I'm Dr. Ali Mattu
Can psychology help you keep your new year’s resolutions? Yes it can, will a little help
from Harry Potter.
Accio the psych show!
The research indicates about 50% of you watching this video right now are starting a New Year’s
resolution.
Psychologists wondered - are people actually able to keep New Year's resolutions? If they
can what helps them to do so?
Drs. John Norcross and Dominic Vangarelli tracked 200 people who started a New Year's
resolution and followed them for a 2 year period.
What did they find? 77% maintained their New Year's resolution for a 1 week period of time.
55% maintained for 1 month. 40% maintained for 6 months. And 19% maintained for 2 years.
The psychologists involved in this study uncovered a lot about why people are able to their New
Year's resolutions. And the results are pretty consistent with what we know from other psychological
studies.
There's also consistent with one of my favorite stories - Harry Potter!
Here's what you need to know in order to become a successful New Year's resolver in 2015.
Number 1: Create Measurable Goals.
What are some of the most common New Year's resolutions?
I'm going to get back in shape.
I'm going to stop wasting so much money.
I'm going to be a better friend.
Based upon everything we know in psychology these goals are doomed to fail!
Avada Kedavra!
The trick is to create a goal you can very easily measure.
Turn "I'm going to get back in shape" into "I'm going to exercise for 30 minutes on the weekends."
"Stop wasting money" becomes "I'm going to transfer $25 from every paycheck into my savings
account."
Make the goal of returning text messages from friends and family the same day you get them.
How's this relate to Harry Potter?
For the .05% of you who don't know who Harry Potter is, he's the boy who lived despite
a devastating attack from an evil wizard known as Voldemort.
Harry learns along the way that he's the only wizard in the whole world who has a chance
of defeating Voldemort.
Defeating Voldemort becomes Harry's only goal. So does Harry say things like, "This year
I shall study whole heartedly the defense against the dark arts."
No! He makes a specific and measurable goal - Defeat Voldemort!
Harry spends a lot of time studying how to achieve this goal. Harry discovers that he
needs to collect 3 deathly hallows. Once he's got this plan and has discovered this information,
Harry's goal becomes find 3 deathly hallows.
Harry's goal is specific, measurable, realistic.
Well not realistic for you and me because we're muggles but if you're the boy who lived
they're realistic!
Number 2:Change your environment.
In the short term the most helpful skill that you have to achieve your New Year's resolution
is something psychologists call stimulus control.
All stimulus control means is there's something in the environment that changes behavior.
A light turns red and you stop your car. You always forget to take out your trash so you
move it right in front of your door. You get a notification on your phone and then you
check the message. When I was trying to cut down on my ice cream intake I went from eating
out of bowls like this to eating out of bowls like this - stimulus control.
Trying to go to the gym more often? Take your gym back with you to class or work as a reminder
of going to the gym. Want to save more money? Create a reminder in your calendar to deposit
$25 overtime you get a new paycheck.
Harry Potter used stimulus control as well to help him achieve the goal of defeating
Voldemort.
He changed the environment by leaving Hogwarts and going camping in the wilderness with his
friends because that's stimulus control.
I'm not advocating for you to drop out of school to achieve your New Year's resolution
but I do want you to create an environment that's going to make it much more likely for
you to achieve your goals.
Number 3:Commit to friends.
So if stimulus control helps in the short-term, what helps people maintain theirs goals over
a period of years?
FRIENDS AND FAMILY!
You're a lot more likely to achieve your goal if you've told a few close friends about it.
They'll give you encouragement along the way and help you figure out how to get around
obstacles that might come up.
Harry Potter had no chance of collecting the deathly hallows without Ron and Hermione.
The two of them were instrumental in helping Harry move forward when he wanted to give
up.
Harry also literally couldn't do it without their support because he needed someone to
become Bellatrix used that Polyjuice potion when they're trying to break into Gringotts.
Sorry I just had to geek out there for a second because that's an awesome scene both in the
book and in the movie cause there's this cool dragon thing that happens. Hear that Game
of Thrones!?! DRAGONS ARE AWESOME! Give us more dragons!
Share your goal with a few close friends and let them know how it's going from time to
time.
Number 4: Embrace setbacks.
Remember that 19% of people who maintained their New Year's resolutions for 2 years?
Those individuals experienced 14 major setbacks in sticking to their goals.
Something going to come up that's going to make it hard for you to stick to your goal.
That's called being human.
I love telling my patients that setbacks give us data about what's working and what's not
working. As long as we learn from that information they're not really setbacks at all.
You think Harry Potter was perfectly committed to defeating Voldemort?
Remember this moment from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?
"I've seen enough!I want out I want it to end! I don't care anymore!"
And now you know why I'm a psychologist and not an actor.
So let's put it all together: create measurable goals, change your environment, commit to
friends, and embrace setbacks.
To learn more about the science of behavior change, check out Changeology by Dr. John
Norcross.
What are you hoping to change in 2015?Let me know in the comments below.
Click on my phoenix core wand to subscribe and get more geeky psychology.
Expecto patronum!