The Science of Making — and Keeping — New Year’s Resolutions | Hal Hershfield
Jan 1, 2024
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Leading behavioral psychologist Hal Hershfield reveals strategies for making and keeping New Year's resolutions, including the concept of a future self, the importance of commitment devices, breaking down big goals, and reframing commitments. They also discuss the role of mental time travel, cherishing time with children, using commitment devices to break bad habits, finding balance between long-term goals and the present moment, and the importance of socializing.
Setting realistic goals, breaking them down, and using commitment devices improve success rates of New Year's resolutions.
Mental time travel can be harnessed to make better choices by visualizing and considering future versions of oneself.
Commitment devices, such as emergency goal reserves and accountability partners, are effective tools for behavior change.
Deep dives
Making and Keeping New Year's Resolutions
The podcast episode discusses the challenges of making and keeping New Year's resolutions. It highlights the tendency for individuals to struggle with maintaining their resolutions and provides insights from research on how to improve success rates. The episode emphasizes the importance of setting realistic goals, breaking them down into manageable parts, and using commitment devices to stay on track.
The Role of Mental Time Travel in Behavior Change
The podcast explores the concept of mental time travel and its significance in making decisions that benefit our future selves. The discussion emphasizes that humans have the unique ability to think about the future and past, and how this ability can be harnessed to make better choices. The episode presents research examples where visualizing and considering future versions of oneself has proven to be effective in motivating behavior change.
The Use of Commitment Devices
The podcast highlights the concept of commitment devices as effective tools for behavior change. Commitment devices are strategies that help individuals adhere to their desired goals and prevent self-sabotage. Examples of commitment devices discussed in the episode include setting emergency goal reserves, using goal ranges, and implementing accountability partners. The episode emphasizes the importance of finding the right commitment devices that work for each individual's specific goals and circumstances.
Connecting with Future Self
One effective strategy discussed in the podcast is to connect more emotionally with our future selves. This can be done through letter writing or having a conversation with a future version of ourselves. By stepping into the shoes of our future self, we can empathize and better understand their needs and desires, which can help bridge the gap between our intentions and actions.
Making the Present Easier
Another strategy highlighted in the podcast is to make the present easier by breaking down big goals into smaller, more manageable tasks. This can include reframing timeframes, such as considering the future in terms of days rather than years. Additionally, techniques like temptation bundling, tangential immersion, and making the big small can be employed to pair unpleasant activities with more pleasurable ones, making it easier to stay on track towards our goals.
A leading behavioral psychologist reveals practical strategies to help you actually make the changes you want to make this new year (and beyond).
Hal Hershfield is a professor of marketing, behavioral decision-making, and psychology at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and the author of Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today. His research on future selves has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, as well as the Harvard Business Review and Psychology Today.
In this episode we talk about:
What he means by a future self, and why thinking about your future self will help you make better decisions
How to think about your future self without neglecting the present moment
The importance of commitment devices, and what they are — including some which you can even adopt right now
The importance of breaking down big goals to make them achievable
How to reframe commitments so that you actually stick to them
The role of mental time travel to help you actually do what you say you want to do