Have you ever accidentally broken a good habit? Like, you forgot one time to do yoga, and somehow it never happened again?

Suddenly, a behavior you spent weeks working on is just wiped out. You did everything right — so what went wrong?

For a habit to stick, you need to do more than just repeat it, says behavioral scientist BJ Fogg, founder of Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab. You need motivation, the ability to do the action and a prompt to do it. “When those three things come together, the behavior happens.”

Fogg shares insights based on the Tiny Habits method, a research-backed approach he developed in 2007 on how to create lasting change.

This comic was drawn by the cartoonist Vreni Stollberger, based on writing by Mika Ellison and reporting by Marielle Segarra.

Vreni Stollberger is a cartoonist based in Queens, N.Y., who loves using comics to break down complex topics, from policy and science to history and culture.

The podcast episode was produced by Sylvie Douglis. The comic was edited by Malaka Gharib. The visual editor is CJ Riculan. We’d love to hear from you. Email us at LifeKit@npr.org. Listen to Life Kit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or sign up for our newsletter.