New Year. New You. It isn't just a slogan. It's a way to use the research of the “fresh-start effect.”
Behavioral scientist Katy Milkman says moments when you wipe the slate clean, like the new year, can help you more easily meet your goals.
"In these fresh-start moments, people feel more distant from their past failures. Those failures are the old you, and this is the new you. The fresh-start effect hinges on the idea that we don’t feel as perfect about our past as we’d like. We’re always striving to be better. And when we can wipe out all those failures and look at a clean slate, it makes us feel more capable and drives us forward."
To keep you performing at your best in 2022 and help make the most of that fresh-start effect, here are my most popular articles from the past year . . .
Be a Goldfish
For me, golf is life. Play the ball where it lies. Shake off bad shots (be a goldfish). Learn how each previous shot will help you do better in the future. And draw resilience from past challenges. This is my Ted Lasso inspired story.
Continuous Glucose Monitoring with Levels Metabolic Fitness
Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) turned out to be one of the easiest ways to get feedback on a diet to improve your overall health. Here’s what I learned about eating habits and the impact of blood glucose after a month using the Levels CGM metabolic fitness service.
Improve Performance with Heart Rate Variability and the Oura Ring
The single best metric to monitor your performance readiness and overall wellbeing is Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and the device best suited to give you that metric is the Oura Ring. For the past five months, I've been using the Oura Ring to track and monitor my HRV and sleep. Here's what I've learned, and why I recommend the Oura Ring.
Fitness Tracker to Sickness Tracker: How to Use the Oura Ring to Detect Coronavirus
Multiple studies have been conducted with one saying that the Oura Ring data will give the NBA players three early warning days before a person has a fever, a cough, or shortness of breath. Using my own Oura Ring data from the past 10 months, I wanted to see how to use the wearable for Coronavirus detection.
If you are interested in purchasing an Oura Ring, get $50 off using this link. (Full disclosure: I get an Oura branded sweatshirt if a couple people buy one. Whoo-hoo!)
Living in a Dopamine Nation
Dopamine is one of the most powerful molecules we all have inside of ourselves. Learning more about dopamine is essential for performing at our best. Or as Stanford’s Dr. Andrew Huberman said, how we leverage dopamine is very powerful skill. Managing our baseline dopamine is the key, but how do we do that and what is the impact if we don’t?
How Building A Second Brain Triggers Flow and Enhances Wellbeing
Building A Second Brain is so much more than a productivity course. It's a program that can enhance your health and wellbeing. It’s also a source to more consistently trigger an in-the-zone flow state, where you feel your best and perform at your best.
Time to Take a Breath
I began to believe just how important how we breathe is to our moment to moment wellbeing and our overall longevity. I had just finished reading Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor, and the tldr; is mouth breathing is horrible for nearly every aspect of your existence.
Listening to My Gut: Personalized Nutrition and the Microbiome
The best way to improve our microbiome is by what we eat. Enter personalized nutrition service and microbiome testing company Viome. Here’s what I’ve learned using the Viome service . . .
Tiny Habits for Sleep and Recovery During the Pandemic
With increased stress and anxiety along with an unmooring of our normal routines, sleep is even more essential to our health and wellbeing. However, it’s these changing conditions that are negatively impacting our ability to get a good night of sleep and recovery.
During a recent talk I gave on TinyHabits.com, I unpacked the habits you need to optimize for a rejuvenating night of sleep.
Did a month without alcohol help me sleep better?
After living an entire month without consuming any alcohol, I wanted to see if my sleep would improve.
The short answer, it didn't.
That doesn’t mean there wasn’t benefits. One in particular made the entire experiment eye opening. Here’s what I learned.
Shot this article title picture of the Golden Gate Bridge bright and early New Year's morning as we returned to the city. Crossing over to a New Day, New Year, Fresh Start.