In this solo presentation, Jim Kwik introduces Dr. BJ Fogg’s habit‑creation framework, the B=MAT model (Behavior = Motivation × Ability × Trigger). He explains each element in detail, showing how to deliberately design good habits rather than react to external cues. Kwik guides viewers to pick a specific behavior (e.g., daily reading, brain‑boosting smoothies, journaling, exercise), then assess motivation on a 0‑10 scale and ask how to raise it, develop the necessary ability through training and environment changes, and set concrete triggers (alarms, visual cues, doorway routines) to prompt the action. He provides vivid examples—using an elevator as a trigger for squats, placing a book by the bedside, or a brain‑tea cue for journaling—and demonstrates how to audit unwanted habits by lowering motivation, adjusting ability, or removing triggers. The talk is instructional, encouraging, and focused on actionable steps for habit engineering.
Chapters
Now, the expert in this field of habit creation is someone by the name of Dr. BJ Fogg, Dr. BJ Fogg out of Stanford University. And he runs the lab there, and actually one of his students co-created Instagram. Talk about things that are addictive and habit-forming, because you know every time you're on there, you get a like and a share and a comment, it makes you want to go back for more and more and more. Well, how do you create the things that are good for you, get that dopamine fix? How do you do that for the things that are— that you want to do? And you do it by design, so you're not Not just reacting to how the world is trying to create habits around you to consume things and get you to do certain things. What can you do for yourself? I'm going to teach you his model, his model for creating habits, and it's called BMAT, B equals M-A-T. B equals M-A-T. The B in this formula stands for the behavior. The behavior is the actual habit. What do you want to change? What do you want to add, or what do you want to subtract? A habit right now. For me, I hope reading has become a habit. If you're watching this right now and you have the follow-through, I assume reading every single day is something that you're already doing. If it's not, apply this towards reading. Now, if you already are reading right now, let's take another habit. Let's maybe take a habit that's along the lines of something that's brain-friendly. Maybe it's making a brain smoothie every day. Maybe it's meditating. Maybe it's journaling. Maybe it's getting good sleep. Pick a behavior so we can apply it towards that, right? What do you want to make a new habit for yourself? What's going to transform your life? That's the B. Now the B equals MAT. The M in the formula stands for motivation. Motivation. Now what is motivation? What is that feeling, that emotion that gets you to act? Your motive for taking action, if you will. Because according to his formula, If you want to create a behavior but you're not motivated to do that new habit, what's your chances of actually that behavior sticking? Very slim to none, because your motivation is zero. Anything times zero is what? Is zero. So who's in control of your motivation? Who's in control? You are, of course. So a quick tip I would recommend to be able to enhance your motivation is this: is do a check-in around this behavior. How motivated are you to work out? Let's say that's your behavior you want to change. And let's say it's a 0 to 10. What do you— what does it feel like to you? Let's say somebody says, my motivation on a scale of 0 to 10 happens to be a 5. Then what I would do is ask yourself a new question and say, okay, I can't manage something unless I can measure it. It feels like a 5. And here's the question: how do I make it feel like a 7? How do I get my motivation from a 5 to a 7? You're asking a brand new question. And ask and you shall what? Get. You shall receive. So maybe you want to be able to read 30 minutes a day. That's the new behavior. Motivation— how motivated are you to become a quick reader? Maybe it feels like a 5. What do I need to do to make it a 7? Ask yourself that question. Or if your motivation is a 3, what do I need to make it a 5? And you just incrementally grow it. Or maybe it's a 9 and you say, my motivation is a 9 to be a quick reader and to read 30 minutes a day. Ask yourself, how do we make it a 10? And in your mind, you'll start to picture different things. Like, for example, whatever your motivation is to read every single day, put a number to it right now. What's your motivation on a scale of 0 to 10? Now, whatever it is, add 2 points to it and say, what does it need? What needs to happen in order for it to be this new number? And what are some of your answers? Shout it out loud. You're like, okay, well, maybe I'll reward myself. If I do this, I'll do this for myself. Or maybe I just have to visualize the benefits I get after becoming a quick reader. Or maybe I think about the confidence I'll have when this happens, right? You start changing it in your mind and all of a sudden it feels like more motivating. And then maybe you're doing something the opposite. Maybe you're motivated by that pleasure of it, or maybe you're motivated by also the pain. Wow, I think about if I don't do this, who is it gonna hurt? If I don't— if I'm not reading 30 minutes a day, who am I letting down? How am I being held back? So your motivation could drive up saying, oh, Oh, if I don't learn this and read these sales books, I'm not gonna be able to earn this income. And how's that— how's my family gonna be affected? Your motivation spikes, right? So that's the B and that's the M. B equals MAT. The M stands for motivation. One brain hack you could do is just level up in your mind saying, put a number to it because you can't manage it unless you can measure it. And ask yourself, what do I need to do to get— make it a 7 and then an 8 and And then a 10, right? Because if it's a 10, that behavior is happening. Now, but it's not happening if you don't have the A. What does the A stand for? The A stands for ability. Ability. Because in order to do quick reading, for example, if that's the behavior, you need the ability. So you need the training. It'd be impossible to do a new habit, for example, if you didn't have the ability to do so. So that's something that you— only could come through the proper training and also setting yourself in an environment where you could actually do that. So for example, if you want to work out every single day but you don't have the ability to get to the gym, then you have to change that a little bit. Maybe you work out at home, right? So your ability, you train it. And finally, the T. B equals MAT. The T— this is so important but often overlooked— the T stands for trigger. Trigger. All habits need a trigger. What is a trigger? It's the reminder. What reminds you to do this behavior? And so this is the area that I want you to really look closely to, the motivation and the trigger. Once you're motivated to do the reading, for example, what triggers you or reminds you to do it? So for example, you could set up your environment in a way where you provide triggers for yourself. Simple way is setting an alarm, put it on your schedule. That's why we had you scheduling this in advance. your reading, right? And you have your alarm go off, and that's a trigger to remind you, because you're already motivated, to do your reading. You know, maybe it's putting your trigger is having your sneakers or your running shoes right by the door, and you know you're gonna walk past it at a certain time. It reminds you to get to the gym or to run outside, for example. A trigger, a simple example, I lived for a while in a high-story building, and I was on the 30th floor. And part of me, I talk about digital dementia and how we're so reliant on technology, it makes us mentally weak, but also physically. I was Ubering everywhere and I wouldn't walk 10 minutes somewhere. I was like, oh, my body is not in as good shape as it once was. I'm using technology and my body is getting weaker. Every time I would go into this building, I'm like, I'm not going to walk up 30 flights of stairs and down every single time. But what I ended up doing is every time I went into the elevator and I was alone, which was most of the time, I would just be doing these squats, or I would be doing my super brain yoga. By doing that, my trigger was that elevator. Even to this day, years later, every time I'm in an elevator by myself, I start doing squats because that became my trigger, because you could control your triggers. You could teach yourself what reminds you to do what. My friend Brendan Burchard has a trigger every single time he walks through a doorway He puts himself into 3 emotional states. Maybe the states are, I want to be bold, I want to be funny, I want to be present. And every single time he walks through a doorway, it triggers him to be that person. So here's the question: what is a behavior you want to change? For me, I'd like you to pick one that's around your brain and learning and reading. Pick a new behavior because we don't want this to be the end, we want this to be the beginning. And then do a motivation check. What's your motivation to do this behavior? And ability— have I gone through the training? The same reason why I read books sometimes over and over again— there's certain books I like to read over and over again, not because the book has changed at all, but what, what's changed? I've changed, right? So if I reread a book 2 years later, I get more out of it because I'm a different person. And finally, what's the trigger that's gonna remind you to read? Maybe you have a book by your bedstand every single night, and when you see the book That becomes the trigger. Or maybe, for example, every morning I make a brain tea or brain power smoothie, and that's the trigger to remind me to journal. And so that one behavior leads to another behavior, because the studies say that about 40 or 50 or more percent of your day is spent just doing habits. So remember, consciously create your habits, and then your habits will create you. And do an audit, because if you want to change your habits and you're doing something That you don't want to do, look at this formula. What's the behavior or something you don't want to do, right? And then look at your motivation and look at your ability to do that behavior and what's triggering you that. So for example, we talk about how your brain is being rewired for distraction by looking at your phone first thing in the morning. Maybe that's the behavior you want to stop. So what do you do? You lower the motivation. How can you lower your motivation? Well, think about all the negative effects that, that phone is having on your brain first thing in the morning. Think about how it's affecting your family, the things that you value the most, right? Your ability is probably not going to change very much because that's— you're trained to be able to look at your phone, right? But you could change your trigger. Simple thing you could do every single morning is just have your phone in a different room so you don't— you remove the trigger, and then all of a sudden you can't do the behavior.
