#1207 How to Celebrate

In our last +1, we talked about the power of Celebrating our tiny successes.

Recall that BJ Fogg tells us: “If you learn just one thing from my entire book, I hope it’s this: Celebrate your tiny successes. This one small shift in your life can have a massive impact even when you feel there is no way up or out of your situation. Celebration can be your lifeline.”

And: “If there’s one concept from my book I hope you embrace, it’s this: People change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad.”

So…

Celebration is super-important.

In fact, BJ tells us that if he was teaching us in person, teaching us HOW to celebrate would be the first thing he did.

So…

That kinda begs the Question: HOW do we Celebrate?

BJ tells us the Answer: IMMEDIATELY and INTENSELY.

Imagine you’re trying to build a new habit like meditation. You put a meditation cushion in the middle of your room and maybe even a Post-It on your tooth brush to Prompt yourself to do it right after the Anchor of brushing your teeth in the morning.

You go Tiny with it and wisely commit to doing just 3 breaths to get the win. (NOT 30-minutes. 3 Breaths. Tiny-Easy. Boom. Done. WIN!)

Then…

You DON’T wait for a month of those little sessions before you “reward” yourself with a massage or whatever.

YOU CELEBRATE RIGHT AFTER YOU FINISH ROCKING THAT TINY BEHAVIOR.

IMMEDIATELY.

And

INTENSELY.

“Yes!!!”
Fist pump.
“That’s like me!!!”

(Or whatever you do when you’re fired up.)

When we Celebrate like that (Immediately and Intensely!) right after our little behavior, we rewire our brains and accelerate the creation of a positive habit.

We can literally hack our brains—squirting a little dopamine in the direction of our nucleus accumbens (the reward center of our brain) such that our brains crave that little reward that comes after your new behavior.

Note: 👆 THAT’S A REALLY BIG IDEA.

In fact, in our Algorithms Module for our Mastery Series, we talk about how I think this basically provides the neuroscientific underpinnings for Seneca’s 2,000-year-old wisdom that we want to persist in doing the right thing long enough such that doing what’s best for us is what we most enjoy.

For now…

What habit are you trying to build?

MAP it.

How’s your Motivation? Your Ability? Your Prompt?

ABC it.

How’s your Anchor? Your Behavior? Your Celebration?

Here’s to rewiring our brains.

One TINY little squirt of dopamine at a time.

Today.

+1. +1. +1.