For those of you who know me, I am sure at some point you have probably been subject to one of my conversations around bikes....even if it was just a one-way conversation!  If you hadn't guessed I love them, and so I was delighted to read a recent article in my monthly cycling magazine (the subscription bought by my mother-in-law every year without fail) around building good habits that can be directly applied to a lot of what we talk to our clients and fee earners about within professional services here at passle.

The article focuses on and outlines how Dr Fogg, a behavioural scientist of Stanford has developed a system called 'Tiny Habits' that can be used to create habits that stick.  A great example that Dr Fogg gives is with himself and increasing his strength.  He started by committing to two press-ups every time he visited the bathroom and this soon grew to ten and now he regularly does eighty during the course of a day without even thinking about it.   By starting small and achieving changes that anchor a new habit to an existing one, you can quickly add good habits that stick.  We talk a lot about behavioural change with our clients when they are looking to increase their authentic content output as well as social presence and actually in the first instance, we always encourage small steps when writing content with attainable targets.  Once this process becomes a bit more engrained then the anchoring element comes in because they need to share it on social media to then showcase expertise and increase their presence.

Building habits is important because there are deficiencies in relying on will power.  It fluctuates and actually can also become fatigued from overuse.  Habits, on the other hand, can actually become automatic and strengthened through repetition and the article points to the fact that 43% of our daily routines can be attributed to habit including having a shower, brushing our teeth and putting the kettle on.  

The other interesting theory introduced by Dr Fogg to make behavioural change a reality is the B=MAP system as outline below.  Behaviour can be changed with a convergence of motivation, ability and a prompt.  Again, the first change has to be small so that success is achieved but also celebrated and it is this that increases motivation to do it again. 

Interestingly positive habits once built, also then often lead to other good habits being formed as these behaviours are interconnected.  We again find this to be true at passle with adoption rates increasing amongst fee earners once other peers have started producing more content and locking in good habits.

Going back to the cycling side, leaving my bike by the door, having my kit and bottle ready to go the night before all help get me out in the elements when they aren't the most appealing. Drinking more water or eating spicier food will no doubt increase my pushup output over time as well it would seem.