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I’m sensing a lot of cynicism and resignation about new year’s resolutions.

And look, I get it. I can understand why new year’s resolutions have become so unpopular.

It’s frustrating to vow to make a change only to find that you’ve fallen off the bandwagon a few days later.

I’ve been there. I know how dispiriting it can be.

But what if I told you there was a process you could follow that could help you change your behaviour in any area that is important to you?

There is a process. It’s called Behavior Design.

The process takes me about 20-30 minutes (from start to finish).

It’s not a quick fix, but it works.

In my experience, Behavior Design is way more effective than the stock standard strategies you hear about, such as manifesting, vision boards, SMART goals, accountability buddies, etc.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with doing those things. But used on their own, these strategies often set us up to fail.

Behavior Design is different.

This system allows you to “become your own soul’s doctor” (a phrase used by Stoic philosopher Epictetus). Basically, you quit chasing gurus and the latest trends. By following the process, you take control of your life and move yourself in the direction of a flourishing life.

I learnt about Behavior Design from Stanford University Professor BJ Fogg.

Last year, I participated in his online program, Design for Behavior Change, and I’ve been using his system ever since.

What is Behavior Design?

Behavior Design is a systematic process that helps you to change your behaviour and design for behaviour change. What I love about Behavior Design is it doesn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach to behaviour change. By using this process, you can pinpoint the behaviours that are the right fit for you.

The foundation of Behavior Design is the Fogg Behavior Model (B = MAP).

This model explains all human behaviour. According to the Fogg Behavior Model, if you want a behaviour to happen, you need three things to occur all at the same time:

• Motivation: you need to be sufficiently motivated to do the behaviour
• Ability: you need to be able to do the behaviour
• A prompt: you need to be reminded to engage in the behaviour

If any one of these components is missing, the behaviour won’t happen.

The Behavior Design process takes all of these components into account.

Here are the steps involved in Behavior Design (i.e., designing for behaviour change):

1. Get clear on the aspiration (i.e., the goal or outcome)
2. Magic wand potential behaviours
3. Make the behaviours crispy
4. Behaviour match to pinpoint your Golden Behaviours (Focus Mapping)
5. Make it easier
6. Set up a prompt
7. Implement (and tweak)

If you just switched off when you saw that long list of steps or read the word ‘Magic wand’, I don’t blame you. It’s a lot. But please, stay with me.

Behavior Design is straightforward (no magic is involved here). Unlike new year’s resolutions, which we tend to set, forget, and abandon, Behavior Design delivers results.

I’m going to walk you through each of these steps for an aspiration of mine that I set for the new year: To build strength (muscle).

Let’s go!

Step 1. Clarify the Aspiration

The first step is to get clear on your aspiration (i.e., the goal or outcome).

What do you want to achieve?

Don’t worry about making it a SMART goal. Your aspiration can be vague and abstract.

Here’s one of my aspirations for the new year:

To build strength (muscle).

When I think about building strength, the outcome I want to achieve is training consistently (three weight lifting sessions per week).

I’m not setting a goal to “get a six-pack.” Ugh. Extrinsic goals like this never leave me feeling fulfilled or motivated for long. In contrast, the idea of being someone who trains consistently and is strong and healthy does excite me.

Step 2. Magic Wanding (Brainstorm Behaviours)

After clarifying your aspiration, you need to think about the concrete behaviours that will help you achieve it.

This is the crucial step we often miss. Too many people stop at setting vague goals when it comes to changing their behaviour, which is their ultimate downfall.

As BJ Fogg says, when we try to motivate ourselves towards an abstraction, this rarely works.

So, here I am, saying I want to build strength to become a ferociously sturdy lady. This is a great idea, but how will I do it?

According to Behavior Design, I need to focus on the concrete behaviours (i.e., the things I can do right now or at a specific point in time) that will help build muscle.

In this step, you imagine you have magical powers and you can get yourself to engage in any behaviour.

The playful Professor Fogg even recommends purchasing a magic wand, waving it, and asking yourself:

“If I could wave a magic wand and get myself to do any behaviour to achieve this aspiration, what would it be?”

After waving my homemade magic wand in the air (made out of a thin stick and electrical tape), I asked myself:

“If I could get myself to engage in any behaviour to build strength, what would it be?”

I wrote down each behaviour on an index card.

Here are some of the behaviours I brainstormed:

• Find a personal trainer and pay for five sessions
• Bookmark basic Peloton strength classes on my phone
• Join a gym
• Do five push-ups
• Do five squats
• Use resistance bands to walk down the hall
• Do five overhead presses with dumbbells
• Do 10 bench presses with dumbbells
• Create a pinup board of strength training ideas with dumbbells
• Find a friend to train with
• Buy kettlebells
• Find personal trainers on YouTube
• Get out books from the library on strength training
• Write a letter to my future self about strength training
• Talk to friends who strength train and ask for ideas on routines
• Explore Reddit forums on strength training
• Purchase heavier dumbbells (12kg)
• Buy $1000 worth of gym equipment
• Punch boxing bag 10 times
• Watch the Strong Woman documentary series

BJ Fogg writes in his book Tiny Habits:

“You are not making any decisions or commitments in this step. You are exploring your options. The more behaviors you list, the better. You can tap into your creativity or maybe ask friends for their ideas.”

If you’re struggling to come up with behaviours, you can also use generative AI to help you brainstorm. But there is power in generating your own ideas away from a screen (my advice is to try to do this on your own or with a friend before turning to AI).

Step 3. Crispify Target Behaviours

Take each of the behaviours you’ve brainstormed and make them crispy. By crispy, BJ Fogg means specific.

For example, ‘Punch boxing bag 10 times (jab, cross)’ is a crispy behaviour compared to ‘Do boxing workout’.

Step 4. Behaviour Match to Pinpoint Golden Behaviours (Focus Mapping)

This is where the ‘magic’ happens. In this step, you determine the best behaviours to engage in. BJ Fogg calls these your ‘Golden Behaviours’.

You’ll need a large, clear surface to do this and some index cards (four in total). Each of your crispy behaviours will also need to be written out on index cards.

Fogg breaks this stage down into two rounds.

Here’s what you do in Round 1 . . .

Write down ‘High Impact Behaviour’ and ‘Low Impact Behaviour’ on two index cards. Place the ‘High Impact Behaviour’ card at the top and the ‘Low Impact Behaviour’ at the bottom.

Pick up one of your crispy behaviours (written on a card) and ask:

“How effective is this behaviour in helping me to achieve my aspiration?”

Place it along the vertical continuum. If a behaviour is highly effective in moving you towards achieving your aspiration (e.g., it will have a high impact in helping me to build strength), place it closer to the top. If a behaviour isn’t very effective in moving you towards your goal, put it closer to the bottom.

For example, watching a documentary on women weightlifting may be inspiring and enjoyable, but it won’t help me build strength. For this reason, I placed this card at the bottom of the continuum. But doing five squats regularly would be highly effective at helping me achieve greater leg strength, so I placed this card at the top.

Do this with all your crispy behaviours. The table will get messy, but that’s okay. Trust the process and keep putting your cards down.

That’s Round 1 complete. Now, for Round 2 . . .

Round 2 involves getting grounded in reality. You may have several high impact behaviours, but you may find you’re not motivated or able to do them. What you do next will weed out those behaviours.

Create two more cards: “Yes, I can get myself to do this!” and “No, I can’t get myself to do this.” Place them like so (see image below).

Now, we take each card and ask:

“Can I actually get myself to do this behaviour?”

Move the cards along the horizontal plane.

When I asked myself, “Can I get myself to buy $1000 worth of gym equipment?” my response was “Not a chance!”. Firstly, I don’t have the space for more gym equipment, and secondly, I can’t justify spending more money on gym equipment! I moved this card over to the far left.

Again, don’t overthink it. Move the cards quickly. Go with your gut.

Once you’ve moved all the cards, focus on the second top quadrant. What behaviours do you have in this location?

These are what BJ Fogg calls your ‘Golden Behaviours’.

These behaviours have three things in common:

• They are high-impact behaviours (i.e., they are effective in moving you towards your aspiration)
• You are motivated to do the behaviour
• You can do the behaviour

You want to channel your time, energy, and attention into engaging in these behaviours.

For example, once I had shuffled my cards around in the two rounds, my golden behaviours were:

• Use resistance bands to walk down the hall (20 steps)
• Create a pinup board of strength exercises
• Punch boxing bag 10 times
• Do 10 bench presses
• Do five squats
• Do five overhead presses
• Talk to friends who lift weights for ideas
• Bookmark beginner Peloton strength classes

BJ Fogg recommends selecting three to four Golden Behaviours to focus on. I can see why.

You have a limited amount of time, energy, and attention. Focusing on too many different behaviours for a specific area can be overwhelming. You run the risk of giving up before you even get started.

When I looked at my Golden Behaviours, I realised several behaviours could be combined into a basic workout routine, leaving me with the following four Golden Behaviours:

• Follow a workout program that includes my favourite strength exercises (two times per week)
• Create a pinup board of strength exercises
• Talk to friends who lift weights for ideas
• Bookmark beginner Peloton strength classes

This step of focus mapping was pleasantly surprising. It gave me insights and clarity about why I had felt stuck with my strength training for so long. Here’s what I realised:

• For some strange reason, I had got it in my head that I needed to hire a personal trainer. However, focus mapping made me realise I don’t want or need to hire a personal trainer (potentially saving me hundreds of dollars and travel time).
• I have enough exercise equipment at home. I don’t need to buy more expensive exercise equipment (saving me even more money!).
• The main thing stopping me from strength training was not having a routine or program that I liked. Figuring out what exercises to do every morning required mental effort, which I simply didn’t have. It felt overwhelming, so I skipped my strength workouts.

After I had pinpointed my golden behaviours, I immediately texted a friend who is a physiotherapist. I asked if he would help me develop a simple strength training routine. He said yes and started sending links to explore ideas. I was off and running (no pun intended).

Once you’ve completed step 4, you can stop and call it a day. However, there are three other major steps in Behaviour Design that are worth mentioning. If you’re keen to learn more about this fantastic process, keep reading.

Step 5. Make It Easier

When a behaviour is easy to do, it feels fun. You can do it quickly. This means you’re more likely to do it and do it again and again.

Instead of saying to myself, “Lift weights for 1 hour a day” and having no idea what exercises I’d be doing, I say, “Pick up dumbbells and do five overhead presses” or “Look at strength training routine and start with exercise 1”. It may not seem like much, but it’s a start. It’s also infinitely better than letting my dumbbells sit and collect dust.

If you want to learn more about making behaviours easier, I highly recommend checking out BJ Fogg’s book Tiny Habits (one of my favourite books).

Step 6. Establish a Prompt

A prompt is a trigger. It reminds you to engage in the desired behaviour. It says to your brain, “Pick up your dumbbells now!”.

The excellent news for me (and all of us) is we don’t have to hire a life coach or personal trainer to be prompted to take action. According to BJ Fogg, the best prompts are things you already do on a regular basis (i.e., pre-existing habits).

Think of behaviours like having breakfast, brushing your teeth, or having a shower. These are all excellent prompts that you can piggyback a new behaviour onto.

For instance, I have a pre-established habit of running on my treadmill every morning. Since I’m already in gym clothes, this is an ideal prompt for a quick strength training session. Here’s what I came up with:

After I finish running on my treadmill (prompt),

I will pick up my dumbbells and do five presses (new behaviour).

 

I can do more than five dumbbell presses, but I tell myself five is the minimum required to keep the habit alive.

Step 7. Implement (and Tweak)

Once you’ve found a place for your new desired behaviours in your daily routine, it’s time to get to work and test things out.

After engaging in a new behaviour, it’s super important to give yourself lots of positive reinforcement. Fogg calls this ‘celebration’. You can say to yourself, “Great work!” or clap your hands. You need to release positive emotions.

This may sound a bit cheesy and over-the-top, but do not skip this critical step. These positive emotions help to wire in the new behaviours as habits.

If a new behaviour isn’t working for you, that’s okay. Play around with it. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is there a prompt? (If not, establish a clear prompt)
• Can I make this behaviour easier? (Perhaps it’s too big? If so, make it smaller)
• Do I want to do this behaviour? (If not, choose a different behaviour you want to do)

For instance, after my morning run, I did a 15-minute strength session on the Peloton app using some resistance bands. Some exercises weren’t my cup of tea, so I tweaked the workout.

When it comes to behaviour change, don’t take yourself too seriously. You’ll do better and have more fun by approaching change with a playful mindset.

To Sum Up

Behavior Design allows you to be your own self-help guru. Rather than following generic advice, you get to develop your own tailored solutions, which is incredibly powerful.

The other powerful thing about Behavior Design is that you don’t have to psych yourself up to engage in your ‘Golden Behaviours’. You’ve selected behaviours you want to do, so very little motivation is required.

I understand that this may seem complicated, but trust me, this process is extremely practical.

Do yourself a favour: sit down and try following the steps involved in Behavior Design. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. And unlike new year’s resolutions, this process delivers lasting change.