No time to read? Get the main key insights from this summary of Katy Milkman’s How to Change in just a short listen.

A few key insights from Chapter 1:

1. The stubborn persistence of unhealthy or unproductive behavior is common today. This includes habits such as smoking, lack of physical activity, and terrible diets. Simply telling people that change is easy, cheap, and beneficial will not work. Effectively promoting behavior change requires understanding when to begin.

2. People get discouraged when adopting healthy habits requires rearranging busy lives and entrenched routines. This limits their openness to change. Even if a habit can mean the difference between life and death, people will simply ignore it. A fresh start allows us to keep old habits from working against us.

3. The problem with a fresh start is that it is rare, as all of the behaviors that we wish to change are daily, customary, and wound into our well-established routines. However, it is not hopeless, but not an easy process either. A fresh start helps people become open to change.

4. One time when people feel especially ready to change is around New Year's Eve, as they have a sense of a fresh start. The challenge here is to identify other moments that provoke a similar reaction, and understand how and why they motivate us to change.