Make a fresh start

With the power of behavioural science

New year’s resolutions - every year we make them and every year we break them. What’s the point? As it turns out, we aren’t so crazy. We really are more likely to successfully change our behaviour if we choose to do so on so-called temporal landmarks (i.e. start of the new year, the first of the month, beginning/end of the week, on our birthday etc.).

It’s called the fresh start effect and you can harness it to help you finally start that healthy habit you promised yourself.

Reset your performance

In a series of studies Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman, and Jason Riis of The Wharton School were able to show that people are more likely to exercise after a birthday or the start of a week (7%), month (33%), year (14%), or semester (47%), relative to baseline, suggesting that temporal landmarks make it easier to engage in aspirational behaviour. It seems that these landmarks demarcate the passage of time and create new “mental accounting periods” that psychologically distance the present self from its past imperfections. In your mind, you are creating a “new you”. 

Fresh starts are often accompanied by some instance of failure or sub-par past performance. As a type of psychological resetting, it’s a strategy that can help bounce back from a previous failure.

Careful, it cuts both ways

But what about fresh starts for people who are already performing well? In a more recent paper, Dai dove deeper into the topic and found that in certain situations, fresh starts can hinder rather than help performance! 

His new research confirmed his hypothesis: Fresh starts decrease a person’s performance if they are coming out of a period of success. Hmm…

Harness the power of the fresh start

Think about your progress towards your big goal - maybe you are making good progress and things are looking great? If so, now might be the time to avoid any form of reset. Remember, you want to stay away from restarts in times when things are going well. Rather, draw strength from the progress you have already made and keep going.

But if your progress or motivation has been poor or you’ve outright failed to achieve what you set out to do, it might just be time for a fresh start! An easy way to do this is by using the closest temporal landmark to start anew. You needn’t wait for the beginning of a new year, or even a new month, to invoke the feeling of a fresh start. Research tells us that we are 62.9% more likely to commit to a goal when we begin at the start of the week. Your life may just change next Monday.

Right, you’ve chosen your date, now you’ll need to mentally segregate the “old you” from the “new you” using your chosen date as the boundary. When your big day arrives you will completely discard the “old you” and embrace your new and improved identity. Remember to tell your friends and family about your reset and the changes you are going to make. This may help to make you more accountable and even more likely to stick to your resolution.

The fresh start effect may just be the boost you need to finally build that healthy habit you’ve been working towards.

References:

Dai, Hengchen and Milkman, Katherine L. and Riis, Jason, The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior

Dai, Hengchen, A Double-Edged Sword: How and Why Resetting Performance Metrics Affects Future Performance