nudges

Let me tell you a story:
Once upon a time, there was a nine-year-old girl who for Christmas received a blank notebook, or a journal, as her mom called it. She could write whatever she wanted in it and no one would see. The girl started writing in the journal every day; she didn't know why she liked it so much, but she was going to keep doing it.
The girl had two sisters. Pretty soon, they wondered what could be so great about writing in this notebook that their sister would love it so much. They decided to try it for themselves.
One day, the girl's best friend came over to play. The girl couldn't help but show off her journal and tell her friend how much she liked writing in it. The friend went home and, you guessed it, started keeping her own journal.
When the girl's aunt came to visit, she brought her journals. By the time the girl was in her teens, it seemed almost everyone she knew owned a journal of some kind.
Question: Why did this happen? It wasn't as though the girl was making people she knew journal, and it wasn't as though journaling was a popular activity to do. Not everyone she knew liked writing; in fact, a lot of her peers hated any subject related to school.
Answer: Nudges. Everyone was giving each other subconscious nudges. Ever read the book Nudge by the economists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein? They explain the concept much better than I am about to do. It's when people push each other, usually in a good direction, without making huge efforts. In the story, the girl's sisters and friends saw the girl journaling and thought, "Hey, I could do something else, or I could try whatever it is she is doing because she's interested in it."
In another example, supposed you've never heard of deviled eggs. At a party one day, you notice the tray of yellowish and white balls of goo are hastily being devoured. People are "mmmm"ing and "yumm" ing as they eat these. Since you're indifferent to deviled eggs, you decide there's nothing to lose in trying them and seeing if you like them.
Journaling is a difficult habit to form if you're doing it by yourself. Nudging others to do it with you makes the activity that much more enjoyable and easy. That's not to say that you should force people to keep a journal or constantly brag about how much better your writing is than everyone else's because you keep one. This is probably true, but that tactic will only push people away.
Nudges are subtle hint-hints. Most likely your friends will catch on pretty quickly, seeing as how they hang out with you and probably think you're pretty cool in the first place.
Nudging is the key to getting past the "I'm the only one doing it" mentality that seems to be a roadblock for some people.
And, yes, the girl in the sappy story is me.