THINKER'S ALMANAC - January 1

How is it possible to make New Year’s resolutions more than once a year?

Subject:  Planning/Resolutions - Fresh Start Effect

Event:  New Year’s Day

Every day is a new opportunity to begin again. Every day is your birthday. -Dalai Lama

Each year on this day, people wake up resolved to start the new year afresh, throwing past bad habits into the dustbin and trying on new good habits like a new suit of clothes.  Unfortunately, for most people, New Year’s resolutions fail.  There is, however, good news from the world of science, informing all of us how we can increase the likelihood of sticking with our resolutions.

                                                                    Image by Dorothe from Pixabay 

Katherine Milkman, Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions at the Wharton School, published a much-cited study in 2014 about what she calls the fresh start effect. Milkman’s research shows that it’s not just the beginning of a new year that inspires us to establish new, positive habits; instead, any specific date -- such as a birthday, an anniversary, the start of a new school year, or even the beginning of a new week or month -- can provide us with the fresh start we need to take on the challenge of changing our behavior.  Milkman documented the fresh start effect by collecting data on the frequency with which people search for the term “diet” on Google as well as documenting how often and when people visited gyms.  As Milkman’s data shows, a new year is not the only temporal landmark that offers a fresh start; instead, other special occasions or end dates motivate people to take action toward achieving their goals.

Of course, more fresh starts don’t necessarily mean more success, but Milkman also has helpful suggestions on specific things that people can do to increase the likelihood that their new behavior will stick.

First, it is important to record a concrete plan.  In one study, for example, people who physically wrote down their plans to get a flu shot on a specific date and time were 13% more likely to actually follow through and get the shot than those who didn’t write anything down.  Furthermore, people are more likely to follow through with changes if there is money on the line.  For example, you might put money aside and stipulate that if you don’t quit smoking for at least two months, you will forfeit the money.  This is also the principle behind the Ulysses Contract (See THINKER’S ALMANAC - April 3), where a person sets up deliberate, painful consequences for themselves as motivation to reach their goal.  If you were trying to lose weight, for example, you might stipulate that if you don’t lose at least ten pounds at the end of six months, you must contribute $100 to a cause or organization that you loathe.

Milkman also advises to “bundle your temptations” by combining one of your guilty pleasures with something that is necessary but not as much fun.  For example, you might limit yourself to only watching Netflix while riding your stationary bike.  Finally, Milkman advises you to not go it alone when it comes to pursuing your goals; instead, seek out the social support of a mentor.  One study, for example, showed that “patients with poorly controlled diabetes were paired with patients who previously had poorly controlled diabetes but had since achieved mastery over their disease. The improvements in glycemic control achieved by those mentored in this study were larger than those produced by many leading drugs” (1).

January 1 comes just once a year, but the fresh start effect should remind us that there are many more temporal landmarks that provide us the opportunity to start anew.  And by following at least some of Milkman's best practices, we can nudge ourselves towards a higher probability of following through with our goals.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the fresh start effect, and what is the best way to ensure that you keep your resolutions?

Challenge - New Year, New Start:  Write out a plan employing some of Katherine Milkman’s tips.  What is a resolution or goal that you would like to achieve this week, this month, or this year?  How might you use deliberate planning and sound psychological principles to help you achieve it?

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

-January 1, 1962:  On this day, The Beatles traveled from their homes in Liverpool to London for a New Year’s Day audition with Decca Records, one of the two major record labels in Britain.  They played 15 songs for Dick Rowe, Decca’s talent scout, who later wrote a letter to The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein saying, “We don’t like your boys’ sound.  Groups are out; four-piece groups with guitars, particularly, are finished.” 

-January 1, 1972:  Paul Janis’ study on groupthink (Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascoes) was published on this day.  Janis explored how groups of intelligent people sometimes make bad decisions, such as the Kennedy Administration's failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.  The failure resulted from Kennedy allowing his subordinates to tell him what he wanted to hear rather than encouraging them to question and criticize the invasion plan.  Fortunately, Kennedy learned from this failure and applied lessons learned in October 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  By encouraging debate and the airing of multiple points of view, Kennedy was successful in getting the Soviets to remove their missiles from Cuba.

-January 1, 1986:  One of the most successful slogans in history premiered on this day.  During the television coverage of the 50th Annual Cotton Bowl Classic football game, a television advertisement ran featuring Stevie Ray Vaughn, singing the “Eyes Of Texas.” The ad ended with the line “Don't Mess With Texas!” (2).

Sources:

1-Milkman, Katherine L. and Kevin G. Volpp.  “How to Keep Your Resolutions.”  The New York Times 3 January 2014.

2-Heath, Chip and Dan Heath.  Made To Stick:  Why Some Ideas Die and Others Survive.  New York:  Random House, 2007:  196.