The Floss one Tooth technique
A habit is not a singular action
The habit word is somewhat misleading in that it implies it is a singular thing. In reality, most habits can be broken down into multiple sequential steps or actions. For example a new habit of going for a 5km run involves a whole raft of mini-actions; finding sports clothes, putting on running shoes, heading out to door, picking a route, warming up, running for 5km, cooling down and so on.
“How do you eat an elephant? One chunk at a time!”
Kicking new habits into gear, especially those “no pain, no gain” ones, can be a real challenge. A technique that can help to get it started is committing to only the first mini-action (one small chunk of the elephant so to speak).
This is called the “Floss only a single tooth” technique whereby you only commit to picking up the floss and flossing one tooth. That’s it - a tiny, quick and low-effort commitment.
You might say, who in their right mind would only ever floss one tooth? Exactly the point, you won’t!(well not for long anyway before people around you start worrying about your sanity).
Chances are you will say to yourself one of two things:
This is ridiculous and continue to floss all your teeth
Now that I have started, I might as well floss all my teeth
Bingo - mission accomplished. It might take a few days before you get to this point, and that’s ok.
How can you apply this technique?
Like with the “Nudge Theory”, the options are endless and we invite you to get really creative and perhaps have some fun with this. Here are some examples. Commit to only:
put your running shoes on (when struggling to start a running habit)
warm-up / walk (when struggling to start a running habit)
pick the healthy meal recipe and get the ingredients (when struggling to adopt a healthier eating habit)
get into your pyjamas at 9.30pm (when struggling to get into a “going to bed earlier” habit)
turn off social media notifications at 8pm (when you want to disconnect from social media 2-hours before bed)
“A journey of a thousand miles, starts with a single step.”
