#312 You're Doing Resolutions Wrong. Here’s How to Fix It. I Dr. Laurie Santos
New Year's Series Episode 4. Welcome to episode four of our special new year’s series. Today we’re going to dive into the science behind why so many of us get New Year resolutions so wrong -- and how we can do better. My guest is Dr. Laurie Santos. As you may remember, she made her debut on this show just over a month ago, in an episode about how to handle the pandemic winter blues. She was such a font of practical wisdom that we almost immediately invited her back.
Laurie is a tenured psychology professor at Yale, where she teaches a massively popular course on happiness. She also hosts an excellent podcast called The Happiness Lab, where right now, she’s doing a series of episodes along a very similar theme--what she’s calling “anti-resolutions”--so I definitely recommend checking that out. In today’s conversation, we talk about why resolutions are a thing in the first place; why they so often go pear-shaped; and common pitfalls and misunderstandings in our attempts to lose weight, exercise more, or make more money. As we’ve been stressing in our new years series, Laurie argues that one powerful antidote to our resolution morass is self-compassion. As we’ve been saying throughout our series, the research shows that self-compassion is much better fuel for habit change than our usual mode of shame. I have been referring to as a kind of uber-habit, out of which all other habits can flow.
Click HERE to join Laurie Santos in the New Year’s Challenge.
How to join the New Year’s Challenge:
Join the New Year's Challenge by downloading the Ten Percent Happier app : https://app.tenpercent.com/link/download. You should be prompted to join the Challenge after registering your account.
If you've already downloaded the app, just open it up or visit this link to join: https://app.tenpercent.com/link/content?course=f36bd87d-5800-4185-9cf0-0e37d3cb00ac
Where to find Laurie Santos online:
Website: https://psychology.yale.edu/people/laurie-santos
Social Media:
Other Resources Mentioned:
- Gretchen Rubin, Strategy of the Lightning Bolt
- Kristin Neff, self-compassion researcher
- Evelyn Tribole, Intuitive Eating
- Daniel Wegner, psychologist, on white bear experiments
- Clay Cockrell, psychologist to the wealthy
Additional Resources:
- Ten Percent Happier Live: https://tenpercent.com/live
- Coronavirus Sanity Guide: https://www.tenpercent.com/coronavirussanityguide
- Free App access for Frontline Workers: https://tenpercent.com/care
