Make a movie of your desired habit

Make sure you can picture the actions you'll need to take

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. 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

(00:25):
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 Fog, author of
the book Tiny Habits, on NPR's Lifetip podcast. Fog recommended

(00:46):
that if you want to pursue a goal, you identify
these specific behaviors that will take you toward that goal,
then you can start tiny habits involving these behaviors. Fog
proposed that's what he calls the movie test for evaluating
whether your habits are truly doable. He says, imagine you're

(01:08):
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 past the movie test, they

(01:31):
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

(01:54):
aren't precise. Exercise, invest in relationships, save more money. But
what do these ideas actually entail. They're probably too fuzzy
to be helpful for figuring out how you are going
to spend your time, So get specific. Make a movie

(02:17):
in your head. Maybe you set a goal of saving
three hundred dollars more per month. Habits supporting that goal
might include automatically transferring three hundred dollars 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 three hundred dollars that won't

(02:41):
be there in your regular checking account. You could envision
yourself packing your lunch twice a week and pausing twenty
four 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 carrots in your lunch sack before you head

(03:02):
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 sun dress, 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

(03:24):
taking a beat before hitting check out. 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

(03:49):
in your head into reality. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's making the most of our time.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

(04:13):
or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
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