3 Ways You Can Improve Your New Year

This is the most comprehensive overview of the key topics that I have which can be summarize as three key topics:

1. Fresh Start
2. Personal Themes
3. Behavioral Nudges

For a full description of these things, I recommend reading my full article on my CNTRD website:

CNTRD Article: New Year’s Resolutions Suck

For someone for like quick and dirty LinkedIn Summary:

LinkedIn: Making New Years Resolutions Stick

For you video junkies here’s some links to TikTok and Instagram vidoes:

TikTok: New Years Part 1 – Summary

Instagram: New Years Part 1 – Summary

Shorter But More Focused for the New Year 

For those who like a snippets of short content on each of the topics, here are the links to these videos.

Fresh Start

Take advantage of the fresh start effect¹! Humans are more likely to tackle their goals at landmark events such as New Year’s, birthdays, or anniversaries.

LinkedIn: Fresh Start Effect

TikTok: New Years Part 2 – Fresh Start

Instagram: New Years Part 2 – Fresh Start

Personal Themes

Most controversial point of them all. Having a personal theme over a goal just seems less rigorous. For those who really struggle with the concept, I suggest taking a look at CGP Grey’s video on themes.

For a quick summary of what a New Year’s theme could look like check these out:

LinkedIn: Try Themes, Not Goals

TikTok: New Years Part 3 – Themes Not Goals

Instagram: New Years Part 3 – Themes Not Goals

People gave me some pushed back on themes. Many are worried that themes are too “wishy washy.” I disagree:

LinkedIn: Themes Pushback

TikTok: New Years Part 4 – Themes Pushback

Instagram: New Years Part 4 – Themes Pushback

For those who want something more concrete, try using identity as your theme of the year:

LinkedIn: Identity as Theme

TikTok: New Years Part 5 – Identity as Theme

Instagram: New Years Part 5 – Identity as Theme

Behavioral Nudges

Don’t rely on motivation, nudge yourself. Use your cognitive biases to your advantage.

LinkedIn: Behavioral Nudges

TikTok: New Years Part 6 – Behavioral Nudges

Instagram: New Years Part 6 – Behavioral Nudges

A New Year Should be Fun

All in all, being over-scrupulous about the New Year will make your life worse not better. Remember that the purpose of all of these lifestyle changes is to make life better. If you are not having fun, you are doing it wrong. 

Check out my other articles and videos, and let me know what you think!

Footnotes

¹ Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., & Riis, J. (2014). The fresh start effect: Temporal landmarks motivate aspirational behavior. Management Science, 60(10), 2563-2582.