234 – New Year Resolutions That Stick

In his article, Do New Year’s Resolutions fail because they don’t have real value?, our guest tonight, Max Martin, shares some philosophical insights into the process of setting goals, and ultimately says that goal setting itself, is part of the problem. A sentence that has haunted me, as I work through Matthew Michelawicz’s book, Life In Half A Second, which has helped me set goals for the year, is this: If a goal gives purpose to our life, then when we complete it, that purpose disappears, and so, in “pursuing a goal, you are trying to exhaust your interaction with something good, as if you were trying to make friends for the sake of saying goodbye”. Max, I think we have a lot of unpacking to do.

In this chat, Nigel mentions a book about optimism bias by Tali Sharot. However, we’ve found her TED Talk on the topic.

Figures quoted in Forbes, Huffington Post and most other places, suggest only 8% of us keep resolutions. Why? Is it really because we don’t value them highly enough?

In the Huffington Post article, New Year’s Resolutions Are Bound To Fail. Try This Instead., Dr. Roberta Anding, Baylor College of Medicine, is quoted as saying, instead of making hard-line resolutions this year, approach your health goals as a “reset.” While a resolution represents a firm decision to do or not do something, a reset is an opportunity to “set again,” or set your habits differently. With a reset, you commit to moderate, realistic goals and making small changes every day ― not just on Jan. 1. A reset also allows for flexibility as you progress and figure out what does and doesn’t work for you.  Does that sound like a recipe for wriggle room?

I’d like your reaction to a comment from listener and fellow podcaster, Shane Lockwood, who said in the Facebook discussion surrounding this topic: After listening to Max last time, I chose to discard resolutions and have smaller achievable weekly goals and then look at what I have achieved at the end of the year. So, Max, have you gone back on last year’s proclamations?

You say there are two types of New Year’s Resolutions: Those that focus on achieving an idealistic and perfect picture of the future; or those focused on improving something. What do you mean?

So, what will increase the chance of a New Year Resolution succeeding? What should we focus on?

How can we increase the likelihood of it sticking? Is it about hungering for that feeling of victory and control, which outweighs the short lived feeling of regret had we over indulged?
Can you explain Telic and Atelic activities and goals?

In the Life In Half A Second book, which was my reading over summer, Matthew Michalewicz made some points that gave me a hurry up. Firstly, life is finite. Secondly, the greatest motivating force is what you are frustrated or repulsed by?

However, one other think Matthew goes on to say is to have a buddy to work with. Why is this important?
What are some sample goals? Is there any use in suggesting some?

I always have a gripe about clothing and fitness. Firstly, excess moving in a suit leads to perspiration that is NOT COOL in business environments. And, secondly, now I am mainly eating salads, my business shirts are being ruined by highly visible splashes of salad dressing and tuna juice. What can I do?

Nigel Dobson-Keeffe challenges the panel to pick the fake story from three stories from South Australia’s past.

Frearsons Illustrated Adelaide News Jan 1882
New Year 1982
The closing of the year and the arrival of another is certainly a fitting time for a journalist to take a retrospective glance o’er the past, and to place the result of his deliberations before readers. In so doing we are gratified to note that advancement and progress are visible throughout this  colony, and that the comparison in this respect with other lands is equally favorable. Railway extensions are on the increase, and, judging by the interest taken by Her Majesty’s representative and the heads of the Government in this matter, it may be predicted that the Nairne line and others which will ultimately connect Adelaide with the metropolis of Victoria will be pushed on as rapidly as possible. The Parliament has passed many good and useful measures, and the work of the late session was generally considered satisfactory.

The Mail January 1937
New Year Resolutions
Perhaps the chief New Year resolution of Adelaide housewives is to make many resolutions, because the number, of ideas, sent in for the best resolve, was more than usual this week. Much, much more. Of course, the very fact that you may have decided to go on in the same old way and make lots of resolutions is a resolution in itself, and it may be a good one — it depends on your previous success in housekeeping. Most of those received were short and to the point but plentiful, while others were really a combination of at least ten ideas! It appears that housewives of Adelaide have plenty of ideas and no shortage of plans for the forthcoming year. Perhaps it is that so many fail they have gambled that the more they have , the better chance that at least one will come true. From plans of buying less clothes, utilising food better, listening to family, loving the children more, starting some extra work, helping the neighbours, investigating some savings or teaching the little ones better manners all nature of resolutions flooded in.

The Advertiser January 1947
About That New Year Resolution
For the second time since the war ended we have all been wishing one another “A Happy and Prosperous New Year.” THIS morning, probably, many of us will be indulging in the: traditional pastime of making New Year resolutions, although we might be hard put to remember what happened to the ones we made last year, or the year before that, or indeed any year, for that matter. For there is nothing in human practice or sentiment as brittle as a New Year resolution. Perhaps this year, however, we might try the experiment, each and every one of us of making just
one resolution and pledging ourselves to keep it — to endeavour, each in his own way to make some definite contribution, no matter how small, to, the building of a way of life together such as we dreamed of during those terrible years of war.