New Year Resolutions, Temporal Landmarks and the Fresh Start Effect
Gyms are full in January, but the number of gym-goers goes down as the year progresses, and some estimates suggest that 50% of those who start in January stop by October.
Yougov.com runs a regular poll among Americans to find out about their New Year resolutions. What comes out of these polls is a universal truth. They are an average citizen's wishlist, including us from the tiny Maldives islands. Here are the top resolutions for 2024:
Temporal landmarks and fresh starts make it easier for people to adopt and form habits and aspirational behaviours where the end goal requires engaging in a series of goal-directed actions (e.g., dieting, exercising, and committing to a personal goal).
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Dai (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5pPXZyfuoY), Milkman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37yIGeBDo8M) and Riis presented evidence as far back as 2014 that across three archival field studies, there was evidence of a “fresh start effect.” They showed that Google searches for the term “diet” , gym visits, and commitments to pursue goals all increase following temporal landmarks (e.g., the outset of a new week, month, year, or semester; a birthday; a holiday). They proposed that these landmarks demarcate the passage of time, creating many new mental accounting periods each year, which relegate past imperfections to a previous period, induce people to take a big-picture view of their lives, and thus motivate aspirational behaviors.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb has a different idea: he says that positive resolutions has not worked for him and as far back as 2013, he has advocated for 'eliminating' certain behaviors from one's daily routine instead of starting something new. He says that putting in simple rules like 'never be late' works better. Nassim points out the effectiveness of interdicts in religion.
Whatever your resolution is for this year, I hope you are successful and here is one more recommendation - it is the book by Dan Pink on the scientific secrets of perfect timing. Here is a link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUhnzxrNpCc) to the talk he gave on the book to Googlers few years ago.
All the very best for 2024.