Why You Feel Stuck and How to Actually Change | Dr. Katy Milkman

80% of people feel stuck in their own lives right now, and it has nothing to do with willpower.

Dr. Katy Milkman, author of How to Change and professor at Wharton, breaks down why status quo bias and sunk cost thinking keep us glued to relationships, jobs, and habits that stopped working long ago. She explains the fresh start effect, why moments like Mondays, birthdays, and new zip codes actually rewire our motivation, and why waiting for a bigger breakdown might be costing you years.

You will hear how she turned a dreaded gym habit into something she craved just by pairing it with Harry Potter audiobooks, and why a Google experiment on exercise proved that flexible backup plans beat rigid discipline every single time. She also gets honest about her own struggle with work life balance, choosing late night work over time with her five year old, and what she is doing to change that pattern right now.

If you have ever broken a promise to yourself and felt the confidence drain out of you a little more each time, this conversation hands you the science to forgive yourself and start again smarter. Katy walks through commitment devices, temptation bundling, and the exact if then plans researchers use to make change stick long after the motivation fades.

How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

Dr. Katy’s website and newsletter

In this episode you will:

• Diagnose the exact barrier, impulsivity, procrastination, forgetting, or low confidence, that’s keeping you stuck, and match it to the right fix
• Harness the Fresh Start Effect to launch new habits at moments that actually stick, not just January 1st
• Turn dreaded tasks into cravings using temptation bundling, like pairing workouts with audiobooks you can’t put down
• Build flexibility into your goals with Marissa Sharif’s emergency reserve strategy so a missed day doesn’t derail your progress
• Reframe big numbers into small daily wins, using the Acorns savings study, to make saving or goal-setting feel effortless
• Recover from failure faster by understanding why rigidity, not lack of willpower, is what really breaks habits

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1976

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