After willpower failed to stick with exercise, the speaker put his sneakers on the toilet seat. Now he grabs them every morning before using the bathroom, turning an existing habit into a trigger for the new one.
About 20 years ago or so, I said I'm going to start exercising regularly. And I was a little bit off the wagon on that and said, I got to commit to this. And so what I tried to do was to willpower my way to health. I'm going to work out like an animal, eat well, all this commitment. And that did work for about 24 hours. The first day I had a great workout, I ate well. But the second day I was so freaking sore. I'm like, I'm never going to work out again. This is stupid. And I fell off the wagon quickly. Then I looked at something different. I noticed that when I wake up in the morning, I go to the bathroom and then I make myself a cup of coffee and my day would kind of start going from there. And I was skipping my workout somewhere between that trajectory. Then I said, okay, I guarantee when I wake up in the morning, I will use the bathroom. So I started putting my sneakers on the toilet seat. The only way I could use the bathroom was where I grabbed my sneakers. That's a commitment device. A pattern you already follow is intercepted with something that you will redirect you or bring you to the outcome you want.
