Anchor Your New Habits to Existing Ones:

After I pee, I will do two pushups.
After I walk into the kitchen in the morning, I will drink a big glass of water.
After I make my morning cup of coffee, I will take 3 deep breaths.
After I sit down for breakfast, I will open my calendar app and review the day’s agenda.
After I take my vitamins, I will feed the dog.
After I turn on the shower, I will say a quiet prayer of gratitude.

When a habit isn’t sticking, it’s often because the anchor moment is wrong. For example, I wanted to create a habit of reaching out to a friend daily. I initially anchored this behavior to after I finished lunch. However, it didn’t stick because I was usually in a hurry to get back to work and forgot to reach out. When I changed the anchor to after completing my morning gratitude list, the habit stuck and has been consistent since.

Step 4: Celebration is the Secret Sauce to Forming New Habits

You have a big deadline tomorrow and can’t sleep at 2 AM. You worry about a bottleneck in your inbox. You grab your phone, check your email, and feel relieved. The next night, the same thing happens. A “checking the phone” habit forms because of that positive feeling (relief). Feeling good at the right moment can create a habit. This isn’t magic; it’s neurochemical. Positive reinforcement triggers dopamine, which makes us remember and repeat the behavior.

Example: Babies learn to walk because their parents celebrate each step. The celebration releases dopamine, encouraging the baby to keep trying. To create a new habit, ensure your brain releases dopamine right after the desired behavior. This cements the habit. The 21-day repetition myth is bullsh*t. Habits can form in seconds with the dopamine hack.

How do you hack your brain? One word: celebrate.

Want to floss regularly? Celebrate right after flossing your one tooth.
Want to do yoga? Celebrate throughout your sun salutation.
Want to remember names? Celebrate after saying a name correctly.

How to celebrate?

It might feel awkward, but it works. Here are some hacks:

Imagine scoring the winning goal in the World Cup. Celebrate that way after flossing.
Imagine making a perfect basketball shot into the trashcan. React that way after your desired behavior.
Say “Victory” in your head after remembering a name, sing “We Are the Champions” during yoga, or do a little dance after saying “hi” to someone attractive in the grocery store.

The key is to secrete dopamine immediately after the behavior. Don’t wait, or your brain won’t connect it.

Celebration will one day be ranked alongside mindfulness and gratitude as daily practices that significantly contribute to our overall happiness and well-being. If you learn just one thing from this article, I hope it’s this: celebrate your tiny successes. This one small shift can have a massive impact, even when you feel there is no way up or out of your situation. Celebration can be your lifeline.

Celebration will not only make you a habit-creating machine but also help you be kinder to yourself. With a little practice, you’ll start looking for opportunities to celebrate yourself instead of berating yourself. Just imagine the transformative effect on your life from replacing self-loathing with self-love.

Step 5: Now it’s your turn!

Pick three habit recipes from the following list of 10 Popular Tiny Habit recipes (Feel free to revise any recipe below so it fits you better).

After my feet first touch the floor in the morning, I will say, “It’s going to be a great day!”
After I flush the toilet, I will do two pushups.
After I brush my teeth, I will floss one tooth.
After I turn on the shower and wait for the water to get warm, I will stretch one part of my body.
After I push the start button on my coffee maker, I will put a healthy snack (such as almonds or an apple) in my backpack.
After I sit down on the subway, I will push play on my audiobook.
After I turn on my computer, I will close my eyes and take 3 relaxing breaths.
After I sit down to eat, I will take a drink of water.
After I get into my pajamas, I will lay out my workout clothes

Now that you have chosen three habits, write them down on recipe cards. Go here to download your cards.

Reply to this email with your 3 chosen recipes (I read every email), and I'll provide recommendations to help those habits stick.

P.S. You want more than the 10 options I've listed above. No problem. Go here to access 300 recipes.

That's it for now.

See you next Thursday

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I Studied with the Head of Stanford's Behavior Lab: Here’s What I Learned About Creating Lasting Change