NARRATOR: "There is a painful gap between what people want and what they actually do." BJ Fogg. We have all told ourselves, at one point or another, that we were going to make a change in our lives-- lose 20 pounds, run more, or get more sleep. We start by losing 5 pounds, we run a few times, and we make it to bed by 10:00 PM a few times. 

But then something happens. It starts with a cheeseburger instead of a healthy sandwich. We skip a run here or there. And we binge watch Netflix till midnight. These little slips become a snowball, rolling downhill. And before we know it, we are back to where we started. 

We don't know why we keep failing to make changes that we so desperately want. Behavioral expert BJ Fogg does. We bite off more than we can chew, normally. We take on more than what we can possibly handle. 

initially we are driven by whatever force motivated us to make this change. But initial motivation ebbs, and our old habits start to break down our will. Once the momentum is gone, it becomes hard to maintain, and we slip back into old patterns. 

Tiny habits are the key to sustainable change, according to BJ Fogg. He has the research to back it up, too. The Stanford Behavior Design Lab has developed this approach over years of practice and over 40,000 people. So what is this approach? 

It begins with starting small. Losing 20 pounds is a big goal. Running a marathon is a huge goal. Most people who try to do things like this will fail. But let's say you decide to add vegetables to one meal a day, and you put your running shoes on every day. Those are small wins that are easy to do. 

Tiny habits are small actions that take less than a minute to complete, like flossing one tooth. These small actions create a feedback loop of positive reinforcement that starts to wire in new habits. Another great example is what the author calls the Maui habit, a tribute to the Hawaiian island where he learned it. Every morning, as he puts his feet on the floor, he says, "it's going to be a great day," and tries to summon positive feelings, literally starting the day off on the right foot. 

The next key to your habits is understanding motivation, ability, and prompts. These three things are the key variables to human behavior, because when broken down, all behaviors are, in essence, very similar. You need motivation to do anything, from making coffee, to showering, to showing up to work on time. 

Next, ability. Can you do that thing? You can't show up to work on time if your car won't start. You can't make coffee if you are out of beans. 

Lastly are the prompts. This is the stimuli that triggers a behavior. Waking up groggy is the perfect stimuli to drag you into the kitchen to make coffee. 

Any behavior becomes more likely as the presence of these three factors increases. Motivation is fleeting, and something that sounds great one day, like losing 20 pounds, doesn't sound so great the next. One day, it seems like you have the ability to lose those 20 pounds. Then, a cheeseburger tells you otherwise. And finally, you need a prompt to make that action clear. 

So let's look at motivation more closely. Motivation is great for one-off feats, especially of strength. But there is a reason so many people sign up for a gym but never actually go. Over 100 million people sign up for online education every single year, yet only 10% of them graduate. The motivation to start was there, but not the behavioral habits to keep going. 

See, habit change isn't just a motivated effort one day. It requires sustained, consistent behavior, not one-off feats of strength or willpower. Let's take saving as an example. You want to start an emergency fund of $1,000, in case of a car accident or unexpected doctor's visit. Great idea. 

Regardless of how motivated you are, most of us can't just put $1,000 into a saving account. You need to develop the behaviors to help you save that $1,000. You could stop eating out, cut your cable bill in half, or make your coffee instead of buying Starbucks every day. Behavior change will get you to that $1,000 in the long run, not motivation. 

Now, onto ability. One of the best ways to make a new habit stick is to make it easy. Social media has perfected this art. You want to open up the app because it is easy, and the rewards are instantaneous. 

Many bad habits are formed and kept because they are simply easier than the alternative. Fast food is a billion-dollar industry because you can just cruise through a drive-through or sit down in minutes and have food. This is much easier than going home and cooking a healthy meal for yourself. 

When trying to form a new habit, you need to make it as easy as possible. Can you spend money, make it physically or mentally easier, and/or make it fit into your current schedule? Make it easy. 

Maybe on Sunday, you spend the day with your spouse, making food for the week. This way, you won't be tempted to grab a quick bite when you have something waiting for you already made at home. We've already talked about how fleeting motivation is, so the easier you make a new behavior, the less it will rely on motivation. The easier a behavior is, the more likely you'll perform it over and over again. 

And the last of the key factors is prompts. The nice thing about prompts is these can be designed and experimented with to trigger exactly the behavior that you want. The most effective type of prompt is an action prompt. An action prompt is something that you already do that you can have initiate a new behavior. 

The author gives the example that every time he flushes the toilet, he does two push-ups. This simple prompt has led the author to doing 20 to 50 push-ups a day for almost seven years straight. Now, not every action prompt will work for every habit. You need to design your prompts to consider location, frequency, and theme. The push-up example wouldn't work well if the prompt was eating. You'd likely only do 6 to 10 push-ups a day. 

You also want to match the volume of the prompt to the desired behavior. If you want to do something once a day, pair it with an action that only happens once. If you want to drink eight glasses of water a day, you probably need to pair it with something that you do about eight times a day. Lastly, think of prompts that make sense together thematically. Brushing your teeth probably isn't a good prompt for sweeping the kitchen, but it's a great prompt for flossing. 

Remember, there is a painful gap between what people want and what they actually do. Habits are often hard to form and even harder to break. But as you practice these three key factors of behavior, you can start to change your behaviors for the better. 

If you liked this video, we also recommend that you check out our summary of Atomic Habits by James Clear, another great resource for building good habits and breaking the bad ones. What habit do you want to have and that you're going to use these factors to build? What habit will you be trying to break? Leave those habits in the comments below, and maybe you can help someone else as well. And while you're down there making a comment, hit that thumbs-up button to like the video, and make sure to subscribe to the channel to see more book summaries and articles animated and brought to life.