Most of us have a love-hate relationship with New Year’s resolutions. We love that feeling of a fresh start. But we hate how our commitments seldom make it to Valentine’s Day.

So what if this year we had an expert teach us how to do it right? 

Ayelet Fishbach is that expert. She’s a social psychologist at the University of Chicago and author of the book, Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation.

In this interview, we talk about how to choose goals that energize us and how to pair them with incentives that keep us motivated. We also discuss a system for simultaneously working on multiple goals. Finally, we learn about the power of social support and how we can get it.

Episode Links

Immediate Rewards Predict Adherence to Long-term Goals

The Structure of Intrinsic Motivation

You Think Failure is Hard? So Is Learning From It

Slacking in the Middle

Pursuing Goals with Others

Marie Curie and Pierre Curie

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

 The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

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If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show.

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CM 204: Ayelet Fishbach on Achieving Your Goals

Want to get better at work? At managing others? Managing yourself? Gayle Allen interviews experts who take your performance to the next level. Each episode features a book with insights to help you achieve your goals.

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

Business

Investing

Careers

Management & Marketing

Business News

Shopping

Social Sciences

Science & Medicine

Science

Books

Management

We all want to be happy. In fact, it’s our desire for happiness that drives most of our decisions, like our friendships, our activities, even our purchases. 

Yet, over time, we find that the things that made us so happy at the start – that new car or delicious meal – end up losing their luster. 

I was curious about why this happens and what, if anything, we can do about it. That’s why I wanted to talk to Tali Sharot, cognitive neuroscientist, professor at University College London and MIT, and director of the Affective Brain Lab. In her latest book, Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There, she explains why the things that once made us happy no longer do. She also shares what we can do about it.

Episode Links

The Big Idea: This Simple Behavioural Trick Can Help You Get More out of Life

Your Life is Better Than You Think

Why People Fail to Notice Horrors around Them

David Robson on How Our Expectations Shape Us (Interview)

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

Support the Podcast

If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show.

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CM 265: Tali Sharot on How to Rekindle Happiness

We crave meaning and purpose, yet obtaining them can feel beyond our control, like they're merely products of luck and circumstance. Fortunately, researchers who’ve studied the power of ritual have found they’re more in our control than we think. 

In this interview, I talk to one of these researchers, psychologist Michael Norton. He shares how rituals, especially ones we create, can provide the meaning and purpose we crave. And, unlike habits, rituals operate on an emotional level that deepens the experience.

In his book, The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions, Norton shares what rituals are, why they matter, and how they can help bolster us throughout our lives.

Episode Links

The Calming Power of Rituals

Forget Habits in the New Year. Find Joy in Rituals with Others

Breaking up Can Be Easier if You Have a Ritual

Interview with Eduardo Briceno on The Performance Paradox

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

Support the Podcast

If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show.

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CM 264: Michael Norton on How Rituals Improve Our Lives

At some point, we all get stuck. Maybe it’s in a job or career. Maybe it’s a relationship or business venture.

Though it’s something we all experience, when it happens, we can feel alone and out of our depth. Emotions may overwhelm us. Mental traps lure is in. In no time at all, we can’t see a way out.

Award-winning professor, researcher, and author, Adam Alter, has spent decades studying how successful people get unstuck. In his latest book, Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most, he shares what we can do to move forward. Adam’s recommendations can help us with what might be the most important times in our lives.

Episode Links

Life is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age by Bruce Feiler

How the ‘Creative-Cliff Illusion’ Limits Our Ideas by David Robson

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

Support the Podcast

If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show.

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CM 263: Adam Alter on Simple Ways to Get Unstuck – Rebroadcast

When we’re feeling stuck, it’s tempting to believe more thinking is the answer. We stew and we ponder, and then we double down on solutions we’ve tried before. It’s no wonder we start to feel like we just can’t figure it out.

But what would happen if we put thinking aside and tried something else? Author and researcher, Norman Farb, has learned that there’s an entire canvas of sensory experience we can access any time we want. And by tapping into our senses, we may find ways to feel better. It’s what Norm writes about in his book, Better in Every Sense: How the New Science of Sensation Can Help You Reclaim Your life.

By the time I reached the last page of this book, I felt like I’d been let in on an incredible set of tools for enriching my life. 

Episode Links

How Your 5 Senses Can Help You Stop Worrying

Feeling Sensations, Including Ones Connected to Sadness, May Be Key to Depression Recovery

Attending to the Present: Mindfulness Meditation Reveals Distinct Neural Modes of Self-Reference

Interview with Britt Frank on The Science of Stuck

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

Support the Podcast

If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show.

Subscribe

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CM 262: Norman Farb on the Science of Sensation



When we think of geeks, we tend to think of the people who built the tech we use – from our smartphones to search engines to AI.  

But if we just focus on the tech, we’re missing out on a lot. We’re overlooking how these same geeks reinvented corporate culture using a repeatable set of norms that ensure sustainable innovation.

Andrew McAfee is a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management and cofounder and codirector of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. He’s been studying innovative companies for decades, and he’s taken what he’s learned and written about it in his latest book, The Geek Way: The Radical Mindset that Drives Extraordinary Results. 

I’m convinced what Andrew’s learned about the geek way – and its four key norms – is a roadmap for where today’s – and tomorrow’s - companies are headed. 

Episode Links

The Geek Way

New Book Explains the ‘Geek Way’ to Manage a Company

Forward Thinking on How Geeks are Changing the World

Interview with Roger Martin

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

Support the Podcast

If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show.

Subscribe

Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

CM 204: Ayelet Fishbach on Achieving Your Goals

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