HACK YOUR HABITS: The Science of Making Changes That Stick

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Education, Science

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2022

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why is it so hard to break bad habits and replace them with good ones? You may think it all comes down to willpower. But social psychologist Wendy Wood says that if you really want to change your life, you need to tap into your unconscious mind. She would know. Wendy is the world’s foremost expert on habits and the author of “Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick.” Today, she chats with Next Big Idea Club curator Adam Grant about harnessing the science of habit formation to improve your life for the better. This conversation was among the first that we aired on this podcast, and we left a lot of great moments on the cutting room floor. Today, we’re restoring them. What follows is an extended version of Wendy and Adam’s conversation with new insights about overcoming chronic lateness, developing sustainable exercise routines, and making New Year’s resolutions that last past February.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I've always thought, darn, I wish my university could rent an airplane that I could go sit
0:13.6	in and just be as productive two days a week as I am on an airplane when I fly.
0:24.1	I'm Rufus Griskim and this is the next big idea.
0:27.7	Today, in the early hours of the new year, how to break bad habits and make good ones.
0:53.2	I learned recently that the ancient Babylonians were the first people to make new years resolutions.
1:00.2	At the start of every year, which for them happened in March, they hosted a 12-day festival
1:05.2	called Akitu.
1:07.0	They would feast and sing and dance, and on the fifth day, they dragged their king around
1:11.6	by his ears and slapped him in the face until he cried.
1:15.8	This apparently was a way to warn him about what would happen in the coming year if
1:19.5	he didn't conduct himself honorably.
1:22.1	In a less aggressive act of goal-setting, the Babylonians also gathered up all the things
1:26.2	they borrowed from friends and neighbors and gave them back, swearing to the gods that
1:30.7	this year they'd make good on their debts.
1:33.9	And so, the new year's resolution was born.
1:37.6	Today, 4,000 years later, I find myself thinking about the tradition the Babylonians started,
1:43.4	not the slapping or the paying off of your debts, but the tradition of hitting pause at
1:47.1	the end of the year to take stock of what you've accomplished, what healthy habits you've
1:51.8	formed, and think about what bad habits you'd like to shed in the next 365 days.
1:58.9	Looking back on the year that just ended, I think I deserve at least a little bit of
2:02.2	credit.
2:03.2	I exercise most every day.
	...

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