Second, our personality constrains our ability
to change, setting the limits to our likelihood of
replacing old habits with new ones. As large-scale
scientific studies have shown, our predispositions
don’t change much. This is why we are rarely
surprised when we meet people we have not
seen in 10 or 20 years, like at high school reunions.
Their physical appearance may have changed–
sometimes dramatically–but their attitudes, style,
and values tend to remain pretty fixed.
to environments decreases our ability (and
willingness) to change. The psychological term for
this is niche-picking, and it speaks to a reciprocal
relationship between our habits and the challenges
and problems that benefit from them.
Sociable people will seek social situations where
their ability to interact with others is a natural
adaptation. These situations will in turn reward and
enhance their sociability. This creates a snowball
effect that makes it less and less appealing (and
adaptive) for them to spend time on their own. By
the same token, people who are naturally more
introverted will tend to avoid situations of rich social
interaction, preferring instead to spend time on their
own (reading, thinking, watching movies). This, in
turn, will enhance their ability to adapt to solitary
environments while reducing their ability to interact
with strangers. Because these mechanisms are in
place from a very early age, the longer we wait to try
to break these cycles, the harder it is to break them.
This is not to say that people can’t change, but
they either become exaggerated versions of their
earlier selves, or follow a common maturity curve
that makes them less open to new experiences,
more conservative, and more conscientious (think:
becoming more boring versions of ourselves).
For all the hype about grit and growth mindset as
catalysts of change, there is little scientific evidence
to show that we can actually boost people’s grit
or growth mindset beyond their personal default
level. Rather, these qualities behave much like
other personality traits, so they are found in different
degrees in different people. Paradoxically, a growth
mindset is more fixed than dynamic.
Changing and becoming a better version of
ourselves is possible. But that change is going to
be hardest when we are not truly committed and
when it involves going against our nature. A hack
Last, but not least, we all strive to make
our environments as predictable and
Changing and
unthreatening as possible. The mere thought
of change is threatening and frightening,
becoming a better
which is why we gravitate toward the familiar
version of ourselves
and are generally happier with the devil we
know. This may sound counterintuitive in an
is possible.
age that glorifies disruptive rule breakers with
no tolerance for boredom and routine, but it
is still the reality for most people. And that’s
okay. Life is complex enough to abandon
that promises to help us can’t when it depends
the possibility of controlling and managing some
on us having to unlearn our deep-rooted patterns
of its elements, and the more predictable most
of adapting. That’s why playing to our strengths is
things are, the more freedom we have to pursue
much easier, to the point of not requiring much
innovation and change in others.
effort at all. It’s a bit like being asked to start next
year by being ourselves.
However, there is also a cost to this. We become
increasingly programmed to behave in more
similar ways, and our growing ability to adapt
• • •
SOURCE: https://www.fastcompany.com/90276565/science-explains-why-productivity-hacks-and-resolutions-are-practically-destined-to-fail
JANUARY 2019 • DITCHMEN
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