If you're serious about doing things better than you are now - in other words, if you're serious about sticking to good habits - then you have to start small.

Imagine the typical habits, good or bad: Brushing your teeth. Putting your seatbelt on. Biting your nails.

These actions are small enough that you don't even think about them. You simply do them automatically. They are tiny actions that become consistent patterns.

Wouldn't it make sense that if we wanted to form new habits, the best way to start would be to make tiny changes that our brain could quickly learn and automatically repeat?

What if you started thinking of your life goals, not as big, audacious things that you can only achieve when the time is right or when you have better resources or when you finally catch your big break ... but instead as tiny, daily behaviors that are repeated until success becomes inevitable?

What if losing 50 pounds wasn't dependent on a researcher discovering the perfect diet or you finding a superhuman dose of willpower, but hinged on a series of tiny habits that you could always control? Habits like walking for 20 minutes per day, drinking 8 glasses of water per day, eating two meals instead of three.

Too often we get obsessed with making life-changing transformations. I believe you would make more progress by focusing on lifestyle behaviors.

• Losing 50 pounds would be life-changing, drinking 8 glasses of water per day is a new type of lifestyle.
• Publishing your first book would be life-changing, emailing a new book agent each day is a new type of lifestyle.
• Running a marathon would be life-changing, running 3 days per week is a new type of lifestyle.
• Earning an extra $20,000 each year would be life-changing, working an extra 5 hours per week as a freelancer is a new type of lifestyle.
• Squatting 100 more pounds would be life-changing, squatting 3 days per week is a new type of lifestyle. Do you see the difference? I think the following quote from BJ Fogg, a professor at Stanford University, sums this idea up nicely. If you plant the right seed in the right spot, it will grow without further coaxing. I believe this is the best metaphor for creating habits. The "right seed" is the tiny behavior that you choose. The "right spot" is the sequencing - what it comes after. The "coaxing" part is amping up motivation, which I think has nothing to do with creating habits. In fact, focusing on motivation as the key to habits is exactly wrong. Let me be more explicit: If you pick the right small behavior and sequence it right, then you won't have to motivate yourself to have it grow. It will just happen naturally, like a good seed planted in a good spot. -BJ Fogg

How great is that?

The typical approach is to dive into the deep end as soon as you get a dose of motivation, only to fail quickly and wish you had more willpower as your new habit drowns. The new approach is to wade into the shallow water, slowly going deeper until you reach the point where you can swim whether you're motivated or not.

Daily habits - tiny routines that are repeatable - are what make big dreams a reality. Dream big, but start small.