The Science of Making — and Keeping — New Year's Resolutions | Hal Hershfield
Hal Hershfield, a professor of marketing, behavioral decision-making, and psychology at UCLA, discusses strategies to make and keep New Year's resolutions. He explains how connecting with your future self, using commitment devices, and reframing goals can help bridge the gap between intentions and actions.
Deep Dive Analysis
13 Topic Outline
Introduction to New Year's Resolutions and Behavioral Psychology
Hal Hershfield's Background and Research Focus
The Connection Between Identity and Future Decisions
The Fresh Start Effect and Why Resolutions Fail
Strategies for Setting and Sticking to Goals
The Role of Flexibility and Consistency in Behavior Change
The 'Kitchen Sink' Approach vs. Focused Change
Understanding Mental Time Travel and Its Importance
Techniques for Connecting with Your Future Self
The Concept of Multiple Future Selves
Leveraging Commitment Devices for Behavior Change
Making Present Actions Easier for Future Benefit
Balancing Present Enjoyment with Future Planning
7 Key Concepts
Future Self
This refers to the person we will become at some point in the future. Our perception of and connection to this future self significantly impacts the decisions we make in the present moment, influencing choices like spending vs. saving or exercising vs. being sedentary.
Fresh Start Effect
This is the psychological phenomenon where certain temporal landmarks, like a new year, a new month, or even a new week, provide a sense of a 'clean slate.' This feeling motivates individuals to start new goals or change behaviors, believing they can do things differently this time.
Mental Time Travel
This is the human ability to think about the future or reflect on the past. It's crucial for understanding how current decisions will affect future outcomes and how we might feel about them later, though people often struggle to use it effectively for long-term benefit.
Future Anhedonia
This term describes the tendency for the future to feel less emotional and more abstract in our minds compared to the present. This abstraction can make it harder to connect with our future selves and make decisions that prioritize long-term well-being.
Commitment Devices
These are strategies designed to put 'guardrails' on future behavior, ensuring that our actions align with our intentions. They work by making it more difficult or costly to deviate from a chosen path, helping to bridge the gap between planning and doing.
Temptation Bundling
This behavioral strategy involves pairing a 'painful' or difficult activity (like working out) with a pleasurable one (like listening to a favorite audiobook). The rule is that the pleasurable activity can only be indulged in while performing the less desirable one, making the difficult task more appealing.
Tangential Immersion
Similar to temptation bundling, this involves pairing an uncomfortable or boring activity with something mildly engaging. The key is to choose a pleasurable activity that is just engaging enough to keep you focused on the main task without completely distracting you from it, thus increasing the likelihood of completing the task for the desired duration.
8 Questions Answered
The way we perceive ourselves and the degree of connection we feel to our future self significantly impacts our present decisions, affecting choices that have long-term consequences like financial planning or health behaviors.
Resolutions often fail because people get pulled back into their present reality, and life takes over. Additionally, the types of goals set and the approach to tackling them can be unrealistic, leading to abandonment when setbacks occur.
Emergency reserves (e.g., 7 days/week goal with 2 'reserve' days) prevent a single failure from derailing the entire goal, allowing for a quick return to the habit. Goal ranges (e.g., 1-5 days/week) provide both a stretch goal and a low-end target, keeping motivation high even during difficult periods.
Mental time travel is the ability to project oneself into the future or reflect on the past. It's important because it allows us to consider the long-term consequences of our present decisions and how we might feel about them, helping to counteract present bias.
Strategies include writing a letter to a future self and then writing a letter back from that future self, or using age-progressed images. The goal is to make the abstract future self more concrete and emotional, similar to how charities use stories and pictures to evoke empathy.
Commitment devices are strategies that create 'guardrails' for future behavior, ensuring actions align with intentions. They work by making it more difficult or costly to deviate from a chosen path, ranging from soft promises to accountability partners with financial penalties.
Breaking down big goals (e.g., saving $150/month into $5/day) makes the present action feel easier and less daunting. This 'make the big small' approach increases the likelihood of starting and sticking with the behavior, even if the overall effort is the same.
It's crucial to avoid solely sacrificing the present for a brighter future. Sometimes, living for the present, such as prioritizing social connections or creating memories, can also benefit the future self by contributing to overall well-being and happiness, making it a two-sided coin.
14 Actionable Insights
1. Connect with Your Future Self
Actively think about and connect emotionally with the person you will become in the future, as this connection significantly impacts the decisions you make today. This bridge between your intentions and actions helps you make choices that lead to future satisfaction rather than regret.
2. Make Your Future Self Vivid
To strengthen your emotional connection to your future self, make that future self more vivid and concrete. This can be done by writing a letter to your future self (and receiving one back), telling a story about your future self, or using age-progressed images.
3. Leverage Fresh Start Moments
Utilize “fresh start” moments, such as the New Year, the start of a new quarter, or even a Monday, as opportunities to wipe the slate clean and begin new behaviors or goals. These moments provide a psychological boost, making it easier to convince yourself that this time, you will do things differently.
4. Implement Commitment Devices
Use commitment devices to put guardrails on your future behavior, ensuring your actions align with your long-term goals. These can range from soft commitments like telling an accountability partner, to stronger ones like removing temptations or using timed safes, to the strongest, which involve an accountability partner and a material cost for failure.
5. Break Down Big Goals
Make large goals feel more achievable by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable parts. Framing a large sum (e.g., $150 a month) as a smaller daily increment (e.g., $5 a day) can significantly increase the likelihood of starting and sticking with a new habit.
6. Set Goals with Emergency Reserves
When setting ambitious goals, build in “emergency reserves” or buffer days to account for inevitable setbacks. For example, aim to work out seven days a week but allow for two emergency days, so that missing a day doesn’t feel like a complete failure and allows you to get back on track.
7. Utilize Goal Ranges
Instead of a single target, set a range for your goals (e.g., meditate 1-5 days a week instead of 3). This approach allows the high end to stretch you further while the low end keeps you involved and motivated even during challenging periods.
8. Prioritize Consistency in Practice
While flexibility in goal setting (like ranges or reserves) is beneficial, strive for consistency and regularity when actually putting goals into practice. This structured approach helps maintain momentum and makes behavior change more sustainable, similar to effective parenting.
9. Start with Easy Tasks
When facing a new goal or a daunting task, begin by tackling the easiest parts first. This generates a sense of momentum and makes the overall process feel less painful, increasing the likelihood that you will continue and complete everything.
10. Make the Present Easier
Actively seek ways to reduce the perceived “pain” or sacrifice associated with actions that benefit your future self. By making the immediate effort less burdensome, you increase the likelihood of following through with beneficial behaviors.
11. Bundle Temptations for Motivation
Pair a necessary but less enjoyable activity with a highly pleasurable one that you only allow yourself to do during the less enjoyable task. For example, only listen to your favorite audiobook while exercising, making the workout more appealing.
12. Use Tangential Immersion Wisely
To sustain an uncomfortable or boring activity for a longer duration, pair it with a moderately engaging, complementary pleasurable activity. The key is to find a match where the pleasurable activity is just engaging enough to distract without completely overshadowing the main task, like doing a word puzzle while brushing teeth.
13. Embrace Multiple Strategies, Focused
When experimenting with behavior change, consider trying a few different strategies simultaneously, as a “kitchen sink” approach can be effective for seeing initial movement. However, avoid trying to change everything at once; focus on one or two key habits to build confidence and fuel further changes.
14. Balance Future with Present
While planning for your future self is crucial, recognize the danger of over-sacrificing the present. Actively engage in present experiences, build relationships, and create memories, as these aspects of living in the moment also serve and enrich your future self.
7 Key Quotes
the way that we see ourselves and how connected we see ourselves to the person we will one day become, that has an impact, that sense of connection has an impact on the decisions that we make right now
Hal Hershfield
it's bridging that gap between the intentions that I have and the actions I take.
Hal Hershfield
If you've spent any of our conversation thinking about what you're going to have for lunch, that's a form of mental time travel
Hal Hershfield
we often act in what we could call present biased ways. We act in ways that almost overweight the consequences of things that are happening right now and underweight the consequences that will occur later.
Hal Hershfield
The future is really abstract. And part of what happens there is that the abstraction of the future makes it a little bit less emotional.
Hal Hershfield
the bus driver is the most dominant self that may be the current self. And then the passengers are different iterations of our past and future selves, some of whom may be having a louder voice at other times and can actually almost impact the driver, and some of whom may be quiet.
Hal Hershfield
I really don't want anybody to leave this conversation thinking that all we need to do is go sacrifice now, make the present more bleak for a brighter future. I really think it needs to be two sides of the same coin.
Hal Hershfield
4 Protocols
Emergency Goal Reserves
Hal Hershfield (referencing Marissa Sharif)- Set an ambitious goal (e.g., work out seven days a week).
- Allocate a specific number of 'emergency reserves' per period (e.g., two days per week).
- If you miss a day, use an emergency reserve instead of considering the goal completely failed.
- This allows for flexibility and helps maintain adherence without feeling like a complete failure.
Goal Ranges
Hal Hershfield- Instead of setting a single target for a goal (e.g., meditate three mornings a week), set a range (e.g., meditate anywhere from one to five days a week).
- The high end of the range serves to stretch you further when you're doing well.
- The low end of the range ensures you still feel successful and involved even during busy or challenging weeks.
Letter Writing to Future Self
Hal Hershfield- Pick a specific future self (e.g., yourself at the end of the year, or in 5, 20 years).
- Write a letter from your present self to that future self, reflecting on current goals, hopes, and decisions.
- Then, write a letter back from that future self to your present self, offering perspective, advice, or reactions.
- Optionally, start by writing a letter to your past self to 'grease the wheels' for the emotional exercise.
- This process aims to boost emotional connection and empathy with your future self, making future consequences more vivid.
Strongest Commitment Device
Hal Hershfield- Make a clear commitment to a specific behavior.
- Designate an accountability partner who will monitor your adherence.
- Pre-determine a significant cost or penalty that will be incurred if you fail to meet your commitment (e.g., a financial charge to an 'anti-charity').
- This structure creates strong external motivation to stick to your goals.