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New Years Resolutions - An Engineering Approach
Hugh Pickens writes "Four out of five people who make New Year's resolutions will eventually break them and a third won't even make it to the end of January says the NY Times. But experts say the real problem is that people make the wrong resolutions. The typical resolution often reflects a general desire. To engineer better behavior, it is more productive to focus on a specific goal. '"Many clients make broad resolutions, but I advise them to focus the goals so that they are not overwhelmed," says Lisa R. Young. "Small and tangible one-day-at-a-time goals work best."' Here are some resolutions that experts say can work: To lose weight, resolve to split an entree with your dining partner when dining out. To improve your fitness, wear a pedometer and monitor your daily activity. To improve family life, resolve to play with your kids at least one extra day a week. To improve your marriage, find a new activity you and your spouse both enjoy such as taking a pottery class. On a lighter note: What was Steve Jobs' New Year's Resolution?"
I use the same approach. We work better with smaller goals, which can be quantified. Its easier to remain focussed on small goals which can be achieved quickly, rather than larger goals which may tend to overwhelm us and also may result in loss of motivation after a while. And the same approach can be used in many other areas, not just new year resolutions. Infact, I'd rather call it a good management approach than an engineering approach. *ducks for cover*
In Soviet Russia, everything runs linux.
To me, and this is probably the engineer in me speaking, the arbitrary designation of the end of the year as a time to make life adjustments is very odd. If there is a problem in your life or something that needs changing, it seems like you should work to correct that whenever you discover it. The big push for resolutions around new years seems counterproductive in that many people may wait to make changes until "the new year".
It seems like personal growth should be a cycle of small, incremental improvements made throughout your life.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I remember as a kid making New Year's resolutions, and forgetting about them usually before the end of the night.
I don't think I've even bothered to make one for the past 15-20 years.
So "scientific approach" to keeping them aside - Do people actually make resolutions they ever intend to keep, or do these just amount to 30 seconds of introspection to observe a flaw about yourself, only to forget it a few minutes later? Do you actually say to yourself, "This year, I will get that promotion", and mean it in any way more concrete than mere wishful thinking?
If you're ordering food that can only be turned into a reasonable calorie count by cutting the serving in half, you have already lost. It's about not ordering that sort of food. Hell, 90% of the problem is ordering food to begin with. If you cooked it yourself, you could of tossed one less stick of butter into it.
"Make no more silly resolutions just because a calendar # changes"
Still holding it.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
My now-wife and I actually did this back when we were still dating & in the US -- the portions there are just so fricking huge that we couldn't always finish them even when we split them. Loose weight and save money at the same time, woohoo!
-Lars
Instead how about...
..Watching one WWE wrestling event together per week.
..Being able to veto watching "When Harry Met Sally".
..Not having to have a 'deep meaningful discussion about your feelings' during the superbowl.
Go ahead mod me "-1 Troll, Sexist Pig".
All I hear is "Loose weight", "Spend more time with my depressing spouse", "Spend more time at the depressing gym."
Well of course no one keeps those. Who wants to do that crap?
Why not resolve to do something you'll enjoy.
Resolve to have more and better sex than last year.
Resolve to earn more for less work than last year.
Resolve to find something new that makes you laugh.
Resolve to cross more things off your "Before I Die..." list.
Resolve to spend less time around people you don't like.
And it just might turn out that you're spending time enjoying your life that a lot of the other things take care of themselves.
I've been studying this very subject heavily for the past 18 months or so.
We now know a great deal about how the mind works and have applied it to the general subject of "becoming a success". Being successful always involves explicitly setting goals, and this can be done with New Years' resolutions SO LONG AS they are done correctly.
I'm boiling the issues down to a few simple facts, but they are all verified by psychological studies and have their basis in well-known underlying mechanisms. It all comes from your Reticular Activating System, which is a part of your brain that is involved with setting goals (I'm simplifying).
1) Don't make resolutions, set goals. Pick the major areas of your life (personal, work, relationship, church, community) and write down things that you'd like to achieve in the upcoming year.
2) Resolutions need to be written down. No one has explained why writing is needed, but it works. Lots of studies have shown this. (Maybe it's because wirting things activates all areas of your mind at once: you "say" it in your mind while writing it, you see it, you write it, &c).
3) Resolutions must be personal. Use "I" when writing them (as in "I read 15 books by year's end").
4) Resolutions must be positive. If you say "I stop smoking" or "I stop chewing my nails", it won't work. The RAS only deals with positive commands, and not negative ones. To deal with biting your nails, write "I notice every time I bring my fingers to my mouth" or something, and then stop yourself at those times.
5) Resolutions must be in present tense. Write "I earn $80K a year", not "I earn $80K by the end of the year".
6) Where possible, resolutions should be measurable. If you want to lose weight, say "I weigh 175 pounds".
7) Resolutions should be reasonable. Don't say "I earn a million dollars a year", take your salary, add 20% and write "I earn XXX a year".
The more specific and detailed you are, the greater likelyhood that the goal will happen. Want a new car? Write down the make, model, color, options, and everything else you can think of.
Once you have your goals written out, occasionally look at them. Once a week or more will really drive the message home to your subconscious.
People who do this are generally amazed at the results. It's making use of existing well-known mechanisms in your mind, but we've only recently discovered how to make use of them.
Is this really an engineering approach, it looks like the David Allen's "next tangible step you can take the physical world" approach. I am one of those people who found Getting Things Done life changing.
New Year's resolutions are a crock. It's the same thing as telling yourself on a Friday that "Monday I'm going to start a diet", or "Monday I'll stop smoking", etc. If you realize on a Friday that you need to make a change, you either make that change Friday, or it's not going to happen. If you couldn't make something happen in September, October, November, AND December, pushing the Easy Button Dec 31 isn't going to magically transform your life Jan 1.
The thing is, people don't make "resolutions" - they make wishes. Nobody really wants to work harder to earn a better salary - we just want to win the damn lottery.
If it is worth changing, it is worth changing right away. General directions are usually just as good as specific goals too.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
My guess is that those restaurants want to be able to justify their prices, so instead of dropping prices to reflect the portions, they increase portions to match the prices, which probably makes them more money than otherwise. (As you said, economy of scale).
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