Celebration is the best way to create a positive feeling that wires in your new habits.

Check to see if there’s a prompt to do the behavior. See if the person has the ability to do the behavior. See if the person is motivated to do the behavior.

All those are attempts to use motivation to get the behavior of arriving on time to happen. And all of those are mistakes. You don’t start with motivation when you troubleshoot.

A Golden Behavior has three criteria. The behavior is effective in realizing your aspiration (impact) You want to do the behavior (motivation) You can do the behavior (ability)

Motivation can also come from a benefit or punishment associated with a behavior.

When they asked him to do big things like clean his room or pay his bills on time, Chris didn’t know where to start, and he was ashamed and resentful, and felt incapable. But when they broke down specific things into tiny behaviors and asked questions such as “Could you put your used towel in the hamper?” or “Could you put your dinner dish in the

Scientists learned decades ago that rewards need to happen either during the behavior or milliseconds afterward.

Instead of starting with a habit you want to create and finding a place for it, you begin with the routines you already have and find new habits to plug in.

And that’s not a good way to design for change in your life. Having systematic criteria for how to choose behaviors for yourself will make you effective in getting results, and the next step in Behavior Design will save you from guessing.