The Science of Making, *Not* Breaking, New Year’s Resolutions
We’ve all done it: you resolve to… go to the gym, eat healthier, save money. You’re excited and doing great, and then… It’s January 10th and you’re back to grabbing takeout, sitting on your sofa, and thinking, “Eh… I’ve got too much going on right now, next year!”
Well what if there was actual research conducted on New Year’s Resolutions and how we can maybe (gasp) actually keep them for once? It turns out–there is. This week, in the first episode of our Resolutions series, we talk to Professor Alexander Rozental and Martin Oscarsson from Stockholm University in Sweden. They published the largest study on the making, keeping, and breaking of New Year’s Resolutions. This week, we find out what kind of goals to set, how to set them, and what to do to ensure that “this year is (actually) different.
-
Guests
Martin Oscarsson is a PhD candidate in psychology at Stockholm University whose research focuses on stress and other work-related mental illness. For his master’s thesis, he conducted one of the largest studies on New Year’s Resolutions.
Academic Profile | Twitter | Website
Alexander Rozental is a clinical psychologist and associate professor at Uppsala University. His research focuses on solutions to stress related disorders and mental health distress such as perfectionism and procrastination.
Academic Profile | Publications
The Takeaways
The Fresh Start Effect - A psychological phenomenon where people are more likely to take action towards a goal at temporal landmarks.
New Year’s Resolutions can boost your self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy - your belief in yourself and your capacity to reach goals.
Negative spirals can happen when we consistently fail at our goals and lead to a diminished belief in our ability to achieve them in the future.
Top 3 tips for succeeding at your New Year’s resolution this year:
1. Find your “why.”
2. Make SMART goals.
Specific - create goals that are specific enough that you can actually prove if you achieved them.
Measurable - create goals that can be measured. If you want to exercise for more time per week, try taking your current time and doubling it for a starting point.
Acceptable - this relates to your why. It is a goal you want to achieve for a reason.
Realistic - challenge yourself, but make it realistic and attainable.
Time-bound - set a start and end date for your goal in order to evaluate progress.
3. Set an approach-oriented goal rather than an avoidance-oriented goal.
While avoidance-oriented goals are meant to avoid bad habits (e.g. eating sugary foods), they are much less successful. You can’t build a new habit around NOT doing something. (See our previous episode on habits).
On the other hand, approach-oriented goals are a pledge to do more of a good habit (such as eating leafy greens at least once a day).
The “What the Hell” Effect - When you “mess up” or experience a setback in working towards a goal, you’re sometimes faced with the “what the hell effect.” This is where you catastrophize your failure and decide to just give up.
Setbacks are guaranteed. The average person “messes up” 12 times in attempting their resolution in the span of 2 years. Instead learn to forgive yourself, assess how you can learn from this failure, and begin again.
Studies
-
Juna [00:00:01] Welcome to our first ever episode of 2023.
Eddie [00:00:07] Oh, happy New Year.
Juna [00:00:09] Guys, if I'm being honest, this is like our time to thrive. Because you know what time it is?
Eddie [00:00:14] It is time for New Year's resolutions.
Juna [00:00:17] You either hate them or you love them. Personally, I'm obsessed with them. I think it's so exciting. It's so motivating. It's inspiring. You got to have a new vision for your life. Pick all these new things you want to be good at. It's like the best time of the year. Honestly, I might like this time more than Christmas time. Don't tell Christmas time. I might like it better. But then, of course, you inevitably find yourself two weeks in failing at whatever goal you set on January 1st.
Eddie [00:00:43] I can tell you this for sure, Juna. Gyms, weight loss programs, fitness apps? It is certainly their favorite time of their love. Yet it is also, have to say, gym tourist season. Do you know why I show up and my parking spot? Taken. My bike, take on the place where I put my yoga mat gone?
Juna [00:01:02] My God.
Eddie [00:01:03] The gym tourists are out. But I just breathe deeply and I repeat my mantra. They will be gone by February.
Juna [00:01:14] Guys, February is not soon enough. Like, can I really? Okay. I want people to go to the gym. Just don't go to my gym. Can't go to every other gym. Just don't go to mine.
Eddie [00:01:23] What should we tell people where your gym is? Or don't tell them where your gym is.
Juna [00:01:26] We shall keep my gym a secret. I should just, like, not have any advertising for this gym.
Eddie [00:01:31] I'll give you a clue. It says on the door, it's not your gym.
Juna [00:01:33] Yes, yes, that is my gym.
Eddie [00:01:36] And some exciting news is that this is part of our first ever special series.
Juna [00:01:41] So today and every week for the entire month of January, you guys our first time being weekly. We are going to be going through some of the most common New Year's resolutions and what science has to say about them. So we're going to be going through giving up sugar, caffeine, alcohol and what science has to say about all of them. But first today, what does science tell us about New Year's resolutions? Is it even worth it to make them? And what are the most evidence based ways to ensure that you actually finally might for once succeed? I'm Juna Gjata.
Eddie [00:02:21] And I'm Dr. Eddie Philips, associate professor at Harvard Medical School.
Juna [00:02:25] And you're listening to Food We Need to Talk, the only podcast you need this January because it has been scientifically proven to increase your goal success rate just by listening. First, let's start by reading one of our favorite reviews.
Eddie [00:02:49] And this one is from Jim in IL I'm going to say Jim in Illinois. Okay. Titled "One of my new favorite. Good evidence based information and not trying to push expensive supplements like most health podcasts. Very entertaining to listen to as well."
Juna [00:03:06] And with that excellent review, you can go to our Website foodweneedtotalk.com for T workouts, protein and creatine. I'm just kidding, guys. Remember, if you want your review, shout it out on the podcast. You can leave us a five star rating and review wherever you get your podcast. And there's a pretty good chance you'll get Shout It Out and it helps other people find the show. So we really, really appreciate it now because today is such a special episode. We actually have two guests.
Martin Oscarsson [00:03:32] My name is Martin Oscarsson. I'm a licensed psychologist and PhD student at Stockholm University.
Alexander Rozental [00:03:38] And Alexander Rozental, I'm a clinical psychologist and I'm an associate professor at the Department of Psychology at Uppsala University.
Juna [00:03:49] I know I've experienced this. I'm sure you've experienced this, Eddie, but there's something about New Year's that makes me so motivated to get all my shit hockey together.
Eddie [00:04:00] It's true Juna. Every year I make some sort of resolution about my health, my finances, answering emails on time. This year, I'm actually going to clean up my desk.
Juna [00:04:09] Well, it turns out that there's actually a reason why we feel extra motivated on days like New Year's. It's called the.
Alexander Rozental [00:04:16] Fresh start effect because it's easy to check whether or not you have succeeded on any type of behavior change. You start on January 1st and then you can track how many days you are sticking to your resolution. And this is nothing unique for New Year's. In fact, the fresh start effect is something that we see in people like every Monday, start of the week, and also after your vacations, like after summer break. So it's actually sort of a psychological effect that makes it easier to keep track of any change.
Juna [00:04:55] Now, the paper we're talking about today is actually Martin's master's thesis. And before working on this project, just like most of us, he never really gave much thought to how he made his New Year's resolutions.
Alexander Rozental [00:05:06] I think I was one of many who, like a quarter to midnight on New Year's Eve, just came up with something on the spot. And obviously it was never followed through. Most of the time I would assume I had either forgotten about it or regretted it the next day. So I was not a professional resolver before taking on this project.
Juna [00:05:30] Guys what resolutions was he making that he's regretting? That's what I want and know I'm just getting. I'm just getting. So as you may have guessed by the fact that we are doing a whole series on this, New Year's resolutions are pretty common here in the U.S.
Alexander Rozental [00:05:43] Of course, of 40% of Americans report themselves as being likely or very likely to make New Year's resolutions.
Eddie [00:05:52] Count me in Juna. You know, a few years ago for New Year's, I joined the 30 by 30 nature challenge.
Juna [00:05:59] Okay, what's that?
Eddie [00:06:00] It's pretty simple. You're supposed to go out into nature, right? For 30 minutes, for 30 days in a row. It seems so simple. And just get a little bit into it, like driving doesn't count. You have to be out in nature.
Juna [00:06:12] What if I'm walking to Starbucks? What about walking to the river? Walking to the river?
Eddie [00:06:17] If you're walking to the river and you're going to be at the river for 30 minutes, I'll give you a yes. Yes. That counts for your nature.
Juna [00:06:23] Because there's no nature here. There's no like, where do I go to? I guess I'd have to, like. Do you live near nature?
Eddie [00:06:29] Yeah. I can go out into the woods. I can get into the trees.
Juna [00:06:33] Okay, so you actually have no excuse. So how did it go then?
Eddie [00:06:35] Well, I'll make myself sound good by saying I was on day four, day four, that I was contemplating going for a walk at 10:30 p.m. because I had managed to remain indoors for the rest of the day.
Juna [00:06:47] So did you did you go?
Eddie [00:06:49] No, because I had this sleep goal, which I guess was more important to me. So I failed at the nature challenge.
Juna [00:06:57] Oh, my God. So like, basically sleep goal conflicts with nature goal.
Eddie [00:07:01] And I went to sleep goal. Yup.
Juna [00:07:03] The day for it was done. So does that mean you gave up on the whole nature challenge?
Eddie [00:07:06] Well, actually, what I did is I decided maybe I should some collect some information first. What does that mean? I had no idea how many days of the month I was getting out into nature. Clearly, it wasn't going to be 30 days in a row. So I just restarted it and I said, Let me just count the number of days. And it turns out that about 18 days out of 30, I was good. Yeah, not as good as I thought it would be, but yeah, it was there. And what about you? Do you have any resolutions. Coming up,.
Juna [00:07:34] Guys? I love New Year's resolutions. And unlike Martin, like I know, Martin says he makes them 15 minutes before midnight. I create a spreadsheet. I have columns of, like, aspects of my life on my. Financial like.
Eddie [00:07:48] Go to foodweneedtotalk.com you.
Juna [00:07:50] See my spreadsheet, everyone? I will be airing all my spreadsheets of the past. No, but I think with certain resolutions, like, I am pretty successful at them. Like there's certain ones I know I can do, like hitting ten k steps a day. It doesn't matter what time of day. I've gone out into my neighborhood at 1030, 11, 11, 30, midnight. One time I was walking past midnight, so my step counter restarted. I was so upset because I was out there to finish my 10k.
Eddie [00:08:14] Get in ahead head on the next.
Juna [00:08:15] Day. Exactly. I got a super head start on the next day. So there are certain things I am really good about. But then there's other things that I just like consistently will fail at. Like the biggest one for sure has been trying to be consistent posting on YouTube. I have set the goal of posting once a week on YouTube. I don't know how many years like.
Eddie [00:08:34] This is more of like a professional goal.
Juna [00:08:36] Yeah, you could say it's professional. Okay. Like, I just would like to put more work into my YouTube channel. I think it's fun. And I never actually stick to it. And I think maybe the last I posted YouTube video at this point was like over six months ago. Like, I don't even know how long it was. It was like and it's so embarrassing and it's so upsetting that something I really care about and I can never actually stick to it.
Eddie [00:08:56] So this year, we're going to look for you walking at 1030 at night when I'm sleeping and posting on YouTube more regularly. Not weekly.
Juna [00:09:06] I hope so, guys. I don't keep me to it. Guys message me and ask me if I've done it. Anyways, let's take a second to talk about why we should even be setting personal goals in the first place.
Eddie [00:09:15] I think it's pretty obvious, at least for me and maybe for you. Achieving goals feels pretty good, doesn't it?
Alexander Rozental [00:09:22] A lot of work on the personal goals involve or include activities that are enjoyable. I mean, getting out of the house, exercising and socializing.
Juna [00:09:34] Even more than that, achieving personal goals might actually increase something called self-efficacy.
Alexander Rozental [00:09:40] Self-efficacy? It's your own belief in your capacity to reach your goals or your own belief in your capacity to act in ways required to achieve your goals.
Juna [00:09:53] So you can imagine achieving your goals one year increases your confidence, and then that makes you more likely to set even bigger goals than next year, and so on and so forth. And it's this awesome spiral of positivity.
Eddie [00:10:05] All right. But, Juna, we have to make a distinction between self-efficacy, which is kind of more like the weather. Okay. All right.
Juna [00:10:12] What do you mean.
Eddie [00:10:13] What it means that like what's happening today, you know, what's the situation at hand? And self-confidence is more like the climate, which is sort of like how it is throughout your personality trait is that guys.
Juna [00:10:24] I like that analogy. Wow. Okay, so self-efficacy is like more like this situation. Am I going to be able to face the situation? Yeah. Self-confidence like this constant trait. You may have a step higher.
Eddie [00:10:36] You are a confident person, right?
Juna [00:10:38] Oh, my God. Thank you. That was so nice. I think that was, like, completely unplanned compliment, guys. I love it. But, Eddie, while it's true that a lot of goals do make you feel good, like we talked about eating better, moving more, blah, blah, blah, awesome. Feel awesome. However, there's a lot of goals that really don't make you feel good, at least in the beginning. Like when I first started going to the gym, oh, so long ago, it was horrible. It was like honestly the most anxiety and stress inducing activity and like such a hassle. And every time I get out ofthe gym, I was like relieved. I was like, Oh, I can breathe. Thank God.
Eddie [00:11:12] You know, with that endorsement, I don't think anyone's going to show up at your gym.
Juna [00:11:17] Class, nobody will come to my gym.
Eddie [00:11:19] So not your gym? Yeah. If you do walk in, you're going to feel anxious, stressed and.
Juna [00:11:23] Stressed and be happy when you get out.
Eddie [00:11:25] I imagine the people that this new year are quitting smoking, alcohol, giving up on sugar or caffeine, those are the things we're going to be talking about.
Juna [00:11:34] Right, incidentally, in our future episodes.
Eddie [00:11:37] But giving up those things may actually be really unpleasant, at least in the beginning. And that's not to mention it's also really difficult to, I don't know, like quit smoking and give up alcohol.
Juna [00:11:46] Exactly. So now imagine you set these goals that are actually really difficult and really hard to stick to. And of course you mess up because it's really difficult, obviously. So then if you do this over and over and over again, because a lot of these goals like you set year after year, speaking from personal experience, I have said that you to go, oh my God, I don't know how many years. So how does this affect your self efficacy? Here's Alexander.
Alexander Rozental [00:12:10] So we will create negative self-efficacy so you don't maybe believe in yourself or your ability to reach your goals. So the next time you're trying to work on a task or assignment or a long term goal, you won't be as motivated as you would if you actually achieved something previously. So yeah, there's the risk of creating a negative spiral.
Juna [00:12:35] This is exactly the reason why I want to do this episode, Eddie.
Eddie [00:12:38] To talk about self-efficacy?
Juna [00:12:39] No, to stop my own. I mean, everyone else is, of course, negative spirals from happening, guys. I don't want you guys to suffer with a negative spiral.
Eddie [00:12:48] Okay, that makes sense. Now, let's start talking about this study that Martin ran with his colleagues.
Martin Oscarsson [00:12:54] So we randomized all participants to one of three groups, and these groups were minimal support, some support and extended supports. And then participants receiving more support got more thorough instructions and more frequent follow ups. And they also got emails with tips and tricks for success throughout the year.
Eddie [00:13:19] Juna, do we know what the tips and tricks were that they included in those emails? I'm asking for a friend, of course.
Juna [00:13:24] Well, I hope your friend speaks Swedish because the emails, unfortunately, are not in English. However, we do have rough summaries of these emails in Martin's paper, so if you would like to see those, you can go to our website foodweneedtotalk.com where we link to the paper. But in summary, it was basically about keeping up your motivation or what to do when you encounter setbacks, or even how to look at past hurdles that you would face.
Eddie [00:13:50] So it sounds like some really useful stuff.
Juna [00:13:53] It does sound like very helpful stuff. Honestly, I do want the emails like I would kill for those emails. But don't worry guys, we're going to be talking about a lot of that stuff throughout this episode.
Eddie [00:14:00] Okay. So back to the study. Do we know what New Year's resolutions people were setting?
Juna [00:14:05] Well, not shockingly.
Martin Oscarsson [00:14:08] Most participants had one or more resolutions related either to physical health or specifically weight loss or specifically eating habits.
Juna [00:14:19] So that would be things like.
Martin Oscarsson [00:14:21] Yeah, I'm going to take better care of myself for my body, and I pledge to have fewer sugary drinks or have more fruits or something like that.
Juna [00:14:32] But of course, that's not the only type of resolution people make.
Martin Oscarsson [00:14:36] We did see quite a lot of self improvement resolutions. So people who wanted to like learn a new skill or a new language or I think maybe we count that people want to reduce screen time and social media consumption and self-improvement, too. We also saw, I think, one in 20 participants, so so 5% of participants with mental health and sleep related resolutions. So maybe people who wanted to do more mindfulness and stuff like that.
Juna [00:15:13] Also. You guys know me. I want the tea. You know, the study is great, but I want the juicy details. So I had to ask Martin what were the most interesting or like the weirdest New Year's resolutions that he saw?
Martin Oscarsson [00:15:27] There were some opposites of common nearest resolutions, if if I can say that. So, I mean, you can imagine people wanted to spend less time with family or breaking up with their spouse, stuff like that.
Eddie [00:15:41] I, Juna, I could already see the upcoming review on our podcast. Thanks so much for giving me the confidence to break up with my partner. I love the show.
Juna [00:15:51] Show guys I never considered. I can resolve to spend less time with my family. I'm going to tell them, Be on your toes. Do not cross me this year because I'll make a new year's resolution to spend less time with you next year anyways.
Eddie [00:16:03] All right. So getting back to these groups, what did we find out about how many people were actually able to stick with their New Year's resolutions?
Martin Oscarsson [00:16:11] In our study, and this is not really in line with previous studies and reports, a majority of participants were successful at every follow up. And if I'm not mistaken, I think 55% of the people who responded to the final measurement were successful.
Eddie [00:16:33] Alert, alert. That's over a half.
Juna [00:16:35] I'm I know it's actually the goal here. It's actually a very high number compared to other studies. But before we get too excited, there are a few caveats to think about here. So first of all, Edie, this is a thing with a lot of studies, not just this one, but there's always a certain percentage of people that just don't respond to the follow up.
Eddie [00:16:56] Right. And that's why you always recruit more people than you think you're going to need. You'll never get everyone to respond.
Juna [00:17:01] Right. So if you weren't successful with your New Year's resolutions, do you think you'd be more or less likely to pick up the phone? When you see researchers calling to ask how you did on your New Year's resolution.
Eddie [00:17:12] I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you're going to be a lot less likely to take that call.
Martin Oscarsson [00:17:17] You could imagine that among people not responding, there are possibly a majority of unsuccessful participants.
Eddie [00:17:26] Okay. So the 55% success rate is probably a little inflated,.
Juna [00:17:30] Right? And then something else that might account for the higher success rate is that the participants in the study were self-selecting. So here's Alexandra again.
Alexander Rozental [00:17:40] One of the reasons why people succeeded to a greater extent in our study is the fact that they were probably more motivated to begin with, as this was a study with self recruitment, meaning that anyone could attend and be part of the study if they wanted to. We probably attracted more motivated people to begin with.
Eddie [00:18:00] I think our listeners probably skew more towards the types of people that would sign up for his study.
Juna [00:18:05] Right. They're also self-selected, right?
Eddie [00:18:07] And many of our episodes, pretty much all of them deal with improving behavior, specifically self behaviors. But still, what else can we learn from this study that could help us, you and me, and achieve our New Year's resolutions?
Juna [00:18:21] And I'm so glad you asked, because we are getting to the most useful part of this episode. Everybody take out a paper and pen.
Eddie [00:18:29] What's that?
Juna [00:18:31] Everybody take out a phone to get a phone in your notes app. Get your typing fingers ready get those thumbs ready to tap, tap, tap away. Because we are going to be talking about all the evidence based ways to ensure success this New Year's right after this break.
Eddie [00:18:55] And we're back.
Juna [00:18:57] We're going to go through Martin's top three tips for setting yourself up for success this New Year's. And the first one comes before you even set your goals. And Eddie, you're going to love this one because it's finding your why, your why.
Eddie [00:19:11] And just for the listeners to be clear, it's an auditory platform. I want to make sure that everyone understands. That's w why we're not looking for the YMCA.
Alexander Rozental [00:19:22] I think that the biggest problem with new year's resolutions is when we're not convinced ourselves. I feel like often we make personal goals in general, like to change for someone else's sake, or because we would be ashamed if if we did it. And I think that's the number one problem with personal goals and new year's resolutions and other personal goals.
Eddie [00:19:46] You know, this is something I talk about with my patients a lot. You are going to stick with a new behavior and reach your goal if it's getting you to a place that's really important to you. And as this episode goes on, I'm realizing this was just another problem with my nature.
Juna [00:20:02] It wasn't something that was like super, super important to you.
Eddie [00:20:05] It wasn't really important at all. It served no other purpose. It just sounded cool. And, you know, I should get our nature for 30 minutes a day. For 30 days, I had no why.
Juna [00:20:16] Right? The next thing that we need to think about is actually having an intention about how you're picking your goals. Here is Alexander again.
Alexander Rozental [00:20:23] One of the main difficulties, I think, with New Year's resolutions is that you come up with them maybe 15 minutes before midnight and think, okay, this is a good idea. But what often happens is that you set your goals in the wrong way. So they're not specific. For instance, they're not concrete enough and they might actually be too difficult to achieve. So the risk of promising yourself something just before midnight is that you won't create the right opportunity or setting for actually achieving your New Year's resolution. So a better idea would be maybe to start a week early, around Christmas, to think about, okay, what do I want to achieve next year and how do I set my goals so they are as specific as possible?
Eddie [00:21:19] Well, unfortunately, it would seem that that ship has sailed. Christmas has passed.
Juna [00:21:24] And New Year's has passed, unfortunately. But in my opinion, the day is not that important. What's important is that we are setting intentional goals. So if you heard this episode today, it's okay. It doesn't matter what day it is? You can start any time. It doesn't have to be January one, but it's good to actually take the time to think about your goals and set yourself up for success, which is exactly why we're doing this episode. So you've probably heard the acronym before of setting SMART goals.
Eddie [00:21:48] Like Smart Goals as opposed to stupid goals.
Juna [00:21:53] Kind of smart goals like SMART goals.
Alexander Rozental [00:21:58] Specific, measurable, accepted, realistic, and time framed.
Juna [00:22:04] So let's say you set the goal to take better care of your health.
Alexander Rozental [00:22:08] Taking better care of your health is a great goal, but it gives very little information about what to actually do. So in that case, I would ask what you would do if you took better care of your health. Maybe you would get more exercise and now there is a much more specific goal.
Eddie [00:22:29] Okay, get more exercise is better than take better care of my health. I'm guessing we need it to be measurable.
Juna [00:22:36] That is correct. To assess for a specific M from measurable. This is sesame street and that that's the podcast.
Alexander Rozental [00:22:43] So you want to start by finding a baseline. For example, how many minutes you a week you're exercising right now and then decide on how many minutes you want to aim for. So let's say 30 minutes every other day.
Juna [00:22:57] Now we're moving on to A.
Alexander Rozental [00:22:59] Then you have to consider whether that is acceptable to you. And this is a good place to remind yourself why you want to take better care of your health and thus get more exercise. You want to make sure this is something that you really want to do. And probably at the same time, you can ask yourself if your goal is realistic.
Juna [00:23:21] And that's the R.
Alexander Rozental [00:23:23] If you're exercising 10 to 15 minutes a week now, maybe try doubling that, to start out. You really want to grow to be a challenge but attainable if you put your mind to it.
Eddie [00:23:38] Oh my gosh. So this is another reason why my nature goal didn't work out for me. It was never realistic to be out in nature for 30 days in a row when my baseline was, like I said, like only 18 days for the month.
Juna [00:23:51] Right, I mean, same with my YouTube goal, like going from zero to like one a week. I'm just like, it's crazy, but like, one a month just sounds bad, but I guess it'd be better to be.
Eddie [00:24:00] Better than zero.
Juna [00:24:01] Yeah, it's a lot. It's 12 a year, right.
Eddie [00:24:03] Okay, so we've got the specific. Yeah, the measurable, the acceptable and the realistic. Now it's time to what? Spill the tea.
Juna [00:24:11] T what's the T?
Alexander Rozental [00:24:13] You want to set a starting date and a deadline and that's the time frame. So a starting date gives you less room to procrastinate while a deadline makes it easier to evaluate your progress.
Eddie [00:24:28] Okay, we have picking goals that actually matter to us. That's why I'm making them SMART.
Juna [00:24:35] And are you ready for the biggest thing that Martin found in his study?
Eddie [00:24:38] Ready.
Juna [00:24:39] So it turns out that setting an approach oriented goal instead of an avoidance oriented goal is going to make a huge difference.
Alexander Rozental [00:24:47] Yeah. I mean, that's that's the biggest effect. We saw in our study that participants with approach oriented goals did succeed at a higher rates than participants with avoidance or anything else.
Eddie [00:24:59] Jargon alert. Can we get the plain English version instead of the science paper language?
Alexander Rozental [00:25:05] I think we tend to formulate or phrase personal goals in general and possibly new year's resolutions in particular in terms of avoidance. So we have goals for what to avoid or do less of or not start again or beginning again. So this would include quitting smoking, having fewer sugary drinks and so on. And the problem with these goals are not what they concern. Obviously, most people will be better off without tobacco and sugary drinks. The problem is that they give us very little information about what to actually do in order to succeed with our goals. I think my favorite example is people pledging to stress less. I mean, that's great. But like, what are you going to what are you going to do in order to achieve that?
Eddie [00:26:01] This is reminding me of our episode on habits. You cannot build a habit for not doing something.
Juna [00:26:08] Exactly. And we're going to link to that episode in our shownotes. So Martin says, instead of pledging to do less of something, think about pledging what you're going to do more of instead.
Alexander Rozental [00:26:19] In this example, maybe you could ask yourself what you would do more of if you did stress less, or maybe what the current stress is keeping you from doing. And that's also a way to, like, personalize your goals. I mean, for one person, stressing less could be working out more, whereas for another person it could be spending more time on the couch. So I think that's really important.
Juna [00:26:45] Okay, guys. So when we're setting our goals, our three most important things are knowing our why. Making it SMART and making them approach oriented. Now let's move on to when we're actually working on our goals and when we inevitably fail.
Eddie [00:27:00] Juna, I thought we were trying to succeed here.
Juna [00:27:03] Well, Eddie, it turns out failure is actually a totally normal part of setting goals. Here's Alexander again.
Alexander Rozental [00:27:10] When people study this, on average, every individual will encounter about a dozen different setbacks during two years of behavior change. And the thing that separates those who succeed, where they're changed from those who don't succeed, is whether or not you can actually look at these situations, these setbacks, as learning opportunities. So it's not about having a setback and the number of setbacks. The important thing is looking at it more from the point of view of, okay, can I learn something from this situation? Like, did I overdo it? Did I overstretch it? Was there anything in the situation that might have contributed to my setback?
Eddie [00:27:59] In other words, it's not so much if you fail. It's more a question of when you fail. How do you respond?
Juna [00:28:06] Exactly. So imagine two scenarios. You make a resolution to work out 30 minutes three times a week. Your goal is SMART. Okay. You figured out that it's really important to you if you have a good why it's approach oriented. But now three weeks in, you mess up and you only go once that week.
Eddie [00:28:23] Go home.
Juna [00:28:23] Go home. Never go again to the gym. You're like, I ruined it like this. This is how I always think. I'm like, Oh, my God, I messed it up. I failed. Goal is done. Messed up. Three weeks in like failed the year. Martin says there's a very specific name for this, a very scientific name. In fact.
Alexander Rozental [00:28:39] There's this thing called like the what the hell effect where you, for one reason or another, just give up because it feels impossible. Or if you failed once, like, yeah, it's done and you give up.
Eddie [00:28:51] I love how technical these names are getting here. I'm going to cancel the jargon alert. I love the what the hell effect? Effect. Right. I mean, so if you're bound to mess up 12 times in the next two years, it's just going to stop you in your tracks. If you've got this, what the hell effect?
Juna [00:29:07] Right. Instead of giving up the second you experience a setback, just understand you're going to have setbacks and there's going to be a lot of them. So you just need to like you need to learn the situation and move on. Another thing that Alexander talks about specifically when we are talking about behaviors like smoking, drinking, stress eating, things that you might experience cravings to do is something called surfing the urge.
Alexander Rozental [00:29:33] We based our guidance, our information here on research that has been done on substance abuse, where there's a technique called surfing on the urge. So basically letting the emotions come to you. Don't struggle with it. Don't do anything with it, but just keeping it with you. And after a while, it will actually abate and become less strong. So it's sort of like surfing the waves and letting the waves come to you and then go away from you.
Eddie [00:30:10] So even if you're following all of this advice and you're replacing your old bad habit with a new, better one, you're probably still going to get those cravings right. And I love this surfing the urge. It sounds a lot to me like mindfulness. It's acknowledging that, okay, I feel like doing this behavior right now, but I don't have to act on that craving.
Juna [00:30:30] Exactly. It's like metacognition. You're thinking about your thinking.
Alexander Rozental [00:30:34] It's an important and useful technique, because basically what you're supposed to do is don't get into a struggle with your emotions. Just let them be there, because eventually they will be less intense if you just stick around long enough.
Juna [00:30:50] It's just like what Cory said in our holiday stress episode. Sometimes if you just invite the emotions in and don't fight them, they pass a lot faster than if you're, like, struggling with them so hard, you know? Now let's circle back to the idea of self-efficacy that we talked about at the beginning of the episode.
Eddie [00:31:05] So self-efficacy is this idea that you have the ability to achieve goals or at least you perceive that you can. It's kind of the way scientists measure how much you believe in yourself?
Juna [00:31:16] Right, I feel like we're like a kids show, more like.
Eddie [00:31:18] Believe you can.
Juna [00:31:21] I feel like it just, like, sounds really dumb, but it's actually really important. Guys, one of the findings in Martin's study was that if people read themselves higher on their own sense of self-efficacy, they were more likely to achieve their goals.
Eddie [00:31:33] In other words, the people I thought, Oh yeah, if I set a goal, I can probably achieve it. They were actually right.
Juna [00:31:40] Yes. I think the coolest part about this is that self-efficacy is not a measure of like your actual abilities. It's not a measure of your discipline, your organization, your willpower. It's just a measure of your own perception. On if you can achieve the goal.
Eddie [00:31:54] So believing in yourself actually makes you more likely to achieve your goal.
Juna [00:31:59] Believe in yourself. Okay, now kind of. But here's the thing it gets tricky when we try to separate out what causes what, because are these people more likely to achieve their goals because they believe in themselves? Or do they believe in themselves more because they've achieved goals in the past and they have better goal setting behaviors.
Eddie [00:32:21] So the chicken or the egg.
Juna [00:32:23] Exactly. But the great news is it might not actually matter because according to one study, even the act of setting your New Year's resolution improved your sense of self-efficacy.
Alexander Rozental [00:32:36] We saw that participants in our study all scored a positive change on the measure of self-efficacy, regardless of whether they were successful or not, which I think is great. We also saw that successful participants reported a significantly greater positive change in self-efficacy compared to non successful participants.
Eddie [00:33:00] So this is kind of wild. So no matter if you achieve your goal or not, your sense of I am capable of achieving goals increases just by setting the goals.
Juna [00:33:10] Yes. And if you achieved your goal, it really increased. Which means if we're more strategic about how we set our goals, let's say after listening to a certain awesome podcast episode that really broke it down in a comedic, yet intelligent way, we can engineer our own increase in self-efficacy. So here is Alexander.
Alexander Rozental [00:33:30] It's true that if you are very specific in your goal setting and you see that you're actually making some achievements that will increase your motivation and that will eventually be sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy. And that's probably the case with some of these achievers. When it comes to New Year's resolutions, they can see that you're actually managing something here.
Juna [00:33:51] Of course, I had to ask Martin and Alexander, after working on this study, did they actually set better goals for themselves and did they actually achieve them?
Alexander Rozental [00:34:01] My biggest success was actually my first year. My new solution was to cook more food, and I specified and made that measurable by pledging to bring lunch to work at least three times a week. And I did. All year. Not I didn't move like in the middle of the year that obviously I wouldn't cook for a couple of weeks. But other than that. But I was also like kind to myself, if I only did two one week, I made sure to do for it the other week and even that out. And I didn't give up if I had like a rough week and didn't cook at all. So overall, I consider myself very successful with that resolution. And so when we did our trial, my goal was to run a marathon, which I did successfully in Amsterdam. And the way I did it was also to break down that long term goal of running the marathon into smaller pieces so that I had goals for each month in terms of running.
Juna [00:35:10] By the way, guys, Alexander is bringing up another hack for achieving your goals, which is setting mini goals on the way to your big one.
Eddie [00:35:18] Speaking from personal experience and if you have a big goal like running a marathon.
Juna [00:35:23] Omg Eddie, have you run a marathon? Whoa, that is so cool.
Eddie [00:35:28] Let's link to that show notes as well. So having little goal sort of a stepping stones makes it seem so much more manageable. It's something, you know, that you need to do if you're going to take months and months to reach an enormous goal.
Juna [00:35:41] Right. So taking the time to celebrate those little goals, not only does it feel great, which is an added perk, it also just makes you more likely to stick to your goal in the long run because it sends this reward signal to your brain every time you have a small win and you actually take the time to celebrate it, which I know we don't all do. But take the time. Celebrate your small win. Be like, Oh, my gosh, I did it. That was awesome. Then you will feel more motivated in the long run because your brain gets these little bursts of dopamine every time you reach a little milestone.
Eddie [00:36:09] So I think that's a fantastic place to end this week's episode.
Juna [00:36:13] Eddie, can I just add one more thing? Of course.
Eddie [00:36:15] Of course.
Juna [00:36:16] I had to ask Martin what was the best meal that he brought to work.
Eddie [00:36:20] Work the rest of the story?
Juna [00:36:21] Right.
Alexander Rozental [00:36:22] I make this like a vegan spaghetti bolognaise. I do for like like cheese. All right. So it doesn't stay vegan, but it's it's almost vegan.
Juna [00:36:36] So the moral of the story is pick a good why, make smart goals, make them approach oriented. And when you mess up, which you will. Don't freak out. Be kind to yourself and actually just learn from it. Apparently it's okay to put some cheese on your almost vegan bolognese.
Eddie [00:36:53] If you want to share some of your New Year's resolutions with us, feel free to tag us on Instagram as long as someone shows me how to do that.
Juna [00:37:01] I'm going to be so surprised that he knows what that is. That's awesome.
Eddie [00:37:05] And stick around for the next few weeks, every week as we go through some of the most common New Year's resolutions. And Juna and I share some of ours.
Juna [00:37:17] We will link to Martin's paper on our website foodweneedtotalk.com as well as in our show notes and his book will also be links there. If you speak Swedish, this will be perfect for you. If you are an American publisher, also reach out. You can find us on Instagram at food. We need to talk. You can find me on Instagram @theofficialjuna and Juna Gjata on YouTube and Tik Tok YouTube specifically. You can find you can find me every week on YouTube. Where can we find Eddie?
Eddie [00:37:47] You're going to find me making a vegan spaghetti bowl, and that is almost vegan food.
Juna [00:37:54] Food We Need to Talk is a production of PRX.
Eddie [00:37:57] Our producers are Morgan Flannery and Rebecca Seidel.
Juna [00:38:00] Tommy Bazarian is our mix engineer with production assistants from Isabel Kirby McGowan.
Eddie [00:38:04] Jocelyn Gonzalez is executive producer for PRX Productions.
Juna [00:38:09] Food, We Need to Talk was co-created by Carrie Goldberg, George Hicks, Eddie Phillips and me.
Eddie [00:38:14] For any personal health questions, please consult your personal health provider to find out more go to foodweneedtotalk.com. Thanks for listening.
Juna [00:38:25] And we'll see you next week.
