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| Row, Row, Row Your Boat... |
Now, the bad news: According to the researcher Richard Wiseman, nearly
half of all Americans will make such promises to themselves each January, and
88% of all those lovely resolutions will fail[1].
That’s in the neighborhood of 156 million failed resolutions and disappointed
minds each and every year.
Don’t take it personally. The
truth is that the real fault lies in your brain. The brain cells that are
responsible for what we commonly think of as “willpower” are located in the
prefrontal cortex, right beneath your forehead. These cells help us stay
focused, handle our short-term memory and give us our abstract thinking skills.
They also help us to persist with tasks that we might not fully enjoy. Usually,
the prefrontal cortex does a pretty good job, but when we introduce something that
takes a lot of willpower – like a resolution – the brain simply can’t take it.
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| It helps to have a willing partner to train alongside you. |
To put things more
scientifically, this is what’s happening inside your prefrontal cortex, best
described through a Stanford experiment by Prof. Baba Shiv:
A group
of undergraduate students were divided into 2 groups. One group was given a
two-digit number to remember. The other was given a seven-digit number to
remember. Then, after a short walk through the hall, they were offered the
choice between two snacks: a slice of chocolate cake or a bowl of fruit. What’s
most surprising: The students with 7-digit numbers to remember were twice as
likely to pick the slice of chocolate compared to the students with the
2-digits. Those extra numbers took up valuable space in the brain—they were a
“cognitive load”—making it that much harder to resist a decadent dessert[2].
Basically, your brain needs to be
taught how to handle the weight of a major change. The more abstract the goal,
the harder it is for the brain to do the heavy lifting necessary to keep you on
a path to success.
Here’s the good news: There are
ways to reduce the burden on the brain and help you to attain your objective.
It’s actually quite simple. You must take that “resolution” and transform it in
to a “habit.” For example, if your resolution was an abstract I want to eat healthier foods in 2013,
you can translate that into an action by substituting a home cooked meal in
place of take out one night each week. If you resolved that you would lose weight in 2013, you can select a
habit like going to a fitness class every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
According to Prof. Shiv, your
chances of making a resolution successful increase by 50% by simply breaking
down that abstract idea into its most simple action.
If February has found you already
falling off the wagon, here’s the simple kick-start:
1. Pick
Your Priority. The brain can only handle so many tasks at any given time
(remember our “cognitive overload?”). You need to identify one single thing
that is meaningful to you, and let everything else go.
2. Make
a simple habit. Choose something that
you can do in less than a minute, like signing up for a fitness class or swapping
a banana for your morning pastry.
3. Be
accountable. That means writing down the habit you have chosen, and sharing it
freely with others. Tell your friends and family, and you will be more likely
to follow through on your commitment.
4. Reward
yourself. A powerful study was performed at the University of Chicago that
demonstrated clearly the impacts of providing positive feedbacks in changing
behavior[3].
Give yourself small rewards for meeting goals, like allowing yourself an
unhealthy treat at the end of a successful week following new dietary habits,
or buying yourself a new running outfit after you log a certain number of
miles.
Lastly, you
have to remember that change can happen any time of the year. There’s nothing
special or particularly meaningful about January 1st. Resolutions
can be made as you are ready, and after you have the proper plan in place. Big
changes, as it turns out, come from the smallest steps.
[1] The
course of motivation
Maferima Touré-Tillery ,
Ayelet Fishbach
University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, 5807
South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago IL 60637, USA
7 November 2010; 8 February 2011; 19 April 2011
http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/ayelet.fishbach/research/TF_JCP11.pdf
http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/ayelet.fishbach/research/TF_JCP11.pdf
The Willpower Trick
By Jonah Lehrer January
9, 2012
[3] Wiseman, R. (2007). Quirkology. London, UK: Pan
Macmillan
