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Welcome to before breakfast, a production of iheart radio.
Good morning, this is laura.
Welcome to the before breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is that if you are trying to form a new habit, try to picture watching a movie of yourself doing that habit.
If you can see it, that means your habit is concrete enough that you can probably make it happen.
Today's tip comes from BJ Fogg, author of the book Tiny Habits.
On NPR's Life Kit podcast, Fogg recommended that if you want to pursue a goal, you identify the specific behaviors that will take you toward that goal.
Then you can start tiny habits involving these behaviors.
Fogg proposed what he calls the movie test for evaluating whether your habits are truly doable.
He says, imagine you're watching yourself in a movie doing the behavior.
If you can't see it happening in the movie like eat healthier, then it is not specific enough.
He says
But you can see getting a carrot stick out of the fridge.
When your goal-aligned habits pass the movie test, they put you on a path of progress toward your goals.
But when your target habits don't pass the movie test, they may be too vague to guide your behavior.
You may need to adjust them to make them help you.
I love the movie test for evaluating whether your habits are specific enough.
So often we aim for habits that aren't precise.
Exercise.
Invest in relationships.
Save more money.
But what do these ideas actually entail?
They're probably too fuzzy to to be helpful for figuring out how you are going to spend your time.
So, get specific.
Make a movie in your head.
Maybe you set a goal of saving $300 more per month.
Habits supporting that goal might include automatically transferring 300 from wherever your paycheck gets deposited to a long-term savings or investment account.
You can see yourself setting that up.
Then, to make sure to cover the less 300 that won't be there in your regular checking account.
You could envision yourself packing your lunch twice a week and pausing 24 hours before making any purchases besides necessities.
You can make a movie in your head of those habits.
You can see yourself in your kitchen putting last night's leftovers, plus some baby carrots, in your lunch sack before you head to work.
Not only are these habits specific enough that you can make a movie in your head, they are also specific enough to guide your behaviors in real life.
You know that when you see an internet ad for a great sundress, you are free to check it out and decide what color you like.
You can even put it in your cart.
But you know you'll be taking a beat before hitting checkout.
So if there is a goal you'd like to make more progress on, identify a few tiny habits that will help you advance toward that goal.
Then take the habits through the movie test.
Make sure they are concrete enough that you can picture yourself doing them.
And then you can make that movie in your head into reality.
In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most of our time.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at LauraVanderkam.com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeart Media.
For more podcasts from iHeart Media, please visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
On the Look Back At It podcast.
1979, that was a big moment for me.
84 was big to me.
I'm Sam Jay.
And I'm Alex English.
Each episode we pick a year, unpack what went down and try to make sense of how we survived it with our friends, fellow comedians and favorite authors.
Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s.
It was a wild year.
I don't think there's a more important year for black people.
Listen to Look Back at It on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged.
It's the enhanced games.
Some call it grotesque.
Others say it's unleashing human potential.
Either way.
The podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.
Within probably 10 days, I put on 10 pounds.
I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.
Listen to superhuman on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is an I heart podcast guaranteed human.
