Every New Year, we set ambitious goals. Unfortunately, most of our resolutions fade faster than we would like to admit.
In this episode of Office Hours, I explain why New Year’s resolutions so often fail. This isn’t a question of discipline per se. Instead, our failure occurs because of the way we frame our goals (and how we sometimes set the wrong goals in the first place). I explain how these forces leave us feeling discouraged and stuck.
The good news: there’s a better way to set and achieve your New Year’s resolutions. I walk through how to design your goals in the right way, so that progress depends less on force of will and more on positive incentives. I break this into simple steps grounded in what we know about how people actually change.
If you are thinking about resolutions this year, this episode will help you choose goals that truly support your well-being.
Referenced:
• The Happiness Files: Insights on Work and Life
• The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness
• The History of New Year’s Resolutions
• One in five Americans has stuck to their 2018 New Year’s Resolution
• Trying to Get in Shape? Here’s the History Behind the Common New Year’s Resolution
• Cigarette advertising to counter New Year's resolutions
• Is Your Spouse Sabotaging Your Self-Improvement Efforts?
• Exercise Your Way to Greater Well-Being
• Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything
• My 6-Step Morning Protocol for a Better Day
• Four Practical Ways to Live Like a Stoic with Ryan Holiday
• Estrangement Between Mothers and Adult Children: The Role of Norms and Values
• Aspects of openness as predictors of academic achievement
• Perception of risk and risk-taking among the lucky and the luckless
• The relationship between the Big Five personality traits and earnings: Evidence from a meta-analysis
• Intuitive decision-making and firm performance
• Go with your gut! The beneficial mood effects of intuitive decisions
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