{"id":5307,"date":"2020-01-02T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-01-02T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=5307"},"modified":"2019-12-31T17:02:33","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T22:02:33","slug":"how-best-to-achieve-our-new-years-resolutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/how-best-to-achieve-our-new-years-resolutions\/","title":{"rendered":"How Best to Achieve our New Year’s Resolutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

When teachers seek out guidance to improve our teaching, we can turn to psychology and neuroscience research for inspiration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When we just want to accomplish — at last!! — our New Year’s resolutions, can we find help here as well?<\/p>\n

Turns out: we can!<\/p>\n

Building Virtuous Habits<\/h2>\n

Several years ago, Charles Duhigg wrote a wonderful book called\u00a0The Power of Habit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We often think of habits as mere routines that dull our lives. But, if we can create good habits, we can be much more productive — in whatever way we define productive.<\/p>\n

Duhigg created a handy flow chart to help explain the habit-building process: cues, rewards, and routines. There’s LOTS of science behind the recommendations, and you should look at his book if you want to know more.<\/p>\n

If you just want to jump-start your new-year’s habit right away, you can check out that flow chart here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Self-Control Reservoir<\/h2>\n

To achieve our new year’s resolutions, we need to use self-control. So: what’s the best way to do that?<\/p>\n

The first step, of course, is to understand: what kind of thing is self-control<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Back in the day, psychologists thought it was a personality trait<\/strong>. Some people are basically patient<\/em>; some impatient<\/em>. Some are basically conscientious<\/em>. Others, not so much<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So, psychologists thought of self-control that way.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Roy Baumeister has persuaded many folks to rethink that approach. In his view, self-control is more of a\u00a0reservoir.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That is: I start with a certain amount of self-control. When I start using it — say, by resisting a second helping of cake — I drain my reservoir<\/em> a bit.<\/p>\n

If my host keeps offering me cake, and I keep saying “no thank you,” I drain it further and further. At some point, if the reservoir gets low enough, I won’t be able to maintain self-control.<\/p>\n

Either I’ll accept that second slice, or I’ll say something rude about the badgering. After all, it took lots of self-control to maintain my temper.<\/p>\n

We probably all start with somewhat different reservoirs of self-control. But, whatever reservoir we’ve got, it drains as we resist temptation. And then refills when temptation goes away.<\/p>\n

Maintaining the Reservoir<\/h2>\n

If self-control is a reservoir, then we need to use it sparingly.<\/p>\n

As Baumeister explains in his book\u00a0Willpower<\/em>, our typical New Year’s Resolution strategy runs directly counter to this understanding.<\/p>\n

If I’ve got five resolutions, and I commit to all of them at once, I’m likely to drain the reservoir too much and too fast.<\/p>\n

Instead, I should prioritize. I’ll pick the most important of the five, and use a bit of my self-control reservoir to building this new virtuous habit. (See Duhigg above.)<\/p>\n

Only\u00a0after<\/strong> I’ve created that new habit should I get to work on the second resolution. And, once\u00a0that<\/em> has become habit, I’ll turn my attention to the third.<\/p>\n

By 1) spreading out this self-control effort, and 2) consciously building virtuous habits, I’ve got a much better chance of meeting my goals for this year.<\/p>\n

And: no, thank you, no more cake for me.<\/p>\n

\n

I should say that, as is so often the case, the research cited by Duhigg and Baumeister does include some controversies. Not everyone is persuaded. For the time being, however, I think these theories hold up well, and are the best we’ve got.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Psychology research can help us accomplish our New Year’s resolutions, even if we’re offered tempting cake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":5309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-5307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-self-control"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5307"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5313,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5307\/revisions\/5313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}