I have done a few blog posts on ‘habits’ in the past hence it was great when I came across the Fogg Behaviour Model (FBM) a few weeks ago. This simple model explains how habits are formed. It has been interesting using the model to figure out how to convert certain desirable behaviours into habits. I would be interested in your thoughts on the Fogg Behaviour Model.
This model was developed by BJ Fogg, a University of Stanford Psychology lecturer. The model states that a desired behaviour (B) will only happen when a person has sufficient motivation (M), sufficient ability (A), and an effective trigger (T). The model’s equation is B = MAT. These three elements must occur at the same time for behaviour to result.
Motivation is the intrinsic desire to do something while ability is the capacity to do something. This means that if you are highly motivated to do something but have a low ability do that thing then your chances of success is very low and vice versa. But target behaviour won’t happen even if both motivation and ability are high without a well-timed and effective trigger in place.
A trigger is anything which is associated with getting the target behaviour done e.g a growling stomach is a trigger that you are hungry and the target behaviour is to get some food. A trigger could also be an alarm sound. I tend to use my phone’s alarm as a trigger to wake me up in the morning for work. I am motivated to get to work on time and I have the ability to get myself dressed for work but the trigger is vital to make sure that I don’t oversleep. As a result of the alarm trigger, my body is now accustomed to waking up early.
The Fogg Behaviour Model (FBM) has made me think more about the triggers I have in place for certain target behaviours which I desire to convert into habits. I have realised that for some target behaviours, I have either weak triggers or no triggers in place. This explains why I have struggled to do these target behaviours on a consistent basis. A goal in August is to get better triggers in place.
2 replies on “Effective Trigger”
The question then is how do you get the abilities and or triggers for the desired behaviours that you want to turn into habits?
abilities is easy in my opinion, you just get training/education on what you want to do. The trigger might be more tricky since you need to find what would give you a kick in the behind regularly to get you to do this thing that you are so motivated to do.