Don’t Be a Goldfish

You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? It’s a goldfish. You know why? Got a ten second memory. Be a goldfish, Sam.

Jason Sudeikis uses that line at a couple pivotal moments in the first season of Ted Lasso. The lesson: goldfish have a ridiculously short memory. And we all need shorter memories to get through life and face the next challenge.

The problem is Ted Lasso is wrong.

2025 didn’t end great for me. All in all, I’m ok. I’m healthy and have many things I’m thankful for. But I totally ran out of steam on some personal projects and goals that mean a lot to me.

There are excuses I could throw at it. Like the 60 days notice my father and all the residents of his senior community received that their entire building was being shut down. That was a fun project. Also had some very sad stuff happen at the end of the year that continues being sad.

I didn’t accomplish the things I planned. And I’m usually good at getting the things I say I’m going to do, done. But I let myself down this year.

The Heath Brothers talk about The Power of Moments. How temporal events like a birthday, or weekend, or new semester can trigger a reset. A powerful moment to create a new habit or change in your life.

This feels related to something called The Doorway Effect. Gabriel Radvansky and colleagues at Notre Dame found that people who cross a literal threshold, like a doorway, forget things. Your brain treats it as a context shift.

Temporally or physically, our brains want to forget a bit about what we just did and prepare us for something new.

See, goldfish don’t actually have a ten second memory. Studies show they remember things for months.

So Ted Lasso was right directionally, just not scientifically. We want to forget a little about what just tripped us up. But not as a goldfish.

As a person walking through a door.

Paul Graham likes to go for walks with startup founders stuck on problems. There’s research showing blood flow and exercise help with creativity and problem solving. But I can’t help thinking maybe the real impact is simpler: getting out of one location and walking through a door to another.

A lot of us try New Year’s resolutions. A new year is a temporal threshold where it makes sense to reset and start new habits. Only 6% of folks actually follow through on those resolutions.

But that’s ok. There are so many moments in our lives that can feel like a door. It doesn’t have to be January 1st. Could be your birthday. A new class starting. Or simply a Monday.

Happy 2026 everyone. Don’t squander a good door.