What are you doing New Year's eve?

Yes, it's that time of the year again. New beginning gives people new hopes. Maybe I can make it to the gym everyday, maybe I can start reading a new book that has been sitting on the shelf for months or even years, maybe I can be a better self... We are all hopeful. Hope that we can change, hope that we can stick with our ambitious plan, hope that with the new beginning things would be different. We may fail to accomplish all the above and yet still fall for the same illusion every year. Disheartening? Sarcastic? I think we should be glad that we keep trying and be hopeful. Hey, maybe this time things would be different! It's better than giving up on ourselves, right?

Here is something interesting and relevant I read in a book: In a social experiment, three groups of students were asked to form their opinion and asked if they want to change their mind. Two pieces of information were given prior to these two questions. All of the students were informed after the first info that it is inaccurate and then the second info was given. So naturally we would think they should all change their mind but the responses are different based on the ways to "express" the first opinion. The first group of students were asked to form their opinion at heart, meaning no need to tell the experimenters what they think; and the second group was told to write it on a piece of paper but still don't need to show it; lastly the third group was instructed to express their views openly. You probably can guess the difference now: fewer people in the third group change their mind than those in the first group. Because even though they know they should change their opinion based on the updated information, another psychological factor has more play in their action. We all want to appear to be consistent for obvious reason, an inconsistent person often would be viewed as unreliable and therefore undesirable, even though sometimes being consistent does not necessarily means being right. So by publicly announcing their opinion people in the third group know what others expect them to think and therefore less likely to contradict themselves. But interestingly the percentage of people changing their mind in the second group is between the first and the third. You may think what is the difference of thinking in our heads and writing our thoughts down on a piece of paper without even showing to others? Well, apparently there is.

So my point, in regards of following through our New Year's resolutions, is: it's better to write them down than to just think in our heads, and it's best to let others know about our plans. So my New Year's resolutions, for the record, are to: 1. Exercise for >=30 minute 3 times a week; 2. Read a book for >=30 minutes everyday; 3. Keep updating my personal diary (>= every week) and this public blog (>= every month); 4. Follow and finish >= 3 courses on CourseRA (In particular, I definitely want to finish Writing in the Sciences!). Let's see how many of them can I accomplish at the end of 2013!

Happy New Year! Until next time (hopefully not as long as the last post), love and peace!


2013 Fireworks at Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong