I registered the domain. Then I walked away.
“You can only achieve aspirations and outcomes over time if you execute the right specific behaviors.” ~ BJ Fogg
THE RUB
I registered the website runnerslean.com back in June. I was frustrated with this annoying back issue that kept causing me to not finish my races. I was determined and highly motivated to find a solution and share it with others.
I built the framework for the site, set up a request for information, told a few people, and then walked away from it. I feel guilty every time another leaning runner discovers the site and fills out the contact form to solve their lean.
Wayne Amo’s leaning finish at the Cocodona 250 became a viral sensation as he hobbled into the finish line nearly bent in half. Friends send me the video which was another reminder of the lack of progress on my dream to build a useful site and community for aging runners dealing with this problem.
THE FRAMEWORK
Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg jumped to the top of my reading list when I discovered it last week while researching frameworks for my post about environmental design.
Fogg’s foundational model is straightforward and simple. Behavior = Motivation + Ability + Prompt.
Behavior happens when motivation, ability, and a prompt converge at the same moment. Fogg maps out these three elements on a two-by-two grid with motivation as one axis and ability on the other. Prompts that have a healthy balance of high motivation and ease of ability succeed. Prompts “below the action line” fail because the motivation is either too low or the tasks is too hard to complete.
Up to this point, I was a little underwhelmed. Yeah, yeah. Can do, will do, and a trigger. Been there, done that. But when Fogg layered in the distinction between aspirations and behaviors, my circuits started lighting up.
Goals are too vague and lofty. Break them down into either aspirations or outcomes.
My desire to create a helpful online resource and build a community is an ASPIRATION —an abstract desire.
Getting views on the site, making connections, and helping runners thrive are OUTCOMES — measurable results.
Behaviors are the steps we take to get the desired outcomes to align with our aspirations. Can I use Fogg’s tools to identify behaviors that would be effective in making progress and that I can easily get myself to do?
THE PRACTICE
It’s typical for self-help books to offer exercises at the end of each chapter to drive home the learning and take action to make a difference in your own life. I usually read through them and think, I see how that could help, but I don’t need to actually do that.
Fogg’s action steps were different. When I read the instructions for “a shortcut to behavior matching” and “focus mapping to find golden behaviors,” I wanted to do them (motivation). They sounded fun, insightful, and easy (ability). I had an obvious unrealized aspiration to work through — runnerslean.com (prompt).
I’m adjusting the path of this newsletter slightly over the coming weeks. Up until now, each week has stood on its own as independent, bite-sized learning. This topic deserves a deeper exploration, so I’m going to flesh it out to a multi-week series.
Next week will be a continuation of this topic as I dive in and complete Fogg’s exercises. I’ll capture my steps, show my work, and provide reflections on what works and what doesn’t. Ideally, I’ll come out the other side with a clearly defined aspiration and behaviors I’m excited about and able to complete. Wish me good learning and feel free to play along at home with your own aspiration.