Vedge Your Best, Vegan Ideas for Everyone At Any Age 276: Want Change? Remember - You’ll Forget.
Dec 16, 2025
Changing habits can be tough, and the biggest challenge is often just remembering to act. Michele shares insights on how the brain renegotiates plans and why routines can be hard to establish. She highlights concepts like the Doorway Effect, which shows how moving between spaces can cause us to forget our intentions. Tune in to learn practical tips for creating cues that help you remember your goals. Celebrating small wins and using spaced repetition can turn intentions into lasting habits!
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Remembering Is The Real Barrier To Change
- Michele Olender reveals that the hardest part of change is not doing the thing but remembering to do it in the moment.
- Intentions often drift apart from action because memory, not willpower, is usually the failure point.
Art History Lessons In Forgetting
- Michele shares her experience in graduate art history where she repeatedly forgot preparatory work despite loving the subject.
- That struggle reduced her self-blame and increased empathy for her children who also forgot tasks.
Your Brain Renegotiates Yesterday's Promises
- Michele explains the brain “renegotiates” commitments each day and prefers familiar routines over new intentions.
- New behaviors lack habit loops, so the brain treats them as optional and defaults to past actions.