Fresh start
‘New year, new you’ might be as tired as you are post-December. But there’s a certain kind of magic in the turning of the calendar page, if only you can harness it in a way that works for you
Ever yone’s got their own moment when the feeling of renewa l lands. A nd, at the start of a new calendar year, we now find ourselves at another auspicious juncture to set goa ls. Perhaps yours is on that crisp New Year’s Day walk, or hav ing that first cup of cof fee on the morning of your birthday. For me, it hits in September: a legacy of my schooldays when I ( yes, a total nerd) would be so excited to start the new school year that I couldn’t sleep. The allure of a fresh chance to be better, smarter – not to mention that new notebook – was profound. And that buzz of fresh start energ y kicks in each time the ninth month of the year rolls around.
I know I’m not alone in feeling more motivated around milestones that represent new beginnings.
Dubbed the ‘fresh start effect’, you might recognise it as ‘new year, new you’ energy; psychological fresh starts where nothing has changed except the calendar. ‘There’s no logical reason why your behaviour should change,’ says Katy Milkman, a professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of How To Change: The Science Of Getting From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be.
‘And yet, research suggests we’re influenced by these cycles.’
Have you ever made a new year resolution that amps up your motivation, whereas on any other day, you’d have zero extra oomph? The fresh start effect is able to pull off its Jedi-style mind trick because we think about time in anon-linear way, says Professor Milkman. ‘We think about it as if we’re characters in a book and we’re living through chapters in our own life story.’ The beginning of each new chapter creates a discontinuity in your story, she explains, shifting your perception of time’s flow. Some chapters will span years, such as your time spent in a relationship or at university; others are smaller, like the start of a new project at work.
Essentially, these calendar-led redos allow you to turn over a new page. On 1 January, people feel more disconnected from their past self of three days ago than they would on 3January, says Professor Milkman. ‘When you think your past self is further away, you feel like its failures are less relevant to you… which makes you more willing to begin new things.’ Fresh start moments also tend to lead us towards more goal-directed thinking because you recognise that you’re at a pivot point: do you want to continue being the old you who didn’t achieve their aspirations last year, or do you want to be the new you who ...will? And while the new year can feel like the de facto time to set resolutions, there are other moments when thi
