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

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

Overview: Award-winning Wharton Professor and Choiceology podcast host Katy Milkman has devoted her career to the study of behavior change. In this ground-breaking book, Milkman reveals a proven path that can take you from where you are to where you want to be, with a foreword from psychologist Angela Duckworth, the best-selling author of Grit.

Set audacious goals. Foster good habits. Create social support. You’ve surely heard this advice before. If you’ve ever tried to change or encourage it — to boost exercise or healthy eating, to prevent missed deadlines or kick-start savings — then you know there are thousands of apps, books, and YouTube videos promising to help and offering sound guidance. And yet, you’re still not where you want to be.

This trailblazing book from award-winning behavioral scientist and Wharton Professor Katy Milkman explains why. In a career devoted to uncovering what helps people change, Milkman has discovered a crucial thing many of us get wrong: our strategy. Change, she’s learned, comes most readily when you understand what’s standing between you and success and tailor your solution to that roadblock. If you want to work out more but find exercise difficult and boring, downloading a goal-setting app probably won’t help. But what if, instead, you transformed your workouts so they became a source of pleasure instead of a chore? Turning an uphill battle into a downhill one is the key to success.