January 1, 2014 • 34 mins
Humans have made New Year's resolutions for millennia - and had a terrible time sticking to them. So, great expectations aside, why do most resolutions fail? Cristen and Caroline revisit this past podcast examining the science of willpower and sticking with resolutions.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to stuff Mom Never told you from House top
works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Kristen and I'm Caroline in Caroline. Let's just go ahead
and do this. Hi four three two one, Happy new podcast,
(00:27):
Happy new podcast. Folks. Guess what we made it through
two thirteen and it is two thousand fourteen. We're coming
at you the very first day of the year. If
you are listening to this, the day is coming out.
And if you are, I hope that you are feeling
bride eyed and bushy tailed from the evening beforehand. I
(00:50):
know I typically do on New Year's Day. That's right,
because you know what makes a head feel great is
a few glasses of champagne. Yeah, definitely. And Caroline, you
know a great way to start a new year with
a rerun. I think it's an interesting rerun, very very topical. Yeah,
you know old lang zine where my old acquaintance be forgot. Well,
(01:12):
we're going to actually remember, Um, We're gonna do the
opposite and remember last year's episode on New Year's Resolutions,
because tis the season we're making resolutions, and last year
we took a look at the science of New Year's
resolutions and will power to find out whether or not
(01:32):
we really have a very good chance of sticking to
our guns on them. That's right. And this year, I
can't say that my resolutions I don't really tend to
make them. I can't say that they're very different for
this year, mainly just to uh continue to try to
get up early and exercise before work. Yeah, I'm I'm
right there with you. I'm resolving to get up earlier
(01:54):
as well. I'm not looking forward now. That is so comfortable.
That is comfortable, but hey, a positive note, I'm also
resolving better podcast than ever before in two thousand four.
That's right. Yeah. So with that on a hopeful note,
we shall now segue into this revisitation of our examination
(02:18):
of whether or not New Year's resolutions really work. Yeah,
so take a listen and let us know yours. I myself,
I'm not really big on New Year's I think the
pressure is is too high for this holiday. I I
find it stressful. I would rather just I know it's
(02:39):
an excuse to party, and yes I will find a party,
but I would rather just like have a low key
night of hanging out rather than trying to go somewhere
where I do have to wear sequence. There's also a
lot of pressure to like tell yourself and everyone around
you that you're going to somehow make yourself better. Oh yeah,
it's the fresh start. And it's not just in the US.
(02:59):
This is a cross cultural thing. People love New Year's
because it gives us a chance, at least mentally, to say, Okay,
you know what, last year, I did some things whatever,
But I can I can be I can be a
new person this year. I can resolve to make myself better.
Do you have you do you make New Year's resolutions? Caroline?
(03:21):
I do not. I used to when I was a
naive person who believed that by simply saying I will
start running, I would start running, and that consistently did
not happen. So I was like, you know what, instead
of just disappointing myself every January three, I am just
going to try to make slow lifestyle changes here and
(03:45):
there and not worry about promising something on January one. Well.
As we will get into more in the podcast, Caroline,
you are really on the right track when it comes
to finally, when it comes to these resolutions, um. But first,
before we get into whether or not resolutions really work
(04:05):
and when they do, because I have known people who
will set up with some kind of large goal like
quitting smoking or having a healthier lifestyle, losing weight, and
they actually stick to it and they do it. Um.
So we'll talk about the ways that people can succeed
in those kinds of things. But USA dot gov, just
(04:28):
for fun, has tracked the kinds of things the most
common things at least that Americans resolved to do, and
they're pretty easy to guess. Less boozing, less using. So
I keep rhyming eating healthier food, getting a better education,
better job, getting fit, managing debt, which I'm sure is
(04:49):
a big one. I think money matters in general are
a big one for people, um, quitting smoking, taking trips, volunteering,
saving money, basically becoming perfect human beings. Yeah, I do
better with some of those things. It's all in cycles.
Sometimes I'm really good at saving money because I just
(05:10):
get in the mindset of like, no, dummy, you can't
go to the mall every day, that's just ridiculous. Who
does that? And so I become really good, you know,
eating at home instead of eating out and doing all
that stuff. But sometimes you can't be good all the time. No,
you need to allow yourself some indulgences, absolutely, but uh.
(05:30):
One interesting thing though about New Year's resolutions is just
how long we've been making them. I suspected that it
was more of a modern cultural invention, that New Year's
resolutions are this huge thing that everybody has to do,
but no, in fact, this is coming from the Book
of Christmas by James Struther's. She talks about the history
(05:54):
of resolution making and how ancient Romans and Babylonians would
make resolutions at the start the year, and Babylonians specifically
promised to repay debts and return borrowed objects, and this
was also popular among not surprisingly much later in history
the Puritans. I like the Babylonian resolutions. Well, they're not
really resolutions, but just like I'm gonna give back what's
(06:17):
owed that. That seems like it's an easier and more
noble goal than I'm gonna start eating fewer cheesy poofs,
although that's pretty noble too. You can accomplish it. It's
it's true, um, but it's even still though. Uh, these days,
I'd say there's a lot of cynicism towards resolutions, even
though it's something that it's it's a strange part of
(06:39):
almost human nature. It seems like considering how long we've
been doing this. But it's also been accompanied by this
growing acknowledgement that maybe resolutions are just empty gestures that
we make to make ourselves feel better at the beginning
of the year. For instance, a struther quotes Mark Twain,
(07:02):
who once said New Year's Day is now the accepted
time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week
you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Oh,
Samuel Clemens, some people last longer than a week. Yeah,
oh yeah. Well. Oscar Wilde also was skeptical. He said
good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a
(07:23):
bank where they have no account. And the thing is
Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde were not off the mark
in terms of being dubious. The people will actually stick
to their resolutions. So there were two studies by John
Norcross of the University of Scranton back in ninety nine.
John John Norcross has actually focused a lot on resolutions,
(07:47):
will power, all that stuff, and he found that seventy
seven percent of people maintain their resolutions for one week.
So here we go one week that's that's pretty good.
Good job only maintained for the full two years that
they followed people, But I still think that's pretty good
almost of people holding onto the resolutions for two years. Yeah,
(08:08):
although I mean we do we don't have details on
what precisely those resolutions were. Um. And I also really
liked the name of the study was called the Resolution
Solution Longitudinal Examination of New Year's Change Attempts. I love
academia sometimes. Um. Yeah. And among those two d people
(08:28):
that Norcross tracked, a little bit over half of them
experienced at least one slip up. And those slip ups
would be precipitated by self reported lack of personal control
excessive stress, which is something to keep in mind as
we talk about resolutions and negative emotions. And even though um,
those studies are a little bit dated there, the numbers
(08:52):
still apply today for the most part. It's not like
we've gotten any better really keeping resolutions in the intervening years. Um.
John Tierney over at the New York Times recently looked
at statistics on how how good we are these days
at keeping resolutions and forewarned that, sorry to say this, folks,
(09:13):
a third of people will have broken their resolutions by January,
and half of us will just give up by July.
But that still leaves fifty percent after July. UM. And
one of the reasons why we tend to give up
UM has to do with us finding ourselves or at
(09:34):
least thinking ourselves too busy, perhaps to really put the
effort to dig in and make the sacrifices UM. Also
in The New York Times, Tara Parker Pope reported on
a two thousand seventh survey by time management firm Franklin
Covee that pulled fifteen thousand customers UH, and they found
that nearly forty percent attributed breaking their resolutions to having
(09:56):
too many other things to do. And then thirteent we're
just i would say, probably a little more honest, and
said they just weren't as committed to the resolutions as
they were when the clock struck midnight. Yeah. Well, it's hard.
It's hard to go from being a couch center day
in and day out to being like, no, I'm going
to train for a marathon. I mean, that's that's a
(10:17):
major step. And to just decide automatically that you're going
to do that, like maybe get an app like the
couch to the five k app or something like that,
like take it in steps. It is. It can be
so overwhelming, I know, you know what I'm talking about.
It can be so overwhelming to be like, I'm just
gonna make a radical life change, right just because it's
New Year's Yeah, and we don't think about, uh, the
(10:39):
incremental steps needed to get to that place of actually
having a resolution that works. Yeah. Um, So, speaking of
resolutions working, you you do really have to be committed
and so, you know, Christen side of the thirty three percent,
he said, they simply just weren't committed. They didn't feel like,
you know, following three on my ever promise they made.
(11:01):
And uh. Kimberly Moffatt, who's a psychotherapist, quoted in the
Huffington Post, said that New Year's resolutions only work in
very few cases, and typically with those who have a
will of steel. And this gets into the whole like
willpower issue, like strength of will what makes people commit,
and so it can be really hard to commit. This
(11:23):
is another John Norcross study who mentioned him earlier, this
one in two thousand two. He found that by the
end of January, thirty six percent had already broken their resolutions.
Like we said, it can be overwhelming, and it really
is overwhelming if we're faced with too many tasks. So
not only are we like going back to work, we're
getting over the holidays, we're trying to clean up after
(11:44):
all the relatives have been in the house, and we
want to start training for a marathon. It can just
be a lot to handle. Yeah, And Michael Bader, who
is a senior advisor for the Institute for Change, also
says that resolutions don't work because we have an unconscious
resolution to not change. Basically, he thinks that our bad
(12:06):
behaviors serve unconscious beliefs and needs that are the building
blocks of our identities. So he gives an example of
an overeater who's unsuccessful at dieting because binging provides momentary
relief from feelings of loneliness and or anxiety. But I mean,
the thing is though, because he he also goes on
(12:27):
to say, like, this has nothing to do with heredity
or neurobiology, you know, it's just these these unconscious parts
of who we are. We can't divorce ourselves from them.
But it sounds like that's just not getting at the
real root of the problem. And shrugging off. You know,
Oh well, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna change really,
I'm just gonna like, I don't feel like cheesy poofs
(12:48):
are a cornerstone of my identity. I just really like them,
that's all, Like I could. I don't think the giving
up cheesy poofs will reveal anything that's like deep seated
in my brain. But what does the poof represent Caroline happiness?
Oh oh there it is? Um Well, another reason is
that we really don't want to do them. According to
(13:11):
this is Steve Airy, who's a negative Nancy confidence coach.
Quoted over at life Hacker. He said that this is
because resolutions are really about what we should do rather
than what we want to do. So it's like doing
your homework instead of playing video games. You know, It's
like it's what you should do to better yourself, but
do you really feel like you want to do it?
(13:32):
And then he goes on to explain that they're like goals,
but he said that this is a negative which I
kind of take issue with and I think is weird.
So he says that resolutions are like goals, which puts
a gap between where you are now and where you
want to be, And I don't think that's inherently negative.
I think if you see a goal that you want
to go for, whether that's getting a new job or
(13:53):
losing weight, you should go for it. But anyway, he
says that making resolutions make you look at what's next,
not what's in front of you, and they make you
feel less than lowering your self esteem, which I think
I feel like he's getting backwards. I don't know about
your I mean I could see that coming into effect
if you set yourself up for cycles of defeat where
(14:14):
you continually set goals and then that are too ambitious
and then you don't meet up to them, and then
that would probably ding your self esteem and you know,
lower you rather than propel you forward. Because it seems
like resolution should be more of a motivational factor. I
think it's more something that Christie Hedges, who's a leadership
(14:37):
coach um and quoted over at Forbes, talked about the
fact that we set too lofty of goals. It's like
this all or nothing thing I'm going to become. You know,
I'm going to sculpt my body so much so that
when I go to the beach, people will ask to
take my photo, and that's not gonna it's not gonna
(14:58):
happen with you know, one zoom boo class a week
or whatever it is that we think um can do it,
and so when we don't hit this transformational point in
a short amount of time, then we just throw the
whole throw the whole thing out. Yeah. Well. She also
says that culturally we're all pretty cynical and that we
live up to our low expectations because we're setting these
(15:20):
incredible goals that we don't honestly expect to meet, and
so it's that much easier to just be like, whatever,
I'm not going to go run anymore or I'm not
gonna do X y Z anymore, because I never really
expected that i'd you know, succeed anyway. I also like
how she refers to this as the cynical zeitgeist, which
supports the gravitational pull of the status quo cynical zeitgeist.
(15:44):
Everybody's a daria um. But there is some science though too,
resolutions and more specifically to the will power that it
takes to change things. Because I think that resolutions can
be a very good thing. I think that we're just
going about them oftentimes the wrong way. But when you
(16:04):
figure out how willpower works in the brain, maybe we
are arming ourselves with some some information to help us
succeed because sticking to resolutions i e. Willpower takes actual energy. Yeah,
so it turns out that when you run out of
(16:24):
will plat power, you're running out of energy. Like Kristen said,
that is powered by glucost in the bloodstream, which Roy F. Baumeister,
a social psychologist, calls ego depletion. He points out that
you really have to anticipate the limits of your willpower.
And what is it about willpower? Why does it run out?
What's going on? Well, one of the reasons why it
(16:47):
runs out is because all of the research into into
ego depletion, into willpower, UM finds that we don't really
have very much of it. Well, power is a very
fleeting thing humans like to give into their indulgences, and um,
if we don't exercise it much like a muscle, we
(17:11):
we aren't going to be able to to use it
very much. Um. And this was something that uh jonah
Laire who before I can hear eyebrows raising right now,
I realized he is uh run into some issues lately
with some citations, but nevertheless he wrote. Uh. He did
write a fascinating piece over at wired awhile ago Um
called the willpower Trick, and I just wanted to call
(17:33):
out some of these studies that he highlighted. Uh. He
talked about behavioral economists Baba Shiv, who asked two separate
groups to memorize either a two digit or a seven
digit number, and later on those two groups were um
tasked with choosing between a piece of chocolate cake or
(17:53):
a fruit bowl, knowing that the fruit would be a
healthier option, and he found Shiv found that the people
who to memorize the seven digit number were much more
likely to just given to the temptation and eat a
piece of chocolate cake because ships surmised their brains were
(18:13):
more tax those blood glu glucose levels were lower, and
hence they had more ego depletion. Yeah, and this is
the same thing. You get home from work. All day,
You've probably exercised willpower, not just in avoiding the dessert
tray at launch maybe, but also like not cursing all
day work, You've exercised willpower to not be your usual
jerk self. You get home at night, your brain is tired,
(18:37):
and you're like, Okay, I could grill a chicken breast,
or I could just eat this whole macaroni and cheese
plate from the grocery store. I love cheese. Is the theme.
I think this is a thing. Think it's a theme,
but I like it. Um. But going more into the research.
Back in the nineteen sixties, there's a famous experiment by
(19:00):
a guy named Walter Mitchell who wanted to test whether
or not kids could hold out for treats, basically looking
at will power in childhood, and he identified among the
kids who were able to hold out, he identified something
he called strategic allocation of attention, in which they literally
(19:23):
distracted themselves from the I think it was a marshmallow
or some kind of chocolate treat on the table that
it was sitting there. Um. Yeah, because he told them
that they could either eat the marshmallow now or wait
until the researcher comes back in the room. And then
they get to marshmallows. And all of the kids who
just sat there and stare at the marshmallow and tried
to wait it out had much more trouble and would
(19:47):
usually just gobble up the marshmallow. But the kids who
would cover their eyes so they couldn't see it, they
would sing songs themselves, actually hide underneath the table, essentially
block being that temptation stimulus from view. We're able to
hold out the longest. And so that's um one thing
(20:08):
that researchers have learned about willpower is the fact that
those of us who might seem to have the most
actually have to exercise it the least because we sidestep
temptation by just keeping those things out of out of
our view. Like if if you you're you know, pitfall
(20:29):
is say chocolate or cigarettes or alcohol, you don't have
chocolate or cigarettes or alcohol anywhere. You know. It's like
if you're an alcoholic, you're not going to go to
a bar. Yeah, I read. There was one comment au
on the Wired article. The guy said that he kept
his pack of cigarettes. He would only let himself buy
one pack at a time, and he would keep it
in the back seat of his car, so every time
he wanted to smoke, he would have to go out,
(20:51):
get his keys, go outside, get the pack of cigarettes,
get one cigarette, because he would only let himself take
one cigarette at a time, and then smoke it, and
so that cut way down on just like the boredom smoking,
and he actually ended up cutting way down in general.
And I'm like, well, am I going to have to
keep all of my chocolate in my car? You gotta
keep the cheesy poofs in the trunk, Caroline, I have
(21:14):
a hatch. I can so easily get to it. Um yeah,
but that's the whole thing too. I don't keep ice
cream in the house. I don't go down the ice
cream aisle at the grocery store. Like if I super
duper want ice cream, it means that I have to
either go to the grocery store and get it or
just like stop by the ice cream parlor on the
way home, which it's just so much of a hassle.
(21:36):
Who wants to do that? Well? And the only thing
though about this kind of research is that it definitely
gives us more insight into eliminating problem behaviors, but not
so much into activating positive ones. In terms of exercising.
Going to those zoomba classes, Um, I can't keep up.
(21:57):
Uh yeah, I've never taken a Zooma US, but I
have a feeling I would. I don't know. I got
I got two left feight, folks um or you know,
like learning a new language or going on trips as
kind of volunteering, those kinds of things that require more time.
But again it seems like, no matter what the big
lesson is, you gotta start small. Yeah, definitely, Yeah, small
(22:21):
steps are best. This was a stress in l a
Times article in December. Take short walks at work, things
like that, things that can add up to small successes
that can add up to a better feeling of self control,
self esteem, like thinking, Okay, that wasn't hard getting up
at three thirty. When you're just like head on your desk,
(22:41):
getting up and just taking a walk around your floor,
around your building or whatever, that eventually leads you to
be like, okay, well maybe then I can run a
mile on the treadmill instead when I get home, you know,
adding up to bigger and bigger things. And same with
the same with food. Um, it's the whole Like if
you're drastically cutting everything, like okay, well I'm gonna go
from eating like a normal average American diet to let
(23:04):
us I'm gonna eat nothing but let us in tomatoes.
Yeah a that's not a balanced diet. Yeah, you need
some frosted flakes in there. And also remember that those
glucost levels too. It means that has a big thing
to do with the food, Like people need to to
eat to be healthy to keep those glucosts. Yeah, that's why. Yeah,
that's why your crash diets are not gonna work. That's
(23:26):
why it has to be a lifestyle change. And Kimberly Moffatt,
who we referenced earlier, said, in reference to food in particular,
think of what you're adding instead of what you're taking away.
This is something I've actually told my mother, who refuses,
I don't know it, refuses to cut back in some
areas and add and others. I'm like, don't think of
it as dieting. This isn't like your neutral system. This
(23:49):
isn't your eating rice cakes and being sad. This is
just trying to add fruits and vegetables. Maybe take away
a little bacon. I know, cut who wants to take
away bake again? I don't know nobody, but yeah, And
and people recommend that you don't spread yourself. Then, in
addition to this, you want to set a single clear
(24:10):
goal because, as we mentioned earlier, being overwhelmed with tasks
and half two's and must dues. It just gets to
be too much and you won't stick to it. Yeah.
And on that same note, I think this is really important.
Don't overreact if you have a lapse. Lapses happen if
you skip a day of running. If you eat that hamburger,
(24:32):
enjoy it. Enjoy the relaxation that you take from not
exercising one day. Enjoy the satiation from that burger or
whatever food it is that the delights you so much,
and then you know and keep going. Don't expect yourself
to be completely perfect right off the bat or really ever. Yeah.
(24:53):
And also I mean, don't think that that burger or
that day off from running means your entire diet or
exercise regiment or whatever is off track. You've that's just
one one day, one burger, one whatever, but a bag
of cheesey poofs whatever, But just that just means that
the next day you're back at it. Right. Um, And
(25:14):
we have not touched on gender at all in this podcast,
but this, this whole thing about willpower and managing stress
and keeping your energy levels up is especially pertinent to women.
Because the American Psychological Association did a pretty end depth
survey not too long ago on gender stress and sticking
(25:36):
to resolutions and willpower and found that women may have
a harder time sticking to goals like these than men do.
And I wonder if, off the bat, and I wasn't
able to find any statistics on this, I wonder if
just from the get go, women um might set more resolutions,
(25:59):
and perhaps more unrealistic resolutions. And I only say that
because I feel like as soon as the holidays are over,
the messages that we are immediately inundated with our swimsuit
seasons around the corner, ladies, Yeah, drop those last five pounds,
come out all that turkey way. I'm going to give
birth to a turkey. Um. Yeah. It turns out in
(26:21):
the study that both genders do cite lack of willpower
as the number one barrier to change, but women are
more likely than men to cite the lack of willpower
as a barrier preventing them from making the lifestyle changes
recommended by a doctor. And so that's tht women versus
twenty four percent men. Yeah, and women are also far
(26:42):
more likely than men to report that a lack of
willpower has prevented them from changing eating habits um. When
asked what they needed to change in order for their
willpower to improve, women were more likely than men to
say less fatigue and more confidence in their ability to
improve their willpower. And also six times as many women
(27:03):
say that having more help with household chores would allow
them to improve their willpower. And this was something that
I was thinking about in terms of, you know, what
it takes to set a resolution and really keep to
it and make a lifestyle change. And as a single
woman with no kids, like being as autonomous as I
(27:25):
will ever be probably in my life, Um, that I
could see that happening. I could say, oh I could,
you know, I could, I could do these kinds of things.
Toss a kid in the mix, I don't know, you know,
because that's that increases your stress level. That And I'm
not blaming kids for things. I'm just saying that I
can understand how having a partner, having a household to
(27:46):
take care of, having children, even pets, um my pet free, Uh,
all of that can impact this brain space that it
takes to really set yourself up for our success. And
it also speaks to I mean not to to to
be uh kind of cliche about it. But it also
(28:07):
speaks to the importance of you know, establishing healthy lifestyles
from the get go if possible, and maybe just using
your child as a bench press. Just bench press your child,
incorporate if the child is taking up so much of
your time, incorporate the child into your exercise. Gentlemen, well, no,
that is one of the bicept girls with the child.
There you go. If you've got twin babies, obviously autopadded
(28:31):
surface g I c um no. But one of the
one of the tips was just play with your kids,
because that knocks out increased family time and also gives
you a little bit of exercise. So here we're here
to help. Yeah, we're doing Yeah, And I do think that.
Um the fact that there are so many apps out
(28:52):
there too, especially for people who want to start exercising more,
that will give you reminders keeping some kind of accountability
something that's often cited as well as a good thing
to do. So this this sounds like if I want
to get back in the resolution game, I should make
a resolution along the lines of get moving a little
(29:14):
bit every day. So in going from nothing, going from
walking from my car to my apartment, take a walk
at three o'clock when I'm starting to feel tired at work. Yeah,
it's the whole thing about taking the stairs instead of
the elevator, one day at a time. Like for for me, uh,
like I want to save money this year, and instead
(29:35):
of what I've done in the past of saying by
the end of this year, I want to have a
million dollars, now, I'm not gonna happen. There's no way,
uh actually saying okay each week breaking it down. Well,
I've also in terms of money, like I've also set
an amount every month that I'm going to put in
savings and never touch again because I actually am working
towards a goal of buying a car, Like I have
(29:56):
to get rid of my old, dying, noisy car, and
so I just have to be disciplined about that. But
I do still let myself go out, Sure, have a drink,
have a Hamburger, gusie, friends, that kind of thing. I
don't completely deprive myself of any social interaction that involves
leaving the house because I would go insane and then
I would money binge and buy all of the shoes.
(30:18):
So buy all the shoes now. So New Year's resolutions
do they work? Oftentimes No, but it's just because, well
not just because, but I would say largely because we
go about them the wrong way. Yeah, it's it's almost
sort of a desperation move, like, oh my god, I
was not responsible with fill in the blank, and I
(30:40):
need to suddenly backtrack and reverse however many months of damage.
Whereas it might seem hard, but in the long run,
it's easier to make that lifestyle change and be kind
to yourself. Yeah, that's a good message. Be kind to yourself. Hey,
that still stands in twenty our team, keep being kind
(31:01):
to yourself. Yeah, Caroline, I think of all of the resolutions,
be kind to yourself is one that is doable. Yeah,
we can. We can do that, right. Sure, we might
have to work at it. You know. I think it's
easy to beat ourselves up sometimes, but just as it's
important to be kind to you a fellow human, be
nice to yourself too. And you know what, I'm going
to resolve to have the best podcast ever in two
(31:25):
thousand and fourteen. Yes, So, if you have any podcast
suggestions that you would like us to tackle in this
upcoming year, now is the time to let us know,
because we have some exciting things right around the corner.
Not only is it a whole new year of all
new podcast topics that we want to get your insight on,
(31:48):
but we have the launch of a very special website
where all of the podcast goodness will have a home.
That's right, I'm talking to stuff Mom Never Told You
website coming out very soon, so stay tuned for that. So, Christen,
one resolution that I think is pretty safe to make
(32:11):
is to get myself more educated. And I'm going to
do that by watching a whole bunch of the awesome
documentaries that are on Netflix. Netflix streams TV shows and
movies directly to your home, saving you time, money, and hassle.
And as a Netflix member, you can instantly watch TV
episodes and great documentaries streaming directly to your PC, Mac
or right to your TV with your Xbox three sixty
(32:33):
p S three or Nintendo we console. And for stuff
Mom Never told You listeners, you can try out Netflix
for free with a thirty day trial membership by going
to Netflix dot com splash mom and signing up now
so that you can check out all of those documentary shows, movies, etcetera,
(32:54):
all at Netflix dot com slash mom for that three
thirty day eight trial membership, So don't delay, make your
Netflix resolution today and don't forget also to send us
your podcast episode suggestions for two thousand fourteen. Happy New Year, everybody,
(33:14):
Let's really kick it off with some awesome episodes requested
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(33:36):
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stuff Works dot com. Three
Welcome to stuff Mom Never told you from House top
works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Kristen and I'm Caroline in Caroline. Let's just go ahead
and do this. Hi four three two one, Happy new podcast,
(00:27):
Happy new podcast. Folks. Guess what we made it through
two thirteen and it is two thousand fourteen. We're coming
at you the very first day of the year. If
you are listening to this, the day is coming out.
And if you are, I hope that you are feeling
bride eyed and bushy tailed from the evening beforehand. I
(00:50):
know I typically do on New Year's Day. That's right,
because you know what makes a head feel great is
a few glasses of champagne. Yeah, definitely. And Caroline, you
know a great way to start a new year with
a rerun. I think it's an interesting rerun, very very topical. Yeah,
you know old lang zine where my old acquaintance be forgot. Well,
(01:12):
we're going to actually remember, Um, We're gonna do the
opposite and remember last year's episode on New Year's Resolutions,
because tis the season we're making resolutions, and last year
we took a look at the science of New Year's
resolutions and will power to find out whether or not
(01:32):
we really have a very good chance of sticking to
our guns on them. That's right. And this year, I
can't say that my resolutions I don't really tend to
make them. I can't say that they're very different for
this year, mainly just to uh continue to try to
get up early and exercise before work. Yeah, I'm I'm
right there with you. I'm resolving to get up earlier
(01:54):
as well. I'm not looking forward now. That is so comfortable.
That is comfortable, but hey, a positive note, I'm also
resolving better podcast than ever before in two thousand four.
That's right. Yeah. So with that on a hopeful note,
we shall now segue into this revisitation of our examination
(02:18):
of whether or not New Year's resolutions really work. Yeah,
so take a listen and let us know yours. I myself,
I'm not really big on New Year's I think the
pressure is is too high for this holiday. I I
find it stressful. I would rather just I know it's
(02:39):
an excuse to party, and yes I will find a party,
but I would rather just like have a low key
night of hanging out rather than trying to go somewhere
where I do have to wear sequence. There's also a
lot of pressure to like tell yourself and everyone around
you that you're going to somehow make yourself better. Oh yeah,
it's the fresh start. And it's not just in the US.
(02:59):
This is a cross cultural thing. People love New Year's
because it gives us a chance, at least mentally, to say, Okay,
you know what, last year, I did some things whatever,
But I can I can be I can be a
new person this year. I can resolve to make myself better.
Do you have you do you make New Year's resolutions? Caroline?
(03:21):
I do not. I used to when I was a
naive person who believed that by simply saying I will
start running, I would start running, and that consistently did
not happen. So I was like, you know what, instead
of just disappointing myself every January three, I am just
going to try to make slow lifestyle changes here and
(03:45):
there and not worry about promising something on January one. Well.
As we will get into more in the podcast, Caroline,
you are really on the right track when it comes
to finally, when it comes to these resolutions, um. But first,
before we get into whether or not resolutions really work
(04:05):
and when they do, because I have known people who
will set up with some kind of large goal like
quitting smoking or having a healthier lifestyle, losing weight, and
they actually stick to it and they do it. Um.
So we'll talk about the ways that people can succeed
in those kinds of things. But USA dot gov, just
(04:28):
for fun, has tracked the kinds of things the most
common things at least that Americans resolved to do, and
they're pretty easy to guess. Less boozing, less using. So
I keep rhyming eating healthier food, getting a better education,
better job, getting fit, managing debt, which I'm sure is
(04:49):
a big one. I think money matters in general are
a big one for people, um, quitting smoking, taking trips, volunteering,
saving money, basically becoming perfect human beings. Yeah, I do
better with some of those things. It's all in cycles.
Sometimes I'm really good at saving money because I just
(05:10):
get in the mindset of like, no, dummy, you can't
go to the mall every day, that's just ridiculous. Who
does that? And so I become really good, you know,
eating at home instead of eating out and doing all
that stuff. But sometimes you can't be good all the time. No,
you need to allow yourself some indulgences, absolutely, but uh.
(05:30):
One interesting thing though about New Year's resolutions is just
how long we've been making them. I suspected that it
was more of a modern cultural invention, that New Year's
resolutions are this huge thing that everybody has to do,
but no, in fact, this is coming from the Book
of Christmas by James Struther's. She talks about the history
(05:54):
of resolution making and how ancient Romans and Babylonians would
make resolutions at the start the year, and Babylonians specifically
promised to repay debts and return borrowed objects, and this
was also popular among not surprisingly much later in history
the Puritans. I like the Babylonian resolutions. Well, they're not
really resolutions, but just like I'm gonna give back what's
(06:17):
owed that. That seems like it's an easier and more
noble goal than I'm gonna start eating fewer cheesy poofs,
although that's pretty noble too. You can accomplish it. It's
it's true, um, but it's even still though. Uh, these days,
I'd say there's a lot of cynicism towards resolutions, even
though it's something that it's it's a strange part of
(06:39):
almost human nature. It seems like considering how long we've
been doing this. But it's also been accompanied by this
growing acknowledgement that maybe resolutions are just empty gestures that
we make to make ourselves feel better at the beginning
of the year. For instance, a struther quotes Mark Twain,
(07:02):
who once said New Year's Day is now the accepted
time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week
you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Oh,
Samuel Clemens, some people last longer than a week. Yeah,
oh yeah. Well. Oscar Wilde also was skeptical. He said
good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a
(07:23):
bank where they have no account. And the thing is
Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde were not off the mark
in terms of being dubious. The people will actually stick
to their resolutions. So there were two studies by John
Norcross of the University of Scranton back in ninety nine.
John John Norcross has actually focused a lot on resolutions,
(07:47):
will power, all that stuff, and he found that seventy
seven percent of people maintain their resolutions for one week.
So here we go one week that's that's pretty good.
Good job only maintained for the full two years that
they followed people, But I still think that's pretty good
almost of people holding onto the resolutions for two years. Yeah,
(08:08):
although I mean we do we don't have details on
what precisely those resolutions were. Um. And I also really
liked the name of the study was called the Resolution
Solution Longitudinal Examination of New Year's Change Attempts. I love
academia sometimes. Um. Yeah. And among those two d people
(08:28):
that Norcross tracked, a little bit over half of them
experienced at least one slip up. And those slip ups
would be precipitated by self reported lack of personal control
excessive stress, which is something to keep in mind as
we talk about resolutions and negative emotions. And even though um,
those studies are a little bit dated there, the numbers
(08:52):
still apply today for the most part. It's not like
we've gotten any better really keeping resolutions in the intervening years. Um.
John Tierney over at the New York Times recently looked
at statistics on how how good we are these days
at keeping resolutions and forewarned that, sorry to say this, folks,
(09:13):
a third of people will have broken their resolutions by January,
and half of us will just give up by July.
But that still leaves fifty percent after July. UM. And
one of the reasons why we tend to give up
UM has to do with us finding ourselves or at
(09:34):
least thinking ourselves too busy, perhaps to really put the
effort to dig in and make the sacrifices UM. Also
in The New York Times, Tara Parker Pope reported on
a two thousand seventh survey by time management firm Franklin
Covee that pulled fifteen thousand customers UH, and they found
that nearly forty percent attributed breaking their resolutions to having
(09:56):
too many other things to do. And then thirteent we're
just i would say, probably a little more honest, and
said they just weren't as committed to the resolutions as
they were when the clock struck midnight. Yeah. Well, it's hard.
It's hard to go from being a couch center day
in and day out to being like, no, I'm going
to train for a marathon. I mean, that's that's a
(10:17):
major step. And to just decide automatically that you're going
to do that, like maybe get an app like the
couch to the five k app or something like that,
like take it in steps. It is. It can be
so overwhelming, I know, you know what I'm talking about.
It can be so overwhelming to be like, I'm just
gonna make a radical life change, right just because it's
New Year's Yeah, and we don't think about, uh, the
(10:39):
incremental steps needed to get to that place of actually
having a resolution that works. Yeah. Um, So, speaking of
resolutions working, you you do really have to be committed
and so, you know, Christen side of the thirty three percent,
he said, they simply just weren't committed. They didn't feel like,
you know, following three on my ever promise they made.
(11:01):
And uh. Kimberly Moffatt, who's a psychotherapist, quoted in the
Huffington Post, said that New Year's resolutions only work in
very few cases, and typically with those who have a
will of steel. And this gets into the whole like
willpower issue, like strength of will what makes people commit,
and so it can be really hard to commit. This
(11:23):
is another John Norcross study who mentioned him earlier, this
one in two thousand two. He found that by the
end of January, thirty six percent had already broken their resolutions.
Like we said, it can be overwhelming, and it really
is overwhelming if we're faced with too many tasks. So
not only are we like going back to work, we're
getting over the holidays, we're trying to clean up after
(11:44):
all the relatives have been in the house, and we
want to start training for a marathon. It can just
be a lot to handle. Yeah, And Michael Bader, who
is a senior advisor for the Institute for Change, also
says that resolutions don't work because we have an unconscious
resolution to not change. Basically, he thinks that our bad
(12:06):
behaviors serve unconscious beliefs and needs that are the building
blocks of our identities. So he gives an example of
an overeater who's unsuccessful at dieting because binging provides momentary
relief from feelings of loneliness and or anxiety. But I mean,
the thing is though, because he he also goes on
(12:27):
to say, like, this has nothing to do with heredity
or neurobiology, you know, it's just these these unconscious parts
of who we are. We can't divorce ourselves from them.
But it sounds like that's just not getting at the
real root of the problem. And shrugging off. You know,
Oh well, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna change really,
I'm just gonna like, I don't feel like cheesy poofs
(12:48):
are a cornerstone of my identity. I just really like them,
that's all, Like I could. I don't think the giving
up cheesy poofs will reveal anything that's like deep seated
in my brain. But what does the poof represent Caroline happiness?
Oh oh there it is? Um Well, another reason is
that we really don't want to do them. According to
(13:11):
this is Steve Airy, who's a negative Nancy confidence coach.
Quoted over at life Hacker. He said that this is
because resolutions are really about what we should do rather
than what we want to do. So it's like doing
your homework instead of playing video games. You know, It's
like it's what you should do to better yourself, but
do you really feel like you want to do it?
(13:32):
And then he goes on to explain that they're like goals,
but he said that this is a negative which I
kind of take issue with and I think is weird.
So he says that resolutions are like goals, which puts
a gap between where you are now and where you
want to be, And I don't think that's inherently negative.
I think if you see a goal that you want
to go for, whether that's getting a new job or
(13:53):
losing weight, you should go for it. But anyway, he
says that making resolutions make you look at what's next,
not what's in front of you, and they make you
feel less than lowering your self esteem, which I think
I feel like he's getting backwards. I don't know about
your I mean I could see that coming into effect
if you set yourself up for cycles of defeat where
(14:14):
you continually set goals and then that are too ambitious
and then you don't meet up to them, and then
that would probably ding your self esteem and you know,
lower you rather than propel you forward. Because it seems
like resolution should be more of a motivational factor. I
think it's more something that Christie Hedges, who's a leadership
(14:37):
coach um and quoted over at Forbes, talked about the
fact that we set too lofty of goals. It's like
this all or nothing thing I'm going to become. You know,
I'm going to sculpt my body so much so that
when I go to the beach, people will ask to
take my photo, and that's not gonna it's not gonna
(14:58):
happen with you know, one zoom boo class a week
or whatever it is that we think um can do it,
and so when we don't hit this transformational point in
a short amount of time, then we just throw the
whole throw the whole thing out. Yeah. Well. She also
says that culturally we're all pretty cynical and that we
live up to our low expectations because we're setting these
(15:20):
incredible goals that we don't honestly expect to meet, and
so it's that much easier to just be like, whatever,
I'm not going to go run anymore or I'm not
gonna do X y Z anymore, because I never really
expected that i'd you know, succeed anyway. I also like
how she refers to this as the cynical zeitgeist, which
supports the gravitational pull of the status quo cynical zeitgeist.
(15:44):
Everybody's a daria um. But there is some science though too,
resolutions and more specifically to the will power that it
takes to change things. Because I think that resolutions can
be a very good thing. I think that we're just
going about them oftentimes the wrong way. But when you
(16:04):
figure out how willpower works in the brain, maybe we
are arming ourselves with some some information to help us
succeed because sticking to resolutions i e. Willpower takes actual energy. Yeah,
so it turns out that when you run out of
(16:24):
will plat power, you're running out of energy. Like Kristen said,
that is powered by glucost in the bloodstream, which Roy F. Baumeister,
a social psychologist, calls ego depletion. He points out that
you really have to anticipate the limits of your willpower.
And what is it about willpower? Why does it run out?
What's going on? Well, one of the reasons why it
(16:47):
runs out is because all of the research into into
ego depletion, into willpower, UM finds that we don't really
have very much of it. Well, power is a very
fleeting thing humans like to give into their indulgences, and um,
if we don't exercise it much like a muscle, we
(17:11):
we aren't going to be able to to use it
very much. Um. And this was something that uh jonah
Laire who before I can hear eyebrows raising right now,
I realized he is uh run into some issues lately
with some citations, but nevertheless he wrote. Uh. He did
write a fascinating piece over at wired awhile ago Um
called the willpower Trick, and I just wanted to call
(17:33):
out some of these studies that he highlighted. Uh. He
talked about behavioral economists Baba Shiv, who asked two separate
groups to memorize either a two digit or a seven
digit number, and later on those two groups were um
tasked with choosing between a piece of chocolate cake or
(17:53):
a fruit bowl, knowing that the fruit would be a
healthier option, and he found Shiv found that the people
who to memorize the seven digit number were much more
likely to just given to the temptation and eat a
piece of chocolate cake because ships surmised their brains were
(18:13):
more tax those blood glu glucose levels were lower, and
hence they had more ego depletion. Yeah, and this is
the same thing. You get home from work. All day,
You've probably exercised willpower, not just in avoiding the dessert
tray at launch maybe, but also like not cursing all
day work, You've exercised willpower to not be your usual
jerk self. You get home at night, your brain is tired,
(18:37):
and you're like, Okay, I could grill a chicken breast,
or I could just eat this whole macaroni and cheese
plate from the grocery store. I love cheese. Is the theme.
I think this is a thing. Think it's a theme,
but I like it. Um. But going more into the research.
Back in the nineteen sixties, there's a famous experiment by
(19:00):
a guy named Walter Mitchell who wanted to test whether
or not kids could hold out for treats, basically looking
at will power in childhood, and he identified among the
kids who were able to hold out, he identified something
he called strategic allocation of attention, in which they literally
(19:23):
distracted themselves from the I think it was a marshmallow
or some kind of chocolate treat on the table that
it was sitting there. Um. Yeah, because he told them
that they could either eat the marshmallow now or wait
until the researcher comes back in the room. And then
they get to marshmallows. And all of the kids who
just sat there and stare at the marshmallow and tried
to wait it out had much more trouble and would
(19:47):
usually just gobble up the marshmallow. But the kids who
would cover their eyes so they couldn't see it, they
would sing songs themselves, actually hide underneath the table, essentially
block being that temptation stimulus from view. We're able to
hold out the longest. And so that's um one thing
(20:08):
that researchers have learned about willpower is the fact that
those of us who might seem to have the most
actually have to exercise it the least because we sidestep
temptation by just keeping those things out of out of
our view. Like if if you you're you know, pitfall
(20:29):
is say chocolate or cigarettes or alcohol, you don't have
chocolate or cigarettes or alcohol anywhere. You know. It's like
if you're an alcoholic, you're not going to go to
a bar. Yeah, I read. There was one comment au
on the Wired article. The guy said that he kept
his pack of cigarettes. He would only let himself buy
one pack at a time, and he would keep it
in the back seat of his car, so every time
he wanted to smoke, he would have to go out,
(20:51):
get his keys, go outside, get the pack of cigarettes,
get one cigarette, because he would only let himself take
one cigarette at a time, and then smoke it, and
so that cut way down on just like the boredom smoking,
and he actually ended up cutting way down in general.
And I'm like, well, am I going to have to
keep all of my chocolate in my car? You gotta
keep the cheesy poofs in the trunk, Caroline, I have
(21:14):
a hatch. I can so easily get to it. Um yeah,
but that's the whole thing too. I don't keep ice
cream in the house. I don't go down the ice
cream aisle at the grocery store. Like if I super
duper want ice cream, it means that I have to
either go to the grocery store and get it or
just like stop by the ice cream parlor on the
way home, which it's just so much of a hassle.
(21:36):
Who wants to do that? Well? And the only thing
though about this kind of research is that it definitely
gives us more insight into eliminating problem behaviors, but not
so much into activating positive ones. In terms of exercising.
Going to those zoomba classes, Um, I can't keep up.
(21:57):
Uh yeah, I've never taken a Zooma US, but I
have a feeling I would. I don't know. I got
I got two left feight, folks um or you know,
like learning a new language or going on trips as
kind of volunteering, those kinds of things that require more time.
But again it seems like, no matter what the big
lesson is, you gotta start small. Yeah, definitely, Yeah, small
(22:21):
steps are best. This was a stress in l a
Times article in December. Take short walks at work, things
like that, things that can add up to small successes
that can add up to a better feeling of self control,
self esteem, like thinking, Okay, that wasn't hard getting up
at three thirty. When you're just like head on your desk,
(22:41):
getting up and just taking a walk around your floor,
around your building or whatever, that eventually leads you to
be like, okay, well maybe then I can run a
mile on the treadmill instead when I get home, you know,
adding up to bigger and bigger things. And same with
the same with food. Um, it's the whole Like if
you're drastically cutting everything, like okay, well I'm gonna go
from eating like a normal average American diet to let
(23:04):
us I'm gonna eat nothing but let us in tomatoes.
Yeah a that's not a balanced diet. Yeah, you need
some frosted flakes in there. And also remember that those
glucost levels too. It means that has a big thing
to do with the food, Like people need to to
eat to be healthy to keep those glucosts. Yeah, that's why. Yeah,
that's why your crash diets are not gonna work. That's
(23:26):
why it has to be a lifestyle change. And Kimberly Moffatt,
who we referenced earlier, said, in reference to food in particular,
think of what you're adding instead of what you're taking away.
This is something I've actually told my mother, who refuses,
I don't know it, refuses to cut back in some
areas and add and others. I'm like, don't think of
it as dieting. This isn't like your neutral system. This
(23:49):
isn't your eating rice cakes and being sad. This is
just trying to add fruits and vegetables. Maybe take away
a little bacon. I know, cut who wants to take
away bake again? I don't know nobody, but yeah, And
and people recommend that you don't spread yourself. Then, in
addition to this, you want to set a single clear
(24:10):
goal because, as we mentioned earlier, being overwhelmed with tasks
and half two's and must dues. It just gets to
be too much and you won't stick to it. Yeah.
And on that same note, I think this is really important.
Don't overreact if you have a lapse. Lapses happen if
you skip a day of running. If you eat that hamburger,
(24:32):
enjoy it. Enjoy the relaxation that you take from not
exercising one day. Enjoy the satiation from that burger or
whatever food it is that the delights you so much,
and then you know and keep going. Don't expect yourself
to be completely perfect right off the bat or really ever. Yeah.
(24:53):
And also I mean, don't think that that burger or
that day off from running means your entire diet or
exercise regiment or whatever is off track. You've that's just
one one day, one burger, one whatever, but a bag
of cheesey poofs whatever, But just that just means that
the next day you're back at it. Right. Um, And
(25:14):
we have not touched on gender at all in this podcast,
but this, this whole thing about willpower and managing stress
and keeping your energy levels up is especially pertinent to women.
Because the American Psychological Association did a pretty end depth
survey not too long ago on gender stress and sticking
(25:36):
to resolutions and willpower and found that women may have
a harder time sticking to goals like these than men do.
And I wonder if, off the bat, and I wasn't
able to find any statistics on this, I wonder if
just from the get go, women um might set more resolutions,
(25:59):
and perhaps more unrealistic resolutions. And I only say that
because I feel like as soon as the holidays are over,
the messages that we are immediately inundated with our swimsuit
seasons around the corner, ladies, Yeah, drop those last five pounds,
come out all that turkey way. I'm going to give
birth to a turkey. Um. Yeah. It turns out in
(26:21):
the study that both genders do cite lack of willpower
as the number one barrier to change, but women are
more likely than men to cite the lack of willpower
as a barrier preventing them from making the lifestyle changes
recommended by a doctor. And so that's tht women versus
twenty four percent men. Yeah, and women are also far
(26:42):
more likely than men to report that a lack of
willpower has prevented them from changing eating habits um. When
asked what they needed to change in order for their
willpower to improve, women were more likely than men to
say less fatigue and more confidence in their ability to
improve their willpower. And also six times as many women
(27:03):
say that having more help with household chores would allow
them to improve their willpower. And this was something that
I was thinking about in terms of, you know, what
it takes to set a resolution and really keep to
it and make a lifestyle change. And as a single
woman with no kids, like being as autonomous as I
(27:25):
will ever be probably in my life, Um, that I
could see that happening. I could say, oh I could,
you know, I could, I could do these kinds of things.
Toss a kid in the mix, I don't know, you know,
because that's that increases your stress level. That And I'm
not blaming kids for things. I'm just saying that I
can understand how having a partner, having a household to
(27:46):
take care of, having children, even pets, um my pet free, Uh,
all of that can impact this brain space that it
takes to really set yourself up for our success. And
it also speaks to I mean not to to to
be uh kind of cliche about it. But it also
(28:07):
speaks to the importance of you know, establishing healthy lifestyles
from the get go if possible, and maybe just using
your child as a bench press. Just bench press your child,
incorporate if the child is taking up so much of
your time, incorporate the child into your exercise. Gentlemen, well, no,
that is one of the bicept girls with the child.
There you go. If you've got twin babies, obviously autopadded
(28:31):
surface g I c um no. But one of the
one of the tips was just play with your kids,
because that knocks out increased family time and also gives
you a little bit of exercise. So here we're here
to help. Yeah, we're doing Yeah, And I do think that.
Um the fact that there are so many apps out
(28:52):
there too, especially for people who want to start exercising more,
that will give you reminders keeping some kind of accountability
something that's often cited as well as a good thing
to do. So this this sounds like if I want
to get back in the resolution game, I should make
a resolution along the lines of get moving a little
(29:14):
bit every day. So in going from nothing, going from
walking from my car to my apartment, take a walk
at three o'clock when I'm starting to feel tired at work. Yeah,
it's the whole thing about taking the stairs instead of
the elevator, one day at a time. Like for for me, uh,
like I want to save money this year, and instead
(29:35):
of what I've done in the past of saying by
the end of this year, I want to have a
million dollars, now, I'm not gonna happen. There's no way,
uh actually saying okay each week breaking it down. Well,
I've also in terms of money, like I've also set
an amount every month that I'm going to put in
savings and never touch again because I actually am working
towards a goal of buying a car, Like I have
(29:56):
to get rid of my old, dying, noisy car, and
so I just have to be disciplined about that. But
I do still let myself go out, Sure, have a drink,
have a Hamburger, gusie, friends, that kind of thing. I
don't completely deprive myself of any social interaction that involves
leaving the house because I would go insane and then
I would money binge and buy all of the shoes.
(30:18):
So buy all the shoes now. So New Year's resolutions
do they work? Oftentimes No, but it's just because, well
not just because, but I would say largely because we
go about them the wrong way. Yeah, it's it's almost
sort of a desperation move, like, oh my god, I
was not responsible with fill in the blank, and I
(30:40):
need to suddenly backtrack and reverse however many months of damage.
Whereas it might seem hard, but in the long run,
it's easier to make that lifestyle change and be kind
to yourself. Yeah, that's a good message. Be kind to yourself. Hey,
that still stands in twenty our team, keep being kind
(31:01):
to yourself. Yeah, Caroline, I think of all of the resolutions,
be kind to yourself is one that is doable. Yeah,
we can. We can do that, right. Sure, we might
have to work at it. You know. I think it's
easy to beat ourselves up sometimes, but just as it's
important to be kind to you a fellow human, be
nice to yourself too. And you know what, I'm going
to resolve to have the best podcast ever in two
(31:25):
thousand and fourteen. Yes, So, if you have any podcast
suggestions that you would like us to tackle in this
upcoming year, now is the time to let us know,
because we have some exciting things right around the corner.
Not only is it a whole new year of all
new podcast topics that we want to get your insight on,
(31:48):
but we have the launch of a very special website
where all of the podcast goodness will have a home.
That's right, I'm talking to stuff Mom Never Told You
website coming out very soon, so stay tuned for that. So, Christen,
one resolution that I think is pretty safe to make
(32:11):
is to get myself more educated. And I'm going to
do that by watching a whole bunch of the awesome
documentaries that are on Netflix. Netflix streams TV shows and
movies directly to your home, saving you time, money, and hassle.
And as a Netflix member, you can instantly watch TV
episodes and great documentaries streaming directly to your PC, Mac
or right to your TV with your Xbox three sixty
(32:33):
p S three or Nintendo we console. And for stuff
Mom Never told You listeners, you can try out Netflix
for free with a thirty day trial membership by going
to Netflix dot com splash mom and signing up now
so that you can check out all of those documentary shows, movies, etcetera,
(32:54):
all at Netflix dot com slash mom for that three
thirty day eight trial membership, So don't delay, make your
Netflix resolution today and don't forget also to send us
your podcast episode suggestions for two thousand fourteen. Happy New Year, everybody,
(33:14):
Let's really kick it off with some awesome episodes requested
by you. You can email them to us at mom
Stuff at Discovery dot com. You can tweet us at
mom Stuff Podcast, you can message us on Facebook, and
while you're at it, you can follow us on Tumbler
at stuff Mom Never Told You dot tumbler dot com.
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(33:36):
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