Resolutions fail because…

In her book, How to Change, Katy Milkman writes:

“We’re more likely to pursue change on dates that feel like new beginnings because these moments help us overcome a common obstacle to goal initiation: the sense that we’ve failed before and will, thus, fail again.”

New year, new week, new me. It’s a birthday. It’s a new job. This time is different. 

But it’s only different when the structure changes. 

Reliance on fresh starts fails because only the narrative changes, not the structure. 

Milkman writes about a study of college transfers. Some kids transferred from the local two-year school while others came in from out of town. The local kids made fewer changes – good and bad! Fresh starts with a different structure push the variance of the changes outward. Sometimes the changes are a desired direction and sometimes not.  

“When we hope to change,” Milkman writes, “we have an opportunity to try reshaping our environment to help us disrupt old routines and ways of thinking.” 

Successful resolutions are an issue of design, not mindset. Like the high jump, the physical surroundings matter!

Want to stick with resolutions? Change the rules.