How To Make New Year's Resolutions That Are More Likely To Stick
Here are the 10 Most-Broken New Year’s Resolutions and 10 to try instead
It’s four days into the New Year 2024. How many New Year’s resolutions have you broken already? Unfortunately, such resolutions may last about as long as a typical Game of Thrones character, give or take a few swords. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology found that just two weeks into the New Year, 29% had already broken their New Year’s resolutions. At the one-month mark, that number had increased to 36%. And at the six-month mark, it had ballooned to over half (54%).
Back in 2012, Time magazine listed the top ten most-broken New Year’s resolutions (not in any particular order):
Lose Weight and Get Fit
Quit Smoking
Learn Something New
Eat Healthier and Diet
Get Out of Debt and Save Money
Spend More Time with Family
Travel to New Places
Be Less Stressed
Volunteer
Drink Less
If you notice, half of these resolutions (lose weight and get fit, eat healthier and diet, quit smoking, drink less, and be less stressed) are clearly health-related, while the remaining five all have health implications. So, it looks like the focus of many resolutions is to live more healthfully physically and mentally. Why, then, are so many resolutions falling by the wayside?
Perhaps one resolution should be to make better resolutions. Each of the resolutions above may be destined for failure because they:
Are too vague, too general, and not specific enough: For instance, when you say “get fit,” do you mean fit like international football star Cristiano Ronaldo? Or just being able to walk up the stairs without vomiting? If it is Cristiano Ronaldo-fit, well, good luck, because it could be that such resolutions…
Are too grand to be achievable: Chances are you are not going from couch potato to six-pack in one year. (Although you may go from your couch to get a six-pack of beer.) Be realistic and take smaller steps.
Focus on changing the result and not the causes: If you work in a doughnut factory, live above a doughnut shop, socialize with doughnuts, and have friends who binge on doughnuts, then perhaps...just perhaps...your circumstances are contributing to your eating doughnuts.
Do not enlist the necessary social support: Ringo Starr once sang that you "get by with a little help from your friends." (He also sang that you "get high with a little help from your friends.") Those around you can end up affecting what you do, as I’ve written for the HuffPost. For example, without the proper wingmen and wingwomen to help, it may be tougher to cut down on buffalo wings.
Do not include enough immediate incentives: As the character Neidermeyer, in the movie Animal House, once said, "You're all worthless and weak!" It is much easier to give into immediate urges than to maintain long-term goals. So if following resolutions does not bring at least some immediate positive effects, you are less likely to follow them.
So instead of the resolutions listed above, here are ten resolutions that you may want to try:
Read food labels and know what is in your food and beverages. Seeing the actual ingredients alone may help you make changes. For example, have you seen how much salt is hidden in food? And when I say labels, I mean the official nutrition labels.
Sever an unhealthy relationship (e.g., someone who is unsupportive, abusive, or a bad influence).
Establish a new relationship or strengthen an existing one with someone who helps you be healthier and happier.
Join a sports class or league.
Start walking, cycling, or taking public transportation to work.
Choose a specific volunteering event that is convenient and helps you do something that you enjoy.
Replace one unhealthy food or beverage that you eat regularly with a healthy alternative (e.g., nuts instead of candy, water instead of soda).
With your friends, identify one regular social event that is unhealthy and determine how to change the event (e.g., change where you regularly go out to eat).
Tell your significant other, friends, co-workers, or doctor about an unhealthy habit that you’d like to eliminate.
Choose with your family or friends a single resolution that you can achieve together.
Finally, making lots of resolutions can initially seem attractive but decreases the chances of each sticking. Don't make your resolutions like some people approach marriages: keep trying new ones hoping that one will stick at some point. (Mickey Rooney, who went through eight marriages once said, “Always get married early in the morning. That way, if it doesn’t work out, you haven’t wasted a whole day.”) In life, small successes can have a way of cascading to subsequent larger ones. If you can keep at least one or two resolutions that you make then the New Year could be memorable and healthy.
Happy New Year.