Change Your Habits to Uncover Your Hidden Potential
Some sources say it takes 66 days to form a habit. Other sources say it’s 254 days. Still others claim it’s 14, or 30, or 180. So which is it? How long do you have to dedicate repetition before something becomes a habit?
It comes down to two factors: how much you’re trying to change, and how badly you want it.
TEDxBillings 2025 – Uncovering Hidden Potential
This year, TedXBillings is all about uncovering hidden potential. Our speaker lineup is loaded with amazing stories of how these ordinary people discovered their talents and put them to work. When you come to the main event this September, you’ll get a chance to learn how they did it and how many of them started with changing up their habits.
That Potential Needs New (Better) Habits
Our lives are run by habits. In fact, most of us don’t even realize that these habits are little systems that create routine in our lives and allow us to live happier and healthier days.
Without habits, we would consciously have to make decisions for every single action. Our brains, compared to other animals, are huge. They make up 2% of our bodies, but use up 20% of the energy we burn every single day.
If we didn’t use systems, routines, and habits, that energy consumption would skyrocket and we’d barely be able to function. Instead, we just go on autopilot. Get up on the same side of the bed every day, dress in the same manner, eat the same way (and the same things). The fewer decisions we have to make, the better for energy conservation.
However, bad habits can sneak in. And once they’re part of the routine, they can get in the way of accomplishing what we actually want to accomplish.
How to Shape Habits Quickly
To uncover our own hidden potential, we have to get rid of the bad habits. However, you can’t just wipe a habit out and leave an empty space; you have to replace that bad habit with something good.
Fortunately, there are experts who know just how to do this. One of them is BJ Fogg who wrote the book Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything.
In brief, he suggests we set our lives up for tiny successes and tiny victories. These will grow from tiny habits into bigger ones.
Instead of completely restructuring your day, restructure just 15 minutes. When you’re successful, celebrate (a fist pump and a “Yes!” is enough to give you a little dopamine hit). The brain quickly associates the action with the dopamine, says, “I want more of that!” and establishes a new habit.
But if you’ve ever tackled something hard, motivation alone doesn’t last. You have to anchor your habit changes to something you do every day. For example, if you want to work out more, heading to the gym for 2 hours a day isn’t feasible right away. But doing a pushup a day is. That tiny habit can be anchored to brushing your teeth: brush teeth, do a pushup, fist pump and a “yes!” Suddenly you’ve started a tiny habit. Now you just have to grow it.
Join us in September for the TEDxBillings Main Event
As we get closer to the main event on September 26th (that’s a Friday, don’t forget to request the day off work!) think of the habits you want to change in your life.
- What are the big goals?
- How can they be broken down into small goals?
- How can you take those small goals and tackle them with tiny habits?
- Uncover your own hidden potential, then come see how others did the same thing you just did.
