Transcript
If you don't want to fail at your New Year's resolution, here are four science-backed strategies that you can use. One, own the fresh start effect. Get out of that all-or-nothing mindset and treat each new week as a new chance to succeed. Try to collect successful weeks. This turns failures into temporary setbacks. Two, avoid avoidance. Negative habits like avoid junk food take more mental energy and fail more often than positive ones like snack on vegetables. Constant vigilance is hard, but you can tie positive habits. to specific reminder cues, like enter kitchen, look at vegetable bowl. Three, maintain agency. It's nice to offload willpower to someone else like a personal trainer to hold you accountable, but complete external dependence makes for a fragile habit. A once-a-week trainer check-in might be a lot more successful than a every single workout one, and be easier on the wallet. I apologize to all my personal trainer friends. Four, and this is a big one, whoop your fantasies. Not that way. Studies show that spending too much time mentally envisioning success actually can make you less likely to obtain it because it tricks your brain into thinking that you're already there, and so it can relax. The daydreamer's dilemma. But to combat this, researchers developed the WOOP framework. Wish. Identify a feasible, challenging goal. Outcome. Vividly imagine the best result. Obstacle. Vividly imagine the greatest internal obstacle standing in your way. P. Create a highly specific, if then plan for overcoming that obstacle. So here's an example. Wish. Exercise for 30 minutes four times a week. Outcome. I feel energized. My mood is better. I feel proud about how I look. Obstacle. After work, I feel tired and all I want to do is scroll on my phone. Plan. If I get home and feel too tired to exercise, then I put on my workout clothes and do a five-minute warm-up with no obligation to do anything beyond that. Having this pre-planned commitment makes willpower far less important. Important. Important. Important. make people twice as physically active. But we'll cover those details and more examples in the next video. For Science.
Additional notes
What are your 1. Top resolutions and 2. Strategies for accomplishing them? I’ll hold you to whatever you post! Each of the strategies discussed here have specifics studies behind them that I’ll be covering! #science #newyears #newtearsreslolutions
References
- Fresh start effect, avoidance/approach habits, agency/accountability, mental contrasting, and WOOP framework studies discussed in transcript/caption; study titles, DOI/PMID numbers, and source links not listed in workbook.