Whether trying to lose weight, save money, get organised or advance on the job, we’re always setting goals and making resolutions, but rarely following through on them. According to long-time Wall Street technology strategist Caroline Arnold, the ‘big push’ strategy of the New Year’s resolution is designed to fail, because it broadly pits our limited willpower stores against an autopilot of entrenched behaviours and attitudes that is far more powerful. To change ourselves permanently, we need to focus our self-control on precise behavioural targets and overwhelm them.