Something You Should Know - How to Stop Making Stupid Mistakes & How to Nail Your New Year’s Resolution

Episode Date: January 3, 2019

You think you understand the concept of distracted driving – yes? You know it is NOT a good idea to text and drive. But it turns out to be more complicated than that. I begin this episode with some fascinating research that shows that there is a residual effect when you get distracted that affects your driving for much longer than you think. You really need to hear this. http://www.calif.aaa.com/home/about/community-and-safety/hands-free-distractionstudy.html Ever make a really stupid mistake? Wouldn’t it be great if you could make far fewer of them and make a lot more good decisions instead? Listen to Charlie Seraphin author of the book, (One Stupid Mistake: Smart Decision-Making in a Crazy World https://amzn.to/2s3Qq3A.) He walks you through the process that will help you avoid mistakes, especially the big ones. Plus, he explains the importance of owning and learning from the mistakes you will inevitably make.  People love to watch reruns of old TV shows and re-watch old movies – but why? You know how it is going to end so why watch it again. Well there is a reason for that and it is the same reason people like hearing the same songs over and over. http://www.livescience.com/23148-tv-reruns-may-replenish-tired-minds.html People have been making New Year’s resolutions for a long time and scientists have studied the idea and the process a lot over the years. What has become clear is that there are some strategies that can dramatically improve your chances of success. Keith McArthur has looked at the science and joins me to help you achieve your New Year's resolution or any other goal for that matter. Keith has a podcast and blog called My Instruction Manual (https://myinstructionmanual.com/) and he is author of a book called (Winning Resolutions https://amzn.to/2BYi7zi.) This Week's Sponsors ADT. Go to www.ADT.com/smart to learn how ADT can design and install a smart home system for you. Geico. Go to www.Geico.com to see how Geico can save you money on your car insurance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Something You Should Know, some interesting science that will make you never want to text and drive again. Plus, how to stop making stupid mistakes and make better decisions. We can build up a hundred arguments for something and then turn right around and build up a hundred arguments against it. But deep down, I think that each person has an internal compass. And if you're true to that internal compass, you'll make that decision. Then there's a fascinating reason why people love watching old reruns of TV shows or re-watching old movies or re-reading old books. And if you have a New Year's resolution, I'll explain all the ways to improve your chances of success. What the research shows actually is it does really help to have a buddy,

but that that buddy doesn't necessarily have to be having the same goal or resolution. It's just someone who checks in with you regularly to make sure that you're accomplishing it. All this today on Something You Should Know. As a listener to Something You Should Know, I can only assume that you are someone who likes to learn about new and interesting things and bring more knowledge to work for you in your everyday life. I mean, that's kind of what Something You Should Know was all about. And so I want to invite you to listen to another podcast called TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right?

Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks. Well, you see, TED Talks Daily is a podcast that brings you a new TED Talk every weekday in less than 15 minutes. Join host Elise Hu. She goes beyond the headlines so you can hear about the big ideas shaping our future.

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The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. Hi, and welcome to the first all-new episode of 2019 of Something You Should Know. I appreciate you being here and for listening and supporting this podcast. First up today, if you drive a car, there's some really fascinating information about distracted driving that you maybe haven't heard before. It's not just you shouldn't text while you're driving.

It's a lot more than that. Yes, texting and talking on the phone and even eating or drinking coffee can take your attention away from your driving and put you at risk, but it does get a lot more complicated. Research sponsored by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety shows that the distraction time lasts far longer than the distraction itself, up to 27 seconds longer. In other words, you might think that it's safe to text while you're stopped at a light, but the mental distraction from composing and typing and sending the text will persist even after the light turns green. That's because it takes your brain time to get back into the game of driving. At 27 seconds, traveling 25 miles an hour, it would take driving the equivalent of three football fields

for that distraction to completely dissipate from your brain. The researchers had participants use their voice-controlled systems to make phone calls and send texts and then measured their reaction time to potential hazards while driving. What's really interesting is the reaction times varied by the type of car, with the Mazda 6 having the worst residual effect and the Chevy Equinox having the quickest recovery time. They even tested to see if you could improve over time, and it turns out no, you cannot. You cannot practice away that distraction time. It's just how your brain works.

And that is something you should know. One thing we all have in common is our ability to make mistakes. Sometimes really stupid mistakes. Of course, you'll always make mistakes, but what if you could make fewer mistakes, particularly fewer stupid mistakes? Well, you can, according to Charles Serafin. Charles has explored how and why people make mistakes, and he is author of a book called One Stupid Mistake, Smart Decision Making in a Crazy World. Hi, Charles.

Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here, Mike. So it's interesting to me that often when we make a decision that turns out to be a mistake, we can look back in hindsight and realize where we went wrong. At the time we made the decision, it seemed like we were acting on good information or good motivation. And in hindsight, when things go wrong, we look back and realize maybe there was something else motivating us that wasn't in our best interest or wasn't a wise choice. Yes, exactly. We call it cognitive dissonance, right, where we know better, but we choose to believe something else. And it's a theoretical area, and I'm not a PhD, and I'm not a psychologist,

but I'm an observer and a questioner, and I've been asking people for years. That's how the project started. I had this goofy idea of seeing this phenomenon going on with more and more mistakes being made in the culture so i just started approaching strangers and asking them excuse me but would you mind sharing a mistake with me that you've made and it was really funny because you would think that i was asking people if i could read the label in their underwear they they physically they physically would kind of recoil from me. And like, you know, what are you asking? What are you asking of me?

Why would a stranger ask me about my mistakes? And a lot of stuttering and stammering. And quite a few said, could I get back to you later on? I may never see you again, but would you just go away and don't ask me that? And so I found that for the majority of people, even people that I knew really well, members of my family, we're just not comfortable. We don't really want to spend any time thinking about our mistakes. And yet we know know historically if you look at the great entrepreneurs in American culture every one of them that's built these

incredible companies have all made mistakes and they all talked about their mistakes they acknowledge their mistakes and the mistakes oftentimes led them to the great breakthroughs and the great discoveries well that brings up the point that there may be more than one kind of mistake. I mean, the kind of mistake that great entrepreneurs make that lead them to their big success, that's a different kind of mistake than the kind of mistake where you look back in retrospect and realize, yeah, I probably shouldn't have done that. It was a misjudgment. I screwed this up.

That was the second question. After I got tired of having people run away from, will you share a mistake with me? I asked a different question. I said, do you have a quiet little voice that tells you when you're about to do something you know you shouldn't do. And every single human being that I have ever questioned or ever met says yes. Some say, well, I don't call it a quiet little voice. I call it this, or I call it that, or I think of it as this, or I think of it as that. But everybody agreed on the concept that we have an internal mechanism that allows us to determine what's a good decision for us and what's a bad decision for us. We just don't use it. I like to think that we can build up a hundred arguments for something

and then turn right around and build up a hundred arguments against it. But deep down, I think that each person has the ability to make decisions that are correct for themselves. My decision is not necessarily your best decision. So I'm not saying that there's an absolute in the universe that everyone should decide this thing this way. But what I'm saying is that each person has an internal compass. And if you're true to that internal compass, you'll make that decision. Even though your brain may say like, oh, this is going to, you know, this might not be a good idea. This might not work out. Okay, well, I just feel like I should really do this anyway. I feel like I should try it. And those are the

ones where you go, oh, wow, that sure worked out great. But I think it's because it was pre-programmed to be your right decision before you made it. Well, that's good to hear because nobody wants to make a wrong decision. We all want to make a right decision, but we also want to take risks, and taking risks implies that you might fail. But anything that you can use to help mitigate that and to put the odds in your favor, the better. Yeah. And that's the other thing, the simple awareness, Michael, that we all make mistakes.

We are not perfect beings. We're all flawed. But it's like when you make a mistake, the first thing, the first reaction, and at least this is my supposition based on observation of the culture, the first reaction right now is to blame someone else or some other thing. Well, if the light hadn't been shining, if the moon hadn't been so bright, in politics is a classic example. You know, on one side of the aisle, you have a whole group of people who blame absolutely every problem and every failure on another group of people on the other side of the aisle, and vice versa. You don't have anybody

standing up and saying, well, I screwed up. I made a mistake. I did the wrong thing. I misjudged this piece of legislation and what its impact would be. It's my fault. I'll take full responsibility. And I promise to try harder to get it right next time. For me, I would vote for that candidate. I don't care what kind of label they carry. I would just love to have people who have that frame of mind to be able to say, yes, I'm not perfect, and yes, I do make mistakes, and I'm sorry I made that mistake, and I'm going to try to do better next time. But we're moving away from that. And I see it in younger people and in children.

It's like, oh, no, you did the wrong thing, or you gave the wrong answer, or you made the wrong move, or whatever. And you see it on athletic fields. You know, somebody makes an error and immediately they're going to blame the error on the player next to them or some other circumstance. It's just a real bad way that we're going. We need to check that immediately, turn it around, and, mistakes are going to happen. I'm going to make some.

When I do, I'm going to own them, and I'm going to learn from them, and I'm going to make fewer mistakes because I'm consciously committed to making better decisions. I'm speaking with Charles Serafin. His book is called One Stupid Mistake, Smart Decision Making in a Crazy World. People who listen to something you should Know are curious about the world, looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives,

and one I've started listening to called Intelligence Squared. It's the podcast where great minds meet. Listen in for some great talks on science, tech, politics, creativity, wellness, and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, discussing the future of technology. That's pretty cool. And writer, podcaster, and filmmaker John Ronson, discussing the rise of conspiracies and culture wars. Intelligence Squared is the kind of podcast that gets you thinking a little more openly about the important conversations going on today. Being curious, you're probably just the type of person

Intelligence Squared is meant for. Check out Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Jennifer, a founder of the Go Kid Go Network. At Go Kid Go, putting kids first is at the heart of every show that we produce. That's why we're so excited to introduce a brand new show to our network called The Search for the Silver Lining, a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named Isla who time travels to the mythical land of Camelot. Look for The Search for the Silver Lining on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, Charles, what does it mean to own your mistake? What does that mean that you do differently? Does that mean now you don't have to feel so bad because you own it?

I mean, what does that mean? No, it means, it really means just that. It means that it's to take it into yourself. When you make a mistake, and again, I feel like I'm an expert. I've made so many mistakes in my life, and I look back and somebody says, well, how do you determine what's the difference between a mistake and a stupid mistake? It's just the passage of time. You might realize it's a stupid mistake a minute later. It might take a year.

It might take 10 years. But at some point, when you have a better perspective and you have more information and more knowledge, then you look back and you say, well, that's it. But to own a mistake is to acknowledge it. If you acknowledge the mistake, don't blame it on someone else. Take it as your own. And sometimes there's a collective mistake. Okay, we all made the wrong decision. We all bet on the wrong stock or we all went off in the wrong direction.

But when that happens, I say the same thing. Own it. Don't worry about the fact that everybody else did it too. That's not an excuse. If you don't recognize that you're the one who made a decision that turned out to be wrong and it's a mistake, if you don't take it personally, then you can't learn from it. You just blame it on other people, and, you know, you're going to, if it wasn't for them, none of this would ever happen, and you're in constant denial, and that's really not a good formula for personal growth. But what's the difference between a mistake and a stupid mistake?

Not all mistakes are stupid. No, but I think that, again, it's the passage of time. If you make a mistake, and it's like, oh, gee, I just, I made a mistake. If you look at it in that moment, it's not necessarily a stupid mistake. But if you look at that same mistake 10 years from now, given what you know now that you didn't know then, you can look back and go, well, that was kind of dumb. I should have known that, or if I had known that, I wouldn't have made that mistake. So it's a relative term, and there's not a hard scientific definition of a difference between a

mistake and a stupid mistake. But for myself, most of the mistakes that I can remember, most of the mistakes that I've made, when I look at them now, I think, man, that was dumb. That was stupid. I should have known better. I don't know what I was thinking. Yeah, but it does seem like a lot of mistakes are just mistakes of judgment. Yeah, I could have done that a little better, or maybe that wasn't the best way to do something. But I don't know that I'd characterize it as stupid. It was just, yeah, maybe I could have put a little more effort into it. But I don't know if it falls into the category.

I'm good with that, Michael, because that's a, and those are the relatively insignificant things in our life. When, you know, the real, the big mistakes, oops, I married the wrong person, for example. That's a big one. That's a big one. And you know what? I guarantee you that anybody who's ever said that, you know, when I was 19 years old, I got married, I married the wrong person. That was a stupid mistake. Because as you reflect back on it now, and you think about all the factors that went into it, the reasoning and the rationale and the emotion and circumstances and all that, it's like, well, that was stupid. You can't get away. The real big ones

always come back as stupid mistakes. Little ones, maybe not so much. It was like, oh, well, yeah, it didn't have a major impact one way or the other. But that's a good example, because there are some people who get married young, marry the wrong person, and beat themselves up because they made that mistake. Then there are other people who are so cautious. They never get married. They never have kids, because they were always waiting for the perfect, no-mistake person that had no potential of going wrong, and then time goes by, and then you're dead. Yeah. Yeah.

And we probably know somebody like that. that I've written about. I disguised his name, but he has never been married, and he is one of the most wonderful, thoughtful, intelligent, creative, successful people on the planet, but his stupid mistake is that he never judges himself worthy of the other person. If he's really attracted to someone, and it's happened dozens of times, he shuts off the relationship in the very early stages because he thinks that she's always too good for him. Maybe she is. Maybe she is. But is that to suggest that there's no one, you know, that he's good enough for? Because I'm telling you, he's a really good guy.

He's not like some low-life bad person. It's just that that's his hang-up. So I think I can go either way. I know other people that have been married four and five times, and they think they're the best thing for everybody. So it's that lack of awareness. You know, we just have to slow down. We have to really look at ourselves.

And what you said earlier, you know, we're imperfect beings. And guess what? There's no perfect mate out there. How do relationships work? Well, I'm not perfect. The person that I'm in love with is not perfect, but I'm going to agree to compromise and accept that person's imperfections and hope that they will continue to accept my imperfections. And together, we can form a perfect union of two imperfect people. And to me, that's what, you know, when you look at people that have been married for 50 or 60 years,

those wonderful long-term relationships, it's all about compromise and understanding and working at the relationship as opposed to thinking that they met just the perfect angel and everything, you know, they lived happily ever after and it all worked out. I don't believe it works that way. But you're saying that if we take a few moments and go within and really think about a decision that we're going to make, that the right decision will come? I think if we go within and we really become centered and we are aware of ourselves, what our motivations are, who we are, what we're all about, and if we do that through not really consciously thinking about it, but just through quiet reflection, that we don't even have to take

a long time with our decisions. We will instinctively make better decisions. Now, we still are going to make a mistake because we're not going to be perfect, but we're going to hit for such a higher average than the people who are running around today, multitasking, constantly have artificial stimulation going on, whether it's alcohol, drugs, technology, or whatever, but are pumping themselves full of external influences, they have a really hard time, generally speaking, making those really good centered decisions because they don't hear that quiet little voice. Well, it's interesting that you said most people acknowledge, or all people acknowledge, if you ask them, that, yeah, there is that voice, there is that thing that tells them this is a good idea or not,

if you care to listen to it. And it's probably not foolproof, but if you listen to it, it's probably got something to say about the decision you're trying to make. Charles Serafin has been my guest. The book is One Stupid Mistake, Smart Decision Making in a Crazy World. And you'll find a link to the book in the show notes. Thanks, Charles. Appreciate it.

Since I host a podcast, it's pretty common for me to be asked to recommend a podcast. And I tell people, if you like something you should know, you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest. Of course, a lot of podcasts are conversations with guests, but Jordan does it better than most. Recently, he had a fascinating conversation with a British woman who was recruited and radicalized by ISIS and went to prison for three years. She now works to raise awareness on this issue.

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Hey, everyone. Join me, Megan Rinks. And me, Melissa Demonts, for Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong? Each week, we deliver four fun-filled shows. In Don't Blame Me, we tackle our listeners' dilemmas with hilariously honest advice. Then we have But Am I Wrong?, which is for the listeners that didn't take our advice. Plus, we share our hot takes on current events. Then tune in to see you next Tuesday for our Lister poll results from But Am I Wrong? And finally, wrap up your week with Fisting Friday, where we catch up and talk all things pop culture. Listen to Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong on Apple Podcasts,

Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. So if you haven't already, this is the time to get serious about your New Year's resolution. And to better arm yourself and to give you a pep talk and solid advice to help you succeed is Keith MacArthur. Keith is a podcaster and a blogger. His podcast is called My Instruction Manual, and he's author of a book called Winning Resolutions. Keith has spent quite a bit of time researching and understanding how resolutions work, why they sometimes succeed, and other times fail. Hi, Keith. Welcome. Hi, Mike. How are you?

I'm good, thanks. So, New Year's resolutions, every year people make them, every year people break them. And so what's going on? What's your take on this whole thing? Well, I think that most people treat their resolutions like a lottery ticket. And what I mean by that is that they kind of think of it as sort of a fun wish, right? When we buy a lottery ticket, we don't really think we're going to win. We're kind of hoping and we kind of enjoy imagining that we might win. And I think a lot of the time, it's the same thing that happens with resolutions. People set them often just the night before on New Year's Eve when they've already imbibed a little bit and they haven't really taken the time to craft the resolutions right and to plan for the success of their resolutions. And so what's a good resolution look like and sound like compared to one that's maybe not so good?

I talk about six P's that I think are important when people are setting their resolutions. And I can go through them really quickly. The first is precise. And that means that the resolution, you need to know exactly what success looks like, and you need to know when you're going to get it done. So a resolution like get fit is no good, but a resolution like, you know, go to the gym five days a week for the month of January is better because it's actually measurable and it's connected to time. The second is proximal. And that means that usually short-term goals have a better chance of success than long-term goals. So I recommend actually not setting resolutions for a full year, but actually breaking it down to

something like no more than three months. The third is practical. And that means that the resolutions need to be realistic enough that you actually believe that you have a chance of success. So stretch goals work for some things, but for resolutions, not as well. The next one is positive. And there's research that shows that when we have a negative goal, like something like saying that you're going to quit sugar, that actually makes it more difficult. It keeps it on your mind because you framed it in a negative way. And if you can turn that around and put it in a positive way, so instead of saying something like you're going to quit sugary drinks, instead of saying that you are going to drink water and tea, that positive shift will make you have a better chance of success. Then resolutions should be peaceful, which means that they need to be in

line with each other. They can't contradict each other. And they also need to align with our core values. And then finally, resolutions need to be promised. That means that you need to really be making a commitment for yourself, treating it like that promise instead of like a lottery ticket. And it does seem, at least in my experiences, it also seems to help if you tell other people about it. If they're expecting you to or hoping that you win, you're more likely to do it because people have that expectation. That's right. And, you know, for certain types of people, that's even more important. So there's certain types of people and Gretchen Rubin is someone that I interviewed when I was doing the research for my book. She's done a lot of research into habits as well. And she

came up with this framework of different types of people. And one of them are people who are really good at honoring commitments to other people, but not to themselves. So if you're that kind of personality where you are good at making your deadlines at work, but not good at going to the gym, then going public on social media or having an accountability buddy that you work out with, those kinds of things can really help you. When it's time to begin a resolution, is it a head first dive? Do you put your toe in the water? What do you typically think works best? Well, I would say that that depends on the kind of resolution. But it's interesting that you mentioned putting your toe in the water because there's certain kinds of things where the best

thing to do is actually to do what I call shrinking your habit. So for example, right now I'm in the process of trying to meditate every single day. And so there's a lot of experts out there who say that if you're going to meditate, you need to do it for 20 minutes to get the real effect. Well, I know that for me, that's not practical. I'm not going to be able to start doing 20 minutes every single day and build that habit. So instead, what I'm trying to do is meditate every single day for at least one minute. So what I'm doing is reducing the friction as much as possible. So while I build that habit, and once it's established as a routine in my life, then I can start stretching it out. How do you know this works? How do you,

is this just a theory or do you do it? I mean, how do you, it sounds good, but how do we know this is any better than anybody else's idea? Well, when we're talking to shrinking the resolution, that is based on some science, which really shows that, you know, basically what makes a habit stick is doing it without having to think about it, right? So it becomes routine in our lives. And the best way to establish something as a routine is to minimize the resistance. So you're more likely to do it every day. What I've done in the book is really gone out and, you know, looked at a lot of the science around goal setting and habits and willpower and how we structure our environment for success and taken sort of the best learnings

from all of those, as well as I interviewed a number of people who have been successful with their own resolutions and kind of put that all together to create the framework for what I call winning resolutions. And when people start, do you think people start a resolution with the best of intentions? Where do you where do you figure people typically fall off the wagon? Well, I think there's a few reasons why people fail. You mentioned starting with with the best of intention. So that that's probably the very biggest one. But I think that another one is that people tend to rely on

willpower too much, where, you know, willpower can certainly help. And there's things that we can do to bolster our willpower, but it's not a magic bullet. And so there's better things that we can do, for example, to structure our environment, so we don't have to rely on our willpower as much. So if you're trying to set a resolution to lose weight, the best thing to do is to make sure you're not bringing ice cream and potato chips into your house, right? You make it much more difficult. Again, it's about the friction. You want to remove that friction so it's more difficult for you to do the things that you want to do. And I think another thing that really can hurt people when they're trying to achieve the resolutions is that they haven't properly taken the time to craft and plan for

them. So even if they're committed, and even if they have a good resolution, it's still important to take the time to actually set a plan for your resolution. And one of the ways that you do that is by anticipating roadblocks. So we know that whenever we try to do something like a resolution, there's going to be things that come up that may challenge us and make it difficult for us to follow through. So again, if we stick with the losing weight example, let's say I know that next weekend I'm going to my niece's birthday party and there's going to be cake there. One of the things I want to think about is how am I going to respond when I'm offered that piece of cake? Am I going to decide in advance that I'm just not going to take it? Or am I going to decide that's an exception and it's okay to have a piece of cake?

The important thing is to make that decision ahead of time, to anticipate all the potential roadblocks ahead of time, so that when it gets to that moment where you're being challenged, you know your plan and you stick to it. Do you find that there are certain things that people who are successful with their resolutions, that there are certain things these people have in common are either personal traits or characteristics or just anything that helps them or seems to aid in their success? Yeah. So, I mean, I think that there are just certain kinds of people who, you know, who are more likely to honor commitments that they make to themselves. And I'm not really sure what makes people that way, but I think there is a difference where resolutions are easier for some people than they are for other people. But another big factor that

can really make a difference is what I call want power. And you know, that's the idea of how much do you actually want to achieve this thing? If we're thinking of things like, like losing weight or going to the gym, or saving up money or trying to get out of debt, there's always going to kind of be a competing battle in our brains with part of us that wants to achieve that big goal, achieve that resolution. And then part of us that wants to eat the cake or spend money on a pair of new shoes. And the more that we really are committed and want to see the resolution succeed, the more likely we are to stick to it. So one of the things that successful people also do is they'll, you know, before setting out on the resolution, they'll

journal about why it's important and kind of the pros and cons and really make sure that in their mind, they're fully committed to their goal. It would seem that losing weight is probably the biggest resolution, would you guess? It is. Yeah, I've gone and I've looked at a bunch of the surveys and research that's been done on resolutions, and certainly weight loss and fitness in general is the biggest. It's interesting, when resolutions started about 280 years ago, they were religious in nature, and they were all about how people could set their new year with a focus on how to have a better relationship with God. Over time, that kind of evolved into resolutions that were more involved in sort of personal virtues. But over the last 50 years, we've really seen a shift towards resolutions involving

fitness and weight loss. And, you know, the most virtuous thing that it seems we can be today when it comes to our resolutions is I'll relate to our appearance. And I think you may have mentioned it when we started, but what are the success and failure rates of resolution seekers? So there's a survey that's done every year by Marist, and they find that pretty much consistently about 40% of Americans set resolutions each year. Interestingly, the younger you are, the more likely you are to set resolutions. So, you know, it could be that as you get older, you're, you know, you have less need to change, or it could be that you've tried and failed so many times that you're no longer trying to set

those resolutions. The failure rate is kind of all over the map, depending on the research that you're no longer trying to set those resolutions. The failure rate is kind of all over the map, depending on the research that you look at. But it can be as high as 86%, one study found. And another study found that a huge portion of people fail in the very first week. Well, it makes you wonder about that commitment, doesn't it? It does. And in fact, I think it's December 17th, or I'm sorry, it's January 17th, it's been named Ditch Your Resolutions Day, you know, for the very reason that many people don't keep them for long. Well, you said you've looked at some of the research on resolutions. Is there any other stuff that pops out as particularly insightful for people? Well, I think one of the things that's quite interesting is

around willpower. And the science around willpower is kind of controversial in terms of whether or not it's a limited resource. Because I think we all can sort of relate to the idea that the more we're trying to do something hard, for example, if we have a long day at work and then we get home, it's probably harder for us to stick to our food goals if we're trying to lose weight. But there are some things that we can do to bolster our willpower. And one is just that practicing our willpower in little ways can help us get better at it. Another is that there's research that shows that willpower is contagious. So the more time we spend with other people who are good at willpower and self-control, the better we become at it. And another is just around want power, which is, you know, the idea that the more you

want to achieve your goal, the stronger your willpower will become. Has there been any research that you found, any suggestion that, you know, buddies help, that if you and somebody else are trying to accomplish basically the same thing and work at it together, that you're more likely to succeed than trying to do it on your own? What the research shows actually is that it does really help to have a buddy, but that that buddy doesn't necessarily have to be having the same goal or resolution. It's just someone who checks in with you regularly to make sure that you're accomplishing it. The research seems to show that whether it's a family member or a stranger, whether it's

someone who's trying to achieve the same goal or a different goal, it doesn't matter as long as you have someone who is keeping you accountable. And ideally, they're doing it both in kind of a kind and tough way. So they're being sympathetic to your challenges, but also pushing you to go harder. Well, you've brought some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that a lot of people will set and then fail on their New Year's resolutions. But the good news is that there are, in fact, a lot of things you can do to put the odds in your favor that you will succeed. Yeah, that's right. And, you know, in particular, if you do want to just treat them like sort of a

fun wish, maybe that's okay. But just don't expect to have that success. If you really want to achieve your resolutions, take the time to set the right resolutions and to plan for them. And there's certainly a number of things you can do to maximize your chance of success in the new year. Keith MacArthur has been my guest. He is a podcaster and a blogger. His podcast is called My Instruction Manual. His website is myinstructionmanual.com. And he's author of a book called Winning Resolutions.

And there is a link to the book in the show notes. Thanks, Keith. Have you ever wondered why people watch old reruns of TV shows or watch the same movie over and over again or even reread the same book? Well, it turns out to be a really good thing to do. A study suggests that reruns are good for us. Watching old, familiar TV shows or movies or rereading a book

has the effect of putting your mind at ease. It can boost your mood and relaxation, because it doesn't really challenge your senses too much, and it gives you a sense of control, knowing what to expect at the all-important ending. It's the same science that helps explain why we love hearing our favorite songs over and over again. We can join in, sing along, and even master the solo, because it's so familiar, and that makes us feel good. And that is something you should know. And that concludes the first episode of The New Year 2019. If you enjoy this

podcast, I invite you to please share it with someone you know. I'm Micah Ruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer,

unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. Chinook, starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts. Contained herein are the heresies of Rudolf Puntwine,

erstwhile monk turned traveling medical investigator. Join me as I study the secrets of the divine plagues and uncover the blasphemous truth that ours is not a loving God and we are not its favored children. The Heresies of Adolf Berntwein, wherever podcasts are available.