Prologue:
What do psychologists, authors and zen master’s have in common? Advice about how to change. This post is a string of topics all related to the moment of a new year. Change usually comes during a temporal milestone, like the start of a new semester, a birthday or a new year. While the allure of a fresh start is undeniable, New year resolutions often stumble under the weight of ambition. We pile on lofty goals, juggling fitness transformations, career climbs, and culinary revolutions only to watch them crumble like stale fireworks. Let’s keep it simple and effective [if this blog had a credo…].
If resolutions are your thing, then take the three tips below to give yourself a great—science supported—start at your goal.
Hope you enjoy this style of post and I look forward to bringing you many more ways to live a well spent life in 2024.
1/ Healthy: Approach-Oriented Goals
The way you approach and structure your resolutions will have an effect on your likelihood to achieve it. Our psychology frames changes to emphasize our flaws and discredit our features. The logical approach is to think of ways to reduce our flaws by removing [avoiding] the things that bring us shame or other negative emotions. The trouble with that approach is that it doesn’t work nearly as well as goals with a positive outcome—known as approach-oriented goals. Thanks to this large-scale experiment, we can conclude that approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals.
The tip: Focus on positive outcomes, I.e. “Reading Well Spent each week will help me to live a healthier, wealthier, wiser life.”
2/ Wealthy: Power of Less from Leo Babauta
What if, instead of building a sky-high tower of resolutions, we focused on laying a single, solid brick?
Leo Babauta wrote an excellent book: Power of Less. Where he presents ideas for how to make lasting change through a variety of tactics. All of them deserve to be in this post but we don’t have that kind of mindshare and it would be ironic to do so. So let’s aim at one of the most profound tactics, the idea of focusing on only one change at a time.
“Leo advocates that you use smaller behavioral changes as a lever for major behavioral changes. In other words, start smart to seed the right habit before you aim to maximize output. In the beginning the habit is more important than the result.” -Tim Ferris
Focusing on one goal dramatically increases your success rate. With a single resolution, you have a high chance of achievement ~80%. Two or more goals? That plummets to a rate low enough to consider failure – a recipe for discouragement.
So, embrace the power of one. Choose a single resolution, be it mastering meditation, ditching sugar, or decluttering your home. Now do it for 30 days straight. If you were successful for that time period (longer for some habits and some people), then you can move on to another change. That is how you build a lasting shift in your habits.
The tip: Focus on only one change at a time, do it until it’s a regular habit, only then should you add another change. I.e. “I’m going to block out all of the web noise and only read Well Spent each week.”
3/ Wise: Action Sentences from James Clear
So you have by now framed your one resolution in an approach-oriented way, then what? To give yourself the best chance of achievement, let’s take some advice from Atomic Habits author, James Clear. James has done the research for us and he found that writing the goal in a single clear sentence increases the chance of achievement by 2-3x.
The change is that you move from reliance on motivation—what we think we need to act—toward intention—what we actually need to act consistently. Intentionality amplifies our prompt to action, while having your goal in a clearly defined sentence will give you the structure to make the change. The chart below is an illustration of how a group that was intention based—through writing their goals in a structured way— has a 91% achievement compared to <40% for other groups!
Broadly speaking, the format for creating an implementation intention is:
“When situation X arises, I will perform response Y.” -James Clear
The tip: write your resolution in one clear sentence. I.e. “Every Sunday I will do 5minute conscious breathing routine in my kitchen after I finish reading Well Spent.”
Stay healthy, wealthy, and wise.
With warmth,
Fernando R.F.
(Note: This blog is not written by a medical or financial professional. It's important to consult with a healthcare professional before making significant changes to your diet or lifestyle, especially if you have any underlying health conditions. They can provide personalized guidance tailored to your individual needs. It is important to do your own research and determine the best course of action together with an expert.)
Go Deeper:
https://jamesclear.com/master-one-thing#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20researchers%20found%20that,focused%20on%20a%20single%20goal.
https://positivepsychology.com/goal-setting-psychology/#findings
https://jamesclear.com/implementation-intentions