Research backs up the idea of “New year, new me.” In a 2014 paper, organizational psychologists introduced the idea of the “fresh start effect,” referring to a period of increased motivation at the beginning of a new time period, whether that’s a new calendar year, a work anniversary, or a birthday.
We reached out to Hengchen Dai, a professor at UCLA Anderson School of Business and lead author on that paper, to learn more about how to use the fresh start effect and the science of motivation to reach your goals in 2026.
“I would also recommend the idea of an emergency reserve, developed by Marissa Sharif and Suzanne Shu. In their research, they compare setting a goal that is so ambitious—for example, ‘I’m going to take this course seven days a week’—with one like, ‘I aspire to do seven days a week, but if I will do, at a minimum, five days a week.’ In the second condition, there are two days that will be an emergency reserve.”