Harness the power of the fresh start effect
Use the psychology of a clean slate to boost your chances of successful behavior change.
Have you noticed how the start of a new year makes you feel more motivated to change?
Why do moments like these make us more open to change?
What if you could improve your chances of success by using these moments to your advantage?
✳️✳️✳️
Improving behaviors such as exercising more, saving for retirement, quitting smoking, reducing social media use, or eating healthier can be challenging because our old habits are deeply ingrained in our daily routines. We have the capacity to change, but breaking these habits is hard, especially when we’re busy and lack the time or energy to focus on change. We also tend to favor immediate rewards, like enjoying that tasty piece of cake, over long-term benefits, like staying fit and healthy. And past failures to change our behavior can weigh us down, making us feel like we’re bound to fail again.
Starting at the right time can greatly improve our chances of successfully making a behavior change.
A clean slate—a fresh start free from old habits and past failures—makes us more motivated and capable of reaching our goals and moving toward our ideal self. Changing without a clean slate is possible but often much harder. Yet, true clean slates are relatively rare.
We can feel like we’re starting fresh by choosing moments that create feelings of “before” and “after.” These moments inspire us to embrace change, take actions toward our goals, let go of old habits, and build new ones. The bigger and more significant the turning point, the greater our chance to break from the past. We naturally divide our lives into chapters, such as childhood, our college years, or significant periods like “the time I lived in New York.” These chapters help us mark turning points and new beginnings.
Here are some examples of moments that can create the feeling of a fresh start:
👉 Times when we feel we’re beginning a new chapter in life, like moving out for college, starting a new job, relocating to a new city, or becoming a parent. These shifts in life circumstances can open our eyes to new opportunities and alternatives.
👉 General milestones such as the start of a new year (think New Year’s resolutions), month, week (like Mondays), day, the beginning of summer, or the first workday after a public holiday.
👉 Personal milestones, such as birthdays (especially decade birthdays), anniversaries, or holidays.
👉 Major life changes, such as dealing with a serious illness, can be powerful turning points. These events mark the end of one chapter and push us to reflect on what we truly want moving forward.
Labels that describe who we are and what we do can support change. After a significant transition, we can think of ourselves as being "born again," feeling like we've become a different person, with our past self as the "old me" and our current self as the "new me." This mindset helps us see that past failures and old habits belong to the “old me,” making the "new me" feel capable of succeeding. Labeling our past as the "old me" creates psychological distance from it and helps us feel more optimistic about the future as maybe this time we will succeed. Viewing the “new me” as a better version of the “old me” can break down obstacles to change, like fear of failure, self-doubt, and negative beliefs.
We can take advantage of the fresh start effect to tackle one-time actions. The temporary boost in motivation that comes from a fresh start can help us complete important tasks that need high motivation, such as making an appointment with a financial advisor, booking a medical check-up, or organizing our living space.
One of the benefits of fresh starts is that they encourage us to think about the bigger picture of our lives. This makes fresh starts a perfect opportunity to reflect on how things are going and consider what changes you’d like to make.
A fresh start can be helpful in initiating desired change, but it can also disrupt well-functioning routines. For instance, after a vacation, you might struggle to pick up an exercise habit you had established before. The excitement of a fresh start can lead us to overlook the importance of consistency, making it easy to slip back into old patterns. It’s essential to be mindful of this tendency and actively work to integrate your new habits into your daily routine to ensure steady and sustainable progress.
How to harness the power of the fresh start effect
Timing plays a crucial role in making lasting changes to our behaviors. By choosing the right moments for a fresh start, we can significantly increase our chances of success. However, it’s important to remember that finding the best timing often involves trying things out. Testing different approaches and learning through trial and error can help you discover what works best for you. This section will explore how to identify the best times to stimulate behavioral change and seek out opportunities that allow us to embrace new beginnings.
👉 Frame significant dates
Frame significant dates to evoke a sense of new beginnings. For example, "the first day of spring" suggests a fresh start and feels more motivating for setting a goal than simply calling it "the third Thursday of March," which lacks that sense of renewal. This kind of framing can inspire you to take action.
👉 Use meaningful time markers
Identify key moments that feel significant to you, like the start of a new month, a new season, or a vacation. Use these moments to set new goals, as they offer a natural opportunity for a psychological reset.
👉 Create your own fresh start
Don’t rely on external dates like your birthday. Instead, set personal milestones, such as the start of a new project or after a transformative conversation or experience. By creating your own fresh starts, you take charge of your timeline and shape your journey toward change.
👉 Break down your goals
Instead of waiting for a big fresh start, like the New Year, use smaller milestones. The start of each week or month can act as a mini-reset. This approach helps you keep the momentum going throughout the year.
👉 Change your environment
Change your physical surroundings to support your goals. For example, moving to a new place or working in a café can create a fresh atmosphere that encourages positive behavior changes.
Additional tips
👉 Don’t overload yourself: While the fresh start effect is motivating, it's easy to overwhelm yourself with too many goals. Focus on one or two important changes to increase your chances of success.
👉 Focus on your systems: Use the strategies and techniques from the four laws of behavior change to build good habits and break bad ones.
👉 Be kind to yourself: If you slip up, don’t wait for the next big milestone. Recognize that every day can be a fresh start. Treat yourself like a good friend and offer compassion, so you can bounce back quickly.
👉 Stay accountable: Use social support to stick to your goals. Share your fresh start with friends or family to add an extra layer of commitment.
👉 Celebrate small wins: Mark progress along the way. Each small achievement can feel like another fresh start, giving you a sense of momentum and encouraging further change.
🎉👏🎈
The fresh start effect can be a powerful motivator, but it works best when you consciously use it to your advantage. By incorporating the above strategies and additional tips, you can harness fresh starts throughout the year to achieve meaningful progress.
References
How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, by Katy Milkman
How to Harness the Power of Fresh Starts, Psychology Today, by Jen Zamzow Ph.D.
Why It Really Is Easier to Improve Your Habits on January 1, Psychology Today, by Wendy L. Patrick, J.D., M.Div., Ph.D.
