271. Rethinks: The Key to Lasting Behavior Change

2026-03-12

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The secret to building habits that stick.Whether you want to read more books or exercise more regularly, BJ Fogg has good news. “Habits are easier to form than most people think,” he says, “If you do it in the right way.”As the founder and director of Stanford's Behavior Design Lab, Fogg has devoted much of his career to researching human psychology, motivation, and behavior. According to him, habit formation isn’t a product of simply doing something over and over again. “It's not a function of repetition,” he says, “it's a function of emotion.”As Fogg discusses with host Matt Abrahams in this ...

The secret to building habits that stick.

Whether you want to read more books or exercise more regularly, BJ Fogg has good news. “Habits are easier to form than most people think,” he says, “If you do it in the right way.”

As the founder and director of Stanford's Behavior Design Lab, Fogg has devoted much of his career to researching human psychology, motivation, and behavior. According to him, habit formation isn’t a product of simply doing something over and over again. “It's not a function of repetition,” he says, “it's a function of emotion.”

As Fogg discusses with host Matt Abrahams in this Rethinks episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, bringing our behavior in line with our goals is easier than we think — we just have to know the emotional levers to pull.

Episode Reference Links:

BJ Fogg
Fogg's Book: Tiny Habits

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Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn

Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction
(03:04) - The Information-Action Fallacy
(04:47) - The Behavior Model: Motivation, Ability, Prompt
(06:27) - Designing a Reading Habit
(08:05) - What Is a Habit?
(11:14) - Making Paraphrasing a Habit
(13:51) - Specificity vs. Repetition
(16:10) - Choosing Habits You Enjoy
(17:08) - The Final Three Questions
(22:25) - Conclusion

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