Happy 2024! Chances are that you’re contemplating making some New Year’s resolutions, so let’s get you set up for success in the new year with this extended guide to crafting a self-improvement strategy that works, combining and extending all of my previous blog posts on the topic.


Here are the 15 best new years resolutions you can make, explained in detail with piles of tips and complete with explanations from psychology, economics, and decision science. This guide covers everything from memory hacking to motivation to the impulse control theory of multiple selves.

#1 — Resolve to stop borrowing resolutions

Designing an effective personalized self-improvement program can be a daunting process. It’s tempting to grab some ready-to-wear plan off the shelf, so if you’re not rummaging around in the scientific literature (and let’s face it, most people aren’t) then your likeliest move is to pick someone you admire and try to copy whatever they’re doing. And then, snap! The crushing disappointment as you fail to stick with it.

Quit borrowing other people’s resolutions! Design a customized approach that fits your unique circumstances.

Let’s preempt misery with better advice: stop trying to follow other people’s self-improvement programs to the letter. Whenever you’re tempted to copy your favorite celeb’s latest health plan, take a moment to think about some potential reasons that person is able to stick with it (assuming they are) which you might not know about. Do they have a private chef who takes food decisions out of their hands? Do they secretly loooove cabbage? Is their job less stressful than yours? And so on.

Here are the 15 best new years resolutions you can make, explained in detail with piles of tips and complete with explanations from psychology, economics, and decision science. This guide covers everything from memory hacking to motivation to the impulse control theory of multiple selves.

#1 — Resolve to stop borrowing resolutions

Designing an effective personalized self-improvement program can be a daunting process. It’s tempting to grab some ready-to-wear plan off the shelf, so if you’re not rummaging around in the scientific literature (and let’s face it, most people aren’t) then your likeliest move is to pick someone you admire and try to copy whatever they’re doing. And then, snap! The crushing disappointment as you fail to stick with it.

Quit borrowing other people’s resolutions! Design a customized approach that fits your unique circumstances.

Let’s preempt misery with better advice: stop trying to follow other people’s self-improvement programs to the letter. Whenever you’re tempted to copy your favorite celeb’s latest health plan, take a moment to think about some potential reasons that person is able to stick with it (assuming they are) which you might not know about. Do they have a private chef who takes food decisions out of their hands? Do they secretly loooove cabbage? Is their job less stressful than yours? And so on.

#2 — Resolve to personalize your resolution

I’m a decision scientist and statistician by training, so it might seem odd to hear me telling you to be wary of science as a source of advice. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thoroughly pro-science as long as you use it, ahem, scientifically… but that’s not what most people do. Too many people treat scientific findings as dogma and shove science where it doesn’t belong. A tragicomic way to misuse science? To assume that what applies on average also applies to all individuals.

Believing that what applies on average necessarily applies to all individuals (and therefore also to you) is unscientific.

Even if you read the best scientific studies for inspiration, remember that those results are true on average… but no one is the average human. For public health officials designing policies that affect a large group of people, those studies are gold. But if you’re designing policies for your own life, remember that the most relevant data for your endeavors is stored right behind your eyeballs. To maximize your chances of success, be your own test subject and study yourself.

Self-discovery is the best behavioral change tool available to you. Understanding yourself is the key to designing a realistic improvement plan that won’t go up in smoke.

Don’t overdo it with science, especially when it comes to human behavior. Science is a great source of inspiration, but its findings are not personalized to you. Start with what you know about “most people” and aggressively adjust it based on the highest quality of information available to you: self-discovery.

You’re not the average human

Different people are different, so what works for you might not be what works for anyone else. Understanding this is the single biggest step you can take in the direction of success.

Different people are different!

#2 — Resolve to personalize your resolution

I’m a decision scientist and statistician by training, so it might seem odd to hear me telling you to be wary of science as a source of advice. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thoroughly pro-science as long as you use it, ahem, scientifically… but that’s not what most people do. Too many people treat scientific findings as dogma and shove science where it doesn’t belong. A tragicomic way to misuse science? To assume that what applies on average also applies to all individuals.

Believing that what applies on average necessarily applies to all individuals (and therefore also to you) is unscientific.

Even if you read the best scientific studies for inspiration, remember that those results are true on average… but no one is the average human. For public health officials designing policies that affect a large group of people, those studies are gold. But if you’re designing policies for your own life, remember that the most relevant data for your endeavors is stored right behind your eyeballs. To maximize your chances of success, be your own test subject and study yourself.

Self-discovery is the best behavioral change tool available to you. Understanding yourself is the key to designing a realistic improvement plan that won’t go up in smoke.

Don’t overdo it with science, especially when it comes to human behavior. Science is a great source of inspiration, but its findings are not personalized to you. Start with what you know about “most people” and aggressively adjust it based on the highest quality of information available to you: self-discovery.

You’re not the average human

Different people are different, so what works for you might not be what works for anyone else. Understanding this is the single biggest step you can take in the direction of success.

Different people are different!

In other words:

• What works on average is not unique enough to fit you.
• What works for a stranger is too uniquely irrelevant to fit you.

If a total stranger stands out enough to make many people pay attention to them, they might be a bit too unique and too different from you to be a relevant source of advice.
The more different someone’s circumstances, biology, incentives, preferences, resources, and lifestyle are to yours, the more skeptical you should be that copying their path will serve you well. That’s precisely why I refuse to do the standard guru thing of suggesting you copy my exact wellness plan after proving to you that I have a stack of credentials (I do) and I’m in shape (I am). My plan fits me, but you need a plan that fits you.

The more different someone’s circumstances are to yours, the more skeptical you should be that copying their path will serve you well.

If you copy someone else’s approach and it goes kablooie, don’t beat yourself up. Getting angry with yourself about it is the equivalent of being upset that you’re not a perfect clone of some stranger whose life you know very little about. And at the moment that you feel all these nasty inwardly-directed things, you’re especially vulnerable to charlatans swooping in to tell you how to live ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶their life. Break free of that cycle of false hope and crushing disappointment. Start over.
In other words:

• What works on average is not unique enough to fit you.
• What works for a stranger is too uniquely irrelevant to fit you.

If a total stranger stands out enough to make many people pay attention to them, they might be a bit too unique and too different from you to be a relevant source of advice.
The more different someone’s circumstances, biology, incentives, preferences, resources, and lifestyle are to yours, the more skeptical you should be that copying their path will serve you well. That’s precisely why I refuse to do the standard guru thing of suggesting you copy my exact wellness plan after proving to you that I have a stack of credentials (I do) and I’m in shape (I am). My plan fits me, but you need a plan that fits you.

The more different someone’s circumstances are to yours, the more skeptical you should be that copying their path will serve you well.

If you copy someone else’s approach and it goes kablooie, don’t beat yourself up. Getting angry with yourself about it is the equivalent of being upset that you’re not a perfect clone of some stranger whose life you know very little about. And at the moment that you feel all these nasty inwardly-directed things, you’re especially vulnerable to charlatans swooping in to tell you how to live ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶their life. Break free of that cycle of false hope and crushing disappointment. Start over.
The good news is that every time you fail, you have a shot at doing better next time… as long as you learn something from your experience. Don’t throw the learning opportunity away by doing either of these things:

1. Taking your failure personally and giving up.
2. Resolving to fix it with willpower. (It doesn’t work.)

As Albert Einstein probably never said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I’ve always thought this to be a better description of statistical sampling than of insanity, but it works here too: unless your intent is to learn something from a larger sample size, don’t attempt the exact same resolution twice.

To succeed in the long run, try to focus more on your learning rate than your winning rate.

If (when!) you encounter a wobble, don’t try to solve it with willpower. Instead, learn from the mistake so you can redesign your approach to make success even a tiny bit more likely next time. Redesigning your approach realistically to nudge the chance of success is usually the best way forward, no matter the type of resolution.