How to actually change your habits | Kim Foster | TEDxSurrey

In this talk, Kim Foster explores why change is so hard and maintains that the problem isn’t willpower or habits, but identity. Drawing on personal stories as a doctor and someone who struggled with career misalignment, she shows how focusing on what we do fails when it conflicts with who we believe we are. Research reveals that people sustain change when behaviours align with identity, not just intention. True transformation happens when we update the internal “operating system” that shapes our choices. By releasing outdated self-stories and choosing who we’re becoming, change stops feeling forced and starts to feel freeing. Kim Foster, M.D., is a former family physician turned entrepreneur, author, and identity-based transformation expert. After two decades in medicine, she realized that lasting change isn’t about willpower or habits—it starts with who you believe yourself to be. Today, she leads a global online learning platform, hosts a YouTube channel with more than 200,000 subscribers, and helps people around the world reinvent their lives from the inside out. She is also the author of the forthcoming book Redesigning You: Change Your Inner Story, Transform Your Health. Drawing on science, psychology, and her own experience reinventing her life and career after medicine, Kim teaches people how to rebuild their inner blueprint so they can create the future they want with confidence and clarity. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx