The Lasting Change Study

The study approach is to leverage the most cutting-edge techniques of multi-omics biology, wearable physiology, and digital real-time psychology profiling and using machine learning models to understand the mechanisms underlying the strategies and techniques that enable participants the power to initiate and maintain sustainable behavior change. Over the years, millions of people worldwide have attended immersive personal development seminars aiming to improve participants' health behaviors and wellness. Nevertheless, there's a scarcity of large-scale studies to assess their effects on behavior change and investigate their mechanism of action. A recent publication by the Science of Behavior Change Program (SOBC), launched by the National Institute of Health (NIH), recognized that: "science has not yet delivered a unified understanding of basic mechanisms of behavior change across a broad range of health-related behaviors, limiting progress in the development and translation of effective and efficacious behavioral intervention." As such, understanding the mechanisms underlying sustainable behavior change is key. The Date With Destiny (DWD) seminar is among the largest worldwide, and tens of thousands of people have already attended and testified to its transformative effect. The main objective of the study is to uncover the underlying mechanism of behavior change through longitudinal data collection of psychometrics Ecological Momentary Assessments, physiology (wearables), and biology (multi-omics) in study participants. The study specific objectives include: (1) To evaluate the impact of DWD on sustainable behavior change; (2) To investigate the mechanism of behavior change by collecting longitudinal real-time measurements of psychometrics (e.g., Ecological Momentary Assessments [EMA]), physiological (e.g., heart rate, blood oxygen level, breathing rate, and EDA), and biological (multi-omics analyses) features in study participants; (3) To assess the effect of the DWD on professional fulfillment, resilience, and mental wellness.