This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

We're a couple of weeks into the new year

and perhaps you've already fallen behind

on your resolutions to floss every day, eat healthy, exercise.

Today, we're going to help you get back on track.

We'll talk about the psychology of resolutions

and Dan Pink will join me to offer tips

to help you stick to your goals.

Before we get to that though, I want to take a few minutes

to talk about something happening on my own staff.

It's 2016 and I have not smoked for two minutes.

This is Max Nestrak.

He's been working at Hidden Brain for the last couple of months.

His resolution was to quit smoking.

I decided I wanted to help.

I told Max to do three things

based on findings from social science research.

We'll come back to one of them later in this episode

and we'll have another episode in a few months

to discuss how and whether the interventions worked.

Max has been recording an audio diary since the day he quit.

Today is day one.

...