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For millions of people, January is a time of hope. Though levels of hope and happiness have been decreasing around the world, some 38% of us still believe that the year ahead will be a better one — compared to 28% who expect a worse year this 2022.
Still, 3 out of 4 adults do make new year’s resolutions, and in 2021, half of these resolutions were about getting in shape. Other popular resolutions were saving more money (44%), pursuing a career goal (21%), spending time with family (18%), and taking up a new hobby (14%). Still others aimed to redecorate (10%) and volunteer more (10%).
All of these are great goals to have, no matter the time of year. But though new year’s resolutions can vary from person to person, one thing that they unfortunately have in common is that they’re notoriously hard to stick to.
In fact, a 2015 study found that only 8% of people can say that they’ve achieved their new year’s resolution at the end of every year, with around 80% of resolutions failing. Worse still: most new year’s resolutions die out before the first month of the year is even over.
The Expiry Date of New Year’s Resolutions
The undeniable fact is, New year’s resolutions don’t tend to last very long. However, the exact date they die out tends to vary.
For instance, a 2019 study by fitness brand Strava on over 800 million user logs found that people are most likely to give up on their new year’s resolution on January 19 — a date that it has been dubbed “Quitter’s Day.” But this is still an improvement from the brand’s 2018 study, which placed the average day of quitting on January 10.
This is in line with other studies that tracked efforts to form healthy habits among Americans. For example, a 2020 study found that people tried to form an average of 19 new habits in quarantine, citing the need to improve one’s wellness in the middle of a health crisis.
Healthy habits include things like a new exercise routine (34%), new hobbies (31%), a new cooking regimen (29%), new wake-up time (13%), more meditation (12%) and going to bed earlier (10%). However, of the 19 new habits people were likely to try to form, only about four are able to stick.
This difficulty in trying and keeping new healthy habits may be why even among those who make new year’s resolutions, expectations are pretty low. According to a 2019 poll, 94% of people think it’s okay to keep resolutions for at least one month. By the time February rolls in, some 22% say that it’s okay to give up on those resolutions.
This attitude — alongside the practice of setting goals for the new year — has been around for a while. In a letter penned by American writer Mark Twain, dated on the 1st of January 1863, he wrote, “Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”
“Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever,” he goes on to write. “We shall also reflect pleasantly upon how we did the same old thing last year about this time.”
Over 150 years later, we have to ask: Why is it so hard to keep our own resolutions?
Thinking a Marathon Is a Sprint
One year is a long time, and if we enter it with big goals without pacing ourselves, it’s easy to burn out.
Big goals like wanting to lose 20 pounds or being able to do 10 pull-ups can be a bit intimidating, especially if you’re just starting your fitness journey. This might push you toward crash diets or expensive gym memberships with high expectations, but ultimately, you often end up being disappointed.
It’s important to remember that fitness, alongside the rest of our top new year’s resolutions, doesn’t happen overnight. Moreover, bad habits are just as hard to shake off.
Committing to the Outcome, but Not the Process
It’s easy to say you’ll get fit or get that big promotion in the year ahead. What’s harder — and, arguably, more important — is being able to think about what those goals entail.
And here, a little planning really goes a long way.
For example, making time for exercising three to four times a week might mean less time to watch TV or hang out with friends. Also, what kind of exercise are you committing to, and what will you need to work on?
Meanwhile, working on getting a promotion might mean taking on more leadership roles or talking to your boss about it. If you’re not ready or willing to do either, then you might find yourself giving up on your goal before you’ve even started, and you may have been better off with a different goal.
When making a new year’s resolution, it’s important to commit not just to the outcome that you want, but also the process of getting there.
Not Believing Enough
Last but not least, a lack of self-belief can prevent you from achieving your new year’s resolutions. If, like the stats above show, you’ve tried and failed at sticking to a new year’s resolution once (or several times) in the past, then it’s understandable if you don’t think it’s possible for you.
The problem is, this can also be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Here, it’s important to remember that the stats also show that sticking to resolutions and goals is possible. Even with regard to habit formation, four out of 19 good habits, maintained in the span of one year, is not bad when you consider that we are in the middle of an unprecedented health crisis.
Plus, having those four healthy habits is still way better than having none at all.
Making (And Sticking To) Better Resolutions
Over the years, the difficulty of keeping new year’s resolutions has led to some thinking that they’re pointless. January 1, after all, is an arbitrary starting line, and we can always make new changes whenever we want, right?
Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it — especially if it means better health and wellbeing. Plus, time-based markers, like the start of a new year, help produce what researchers call “the fresh start effect.”
The opening of a new year (or, indeed, a new week or month) helps us close a “mental accounting period” and makes us more motivated to do better in this new period. The same effect has also been observed in the days after key holidays, and it’s this that makes the turn of the year a perfect time to turn over a new leaf.
So, set those new year’s resolutions just like everyone else is. The key is to craft better resolutions and have the right attitude about them.
Rethink Your Goals
The best way to keep your new year’s resolutions is to start with the right ones. For clinical psychologist Dr. John Norcross, it’s important to make sure that they’re not just something you want for yourself, but also, that they’re realistic and achievable.
“If you can’t measure it, it’s not a very good resolution,” he says. “Vague goals beget vague resolutions.”
This means that instead of saying you’ll exercise more this year, you can say, “I will work out X times a week.”
And keep it in attainable — seven days a week is probably too much for most folks, so consider aiming for three or four. You can always do more during the weeks when you’re feeling ambitious, but those smaller goals are key to staying motivated during those weeks when you’re struggling to keep up.
Similarly, a goal of saving more money can be further refined to “I will set aside $50 every month.” Or, if you want to make it more engaging, you can try out something like the 52-Week Money Challenge.
Work With Existing Habits
Introducing a whole new habit to your lifestyle takes a lot of work and patience. To make it a bit easier, one thing experts recommend is to ‘stack’ or ‘piggy-back’ it to things you’re already doing.
BJ Fogg, a social scientist from Stanford University, explains that all behavior happens because of certain triggers, and the key is to anchor a habit you want to make onto a habit you already have.
For him and his fitness goal, he does push-ups every time he goes to pee. Though he started out with just one push-up, over time, the habit has grown to a set of 10 or 20 for every bathroom break.
So, pick an existing habit — like making coffee in the morning or closing your laptop at the end of the day — and attach a new habit related to your new year’s resolution. Over time, the new habit will start feeling more natural to you, and you can build on it from there.
Get a Buddy
A buddy keeps you accountable, especially when it comes to fitness goals. Having someone to check in with, ask help from, and celebrate milestones with can make a huge difference when working towards a new year’s resolution.
Plus, because we’re social beings, just being around others — whether physically or virtually — has plenty of health benefits on its own.
Measure Your Progress — And Reward Yourself for It
Regularly taking the time to see how far you’ve come in your journey towards achieving a new year’s resolution (instead of at the end of every year) can feel very rewarding. You’ll be able to see how those small habits are shaping up towards noticeable lifestyle changes. And, with the fresh start effect, you can even use the end of a month to spot a few things you can focus on improving for the next few weeks.
It’s good to reward yourself for whatever progress you make regularly, too. A year is way too long to wait to give yourself a pat on the back, and a 2016 study even found that immediate rewards can help you stick to long-term goals.
So get that nice shirt you really like, or go out and celebrate (safely) with your buddy!
Lastly, Don’t Worry About Slip-Ups
Everyone makes mistakes, and that’s okay. In fact, a University of Scranton study found that even among those who are able to stick to new year’s resolutions long-term (defined by the study as two years), slip-ups are still pretty common. Over half experienced at least one slip-up, and those who did made mistakes an average of 14 times.
The key, based on the study’s findings, is to keep moving forward. In the study, 71% of successful new year’s resolution makers said that their mistakes helped motivate them.
So you missed a gym day or weren’t able to make time for your new hobby. That’s okay; life happens. The important part is that you don’t use that to abandon your goal. Instead, use it to remind yourself to do better next time.
Making better habits — or letting go of bad ones — can be difficult, but it’s really rewarding. The key is to plow on not with guilt or regret, but with hope and a sense of fun.
