1: Ever heard of the “effort paradox”?

It’s the reason most New Year’s resolutions fail.

We “overcommit to a bunch of lofty aspirations,” Anne-Laure Le Cunff writes in her book Tiny Experiments. 

“The human mind has a love/hate relationship with effort,” she notes. “We are drawn to the idea of it, yet we would rather not have to put in actual effort.”

We think we will be happier if … continue reading

1: New Year’s resolutions don’t work.

“A survey of over 31 million activities by the team at Strava found that most New Year’s resolutions are abandoned by January 12,”  Anne-Laure Le Cunff writes in her book Tiny Experiments, “which they called Quitter’s Day.”

So, why do New Year’s resolutions fail?

Because we “overcommit to a bunch of lofty aspirations,” Anne-Laure explains.  “The human mind has a love/hate relationship with … continue reading