New Year's Resolutions: Why some people win, but most people lose

Ah, yes! It’s the most wonderful time of the year. When we reflect upon the passing year and make plans for the New Year: what we want to keep, where we want to be, and how we need to change. Then, we make them, our New Year’s Resolutions. 

 

However, in just a few days’ time, we will have failed at keeping these resolutions (again) and forgotten all about it. 

 

There are a number of psychological reasons why change is hard, and much of it has to do with habits. Habits are part of our Intuitive System, which is the fast automatic thinking we use to save energy instead of dragging out our Rational System, the slow, deliberate thinking we sometimes use. We get a cue, which triggers an automatic response, that gives us a reward.  

 

However, habits can be broken once you understand where you need to intervene. With a few tricks and some real motivation, you can kick a bad habit or even start a good one. 

 

In this episode, we explore why some people are successful with their New Year’s Resolutions and win, and why some people fail and lose out on the benefits of meeting the challenge for change in the New Year. (If you want to be a part of the first group, we suggest you listen. Want to be in the second group? Keep on rolling with your present strategy.)

 

Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience

 

Habits are a giant part of New Year’s Resolutions. Usually, we want to stop having bad ones, i.e., start losing weight and exercising, quit biting nails, or to stop smoking or drinking so much. However, sometimes we want to start good new habits, i.e., floss more, take up a new hobby or learn a musical instrument, or subscribe to a fantastic newsletter on LinkedIn (hint, hint). Below are some moments in the podcast that can help with either direction you are going with this in the new year:

 

• 03:16  Colin shares a little bit about his personal weight loss journey and how what he learned there made it clear that psychology is a big part of success or failure with resolutions. 
• 09:14 Ryan explains why using the Framing Effect on your project can be persuasive in these goals. 
• 11:10   We get into change management and how habits are an integral part of that process.
• 15:00  Ryan explains how  the two-system of cognition, and more specifically, the Intuitive System play a role in habitual behavior and why that is.
• 20:01  Colin explains how similar failures often happen with Customer Experience programs, too, but that those failures say a lot more than many people think they do.
• 25:55   Ryan explains why goals and reaching them is one thing, staying there is another. 
• 27:21  We close with an excellent suggestion on how to be successful, based on a story from the actor Terry Crews on how to build a good habit for going to the gym, and it’s not what you probably think. 

 

Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here.

 

Customer Experience Information & Resources

 

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 290,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy as one of the best management consultancies for the last four years in a row. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter.

 

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

 

Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 70,000 subscribers. 

 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.

 

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