00:00:00
We're most familiar with New Year's resolutions as part of the fresh start
00:00:03
effect at the start of every new year. We think, "Oh, it's a clean slate. It's
00:00:06
a new year. It's a new me. I can achieve more." And we set these resolutions. But
00:00:10
we have actually documented that this phenomenon of feeling like we have a fresh start and are more motivated to
00:00:15
make change arises at lots of other moments too at every birthday on Mondays at the start of a new month. So all
00:00:23
sorts of new beginnings give us that fresh start feeling which increases our motivation to pursue our goals and makes
00:00:29
us feel more disconnected from past failures because we can say that was the old me and this is the new me. A lot of
00:00:34
the psychology in this space really relates to how I relate to my past self and my future self. Thinking about that
00:00:39
carefully led us to want to use the fresh start effect or this motivation to try to propel people to save more for
00:00:47
retirement, to think more about future me, to pursue those goals.