Resolutions Don T Work By Susan Weinschenk Summary

I have been given the opportunity to complete extra credit by sharing my views on an article. I chose The Science of Why New Year 's Resolutions Don 't Work by Susan Weinschenk. The article is about how many people don’t complete their new year’s goals because the goals are too drastic and they don’t use “actual science to change behavior”. Susan stated how “to change a new habit you essentially have to create a new one, so whether you are changing an existing habit or creating a new one, the “scientific” method for doing so is the same.” So, in order to create a new habit you have to add onto an already existing habit or create a small new one. Everyone has hundreds of habits currently, so this part of the process shouldn 't be hard. Based on B.J. Fogg and Charles Duhigg, there’s three steps to creating a new habit. First, you must pick a small action. Instead of going all the with saying you will lose five hundred pounds, you could say you will walk more or drink a smoothie more or cut out fast food for example. Therefore, the ultimate goal will be more approachable through small baby steps instead of changing your whole lifestyle abruptly. Secondly, you must attach the new action to a previous habit. Find a habit that you already have. Simply embellish on it to help you reach your goal. If you have a habit of going to sonic after school (like me), go to subway instead. If you give up working out after an hour, stay

Even write out the stories that go against the new goal( not enough time, expensive gym fee, too busy, etc.). Secondly, you should re-write the story. “Tell the story of the new way of being. Tell the story of the person who appreciates life, and takes time to take care of him/her-self.” Research shows that self-story changing makes a profound change on whether or not a person sticks with and reaches his/her goal from the start. This author also says how she has tried both the 3-step method and the creating a new self-story. She insists that they