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Why Resolutions, Innovation, and Good Ideas Often Fail
On creating habits and what’s in the way.
TL;DR
Memory is complicated, transformative information is a myth, and we naturally resist change
Memory requires information to be encoded and changing norms requires overcoming entrenched habits. These two barriers can be mastered with an intentional process that moves our ideas from our heads to our hands.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
A recurring motif occurs annually as the fall season shifts to a bleak winter and a new year beckons us toward new opportunities. Countless individuals will sit down, reflect on all their perceived inequities, failures, and disappointments, and write out a list of resolutions for how the next year can be different.
Whether it is a business reflecting on fourth-quarter earnings, an organization imagining transformative models for growth, or families and people simply hoping for something better; we have a propensity to dream of the glamorous realities of potential progress. Humanity appears to have an even better track record of never realizing such monumental feats.
