Anatomy of a Habit

Have you ever thought, “Wow … this isn’t easy?”

“I want to be at my best as a dad … but how do I find the energy, keep the focus, and stay calm?

Sure, you can do that on your very best days. But can you imagine doing that on the hard days as well?

One place to start? Habits.

I’ve trained under some of the best in the world when it comes to building habits. That includes the legendary BJ Fogg, founder of the Stanford Behaviour Design Lab and author of Tiny Habits. Here, I’m taking one of his frameworks, the ABC formula, and applying it to skills that I see in great dads from around the world.

Let’s get started.

Anatomy of a Dad Habit

You’ll see this ABC formulation throughout:

A = Anchor

B = Behaviour

C = Celebration

An anchor (A) is something that already exists in your life. It might be an action, like making your morning coffee. It might be a reminder, like a calendar notification. It could even be a feeling, like anger, fatigue, or hunger. If it's something that shows up reliably in your days, you can work with it. Once you’ve got an anchor, you can chain a new behaviour to it. That’s the B.

Continue reading about the 5 dad habits right now