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AS 2022 APPROACHES, countless people will begin thinking about New Year’s resolutions—both financial and otherwise. There’s nothing quite like the start of a new year to inspire hope. Many of us will set big dreams and resolve to drop bad habits.
According to Statista, just 9% of those who make New Year’s resolutions manage to keep them all. Meanwhile, by year-end, 28% haven’t kept any of their resolutions.
What differentiates these two groups? Is it willpower or the lack thereof? Is it the audacity of the resolutions themselves?
I don’t claim to know the answers to these questions. I do, however, know one thing. When it comes to keeping resolutions or forming new habits, there’s immense power in one phenomenon: keeping a streak going.
Jerry Seinfeld discovered this truth decades ago. When asked for advice by a young comic, Seinfeld reportedly said, “The way to be a better comic is to create better jokes, and the way to create better jokes is to write every day.”
He went on to describe his process. A large wall calendar hung in his room. Each day that he completed his task of writing jokes, he put a big red X over that day. Eventually, he would have a chain of Xs. His goal: Never break the chain.
Two things about this strike me as salient. First, he focused on the process, not the final result. He didn’t resolve to become a great comic. He simply resolved to write every day. I imagine that some days were a struggle. But he put in the time all the same. He focused on writing jokes, one day at a time. In short, he was singularly focused on process.
Second, the chain became a motivating force in and of itself. The longer the chain, the more motivated he became to keep it going.
Software engineers and app developers know all about the power of streaks. Three of my favorite apps— Fitbit, the YouVersion Bible and Headspace for meditation—all employ streaks to keep users engaged. It’s no coincidence that these are among the apps I use most consistently.
In 2019, I described how I adopted Jerry Seinfeld’s hack to develop a writing habit. That writing streak lasted well over 365 days. Right now, I have a 159-day streak going for writing and meditation.
There are lots of days when I don’t feel like doing one or the other. Not breaking the chain provides the motivation I need to keep going.
By the way, there’s a powerfully simple app that’s dedicated to developing good habits—and breaking bad ones—by leveraging the power of streaks. It’s called Way of Life. I highly recommend it.
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