Katy Milkman: How to Make Healthy Habits that Actually Last [INTERVIEW]

<p>We all appreciate a fresh start. Time to start again. A clean slate. Maybe we want to go to the gym more often, eat more vegetables, or read more books. But why do we often fail to maintain our new healthy habits? </p> <p>Our guest today, Katy Milkman PhD, believes that we often focus too much on the final outcome, rather than the steps that will get us there. Thinking about what is going to trigger our actions and what barriers are going to get in the way of our new behavior, are much more effective techniques than aiming for the finishing line.</p> <p>Katy Milkman is the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a secondary appointment at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. Her research explores ways that insights from economics and psychology can be harnessed to change consequential behaviors for good. She is no stranger to podcasts, as host of the Charles Schwab podcast Choiceology with Katy Milkman, she explores key lessons from behavioral economics about decision making.</p> <p>More recently, Katy has published a new book, which is already a best-selling hit: How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be <a href='https://amzn.to/3wTSxH7'>https://amzn.to/3wTSxH7</a>. We are thrilled to delve into some of the groundbreaking research behind the book, as well as Katy's motivation for writing.</p> <p>In our conversation, we talk about a project she started with Angela Duckworth PhD, The Behavior Change for Good initiative that uses large scale or “Mega” experiments to explore many different behavior change ideas with over 150 of the top researchers in the world.  </p> <p>Katy attributes a lot of her career success to her PhD mentor, Max Bazerman, one of our favorite guests on Behavioral Grooves (Episode 196: <a href='https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/living-happier-by-making-the-world-better-with-max-bazerman/'>https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/living-happier-by-making-the-world-better-with-max-bazerman/</a>)