00:00:00
We're most familiar with New Year's
00:00:01
resolutions as part of the fresh start
00:00:03
effect at the start of every new year.
00:00:04
We think, "Oh, it's a clean slate. It's
00:00:06
a new year. It's a new me. I can achieve
00:00:08
more." And we set these resolutions. But
00:00:10
we have actually documented that this
00:00:12
phenomenon of feeling like we have a
00:00:14
fresh start and are more motivated to
00:00:15
make change arises at lots of other
00:00:17
moments too at every birthday on Mondays
00:00:20
at the start of a new month. So all
00:00:23
sorts of new beginnings give us that
00:00:25
fresh start feeling which increases our
00:00:27
motivation to pursue our goals and makes
00:00:29
us feel more disconnected from past
00:00:31
failures because we can say that was the
00:00:32
old me and this is the new me. A lot of
00:00:34
the psychology in this space really
00:00:35
relates to how I relate to my past self
00:00:37
and my future self. Thinking about that
00:00:39
carefully led us to want to use the
00:00:43
fresh start effect or this motivation to
00:00:45
try to propel people to save more for
00:00:47
retirement, to think more about future
00:00:49
me, to pursue those goals.
