New Year’s Resolutions: Why We Make Them & How to Make Them Stick

Do New Year’s Resolutions last?

Ever, since I could remember, the date that the average American would hold their New Year’s resolutions to only extended to somewhere in February. Throughout the years, this exact date has continued to move farther and farther up in the year. As of 2020, the New York Post put out an article stating that the average American’s New Year’s resolutions only last until February 1st. This year Forbes Health quoted January 17th as “Ditch New Year’s Resolutions day” and the second Friday in January as “Quitters Day”. So, it begs the question, why do we even bother? Also, how do we make sure that we do not fall into the same pitfalls that keep the average American from succeeding in completing their resolutions?

So Why DO We Bother?

As for why we bother, the answer is actually quite simple. There is absolutely nothing magical about January 1st that will suddenly help you to achieve your goals and aspirations in life. However, that is not what has been pushed on us by the culture for the duration of our lives. Here in America, there is a significant emphasis placed on new beginnings of any kind. it goes hand-in-hand with the American dream and is a source of hope for many. But why? Again, there is nothing magical about the beginning of the year, the start of a new week, getting a new job, or moving to a new town. 

To best explain, have you ever heard the phrase “if you say something enough, you will start to believe it?” That is actually true. In psychology, there is a term called the illusory truth effect. If something is repeatedly exposed to us hearing it, seeing it, or saying it, then we are much more likely to believe it. So, living in a culture that idolizes fresh starts and new beginnings as ways to make significant changes in your life will likely cause you to also believe this is true. This means that most people in America would state that the beginning of a new year is a great time to set resolutions and new goals. 

So, is this bad? In my opinion, it is both bad and good. It is bad because people assume that there is something magical about the new year in regards to being able to stay consistent and achieve their goals. Since there is no magical change, most people continue living life, more or less, the same while making some efforts towards their New Year’s resolution, but not putting the time and energy into understanding how to make the change in their life last long-term.

Now that being said, it is also a good thing, because it does help to boost motivation for change. Because we do have the cognition (or thought) of being more capable of making changes in the new year, it does set us up to have a higher level of motivation. So, if we can take that higher level of motivation and combine it with understanding the commitment necessary to actually make long-term change (plus, of course, following through with the commitment), then we can effectively work towards, and eventually accomplish our resolutions. 

How to Make Them Stick (Part 1)

If you have stuck with me this long in this post, you are probably wanting to know  how you avoid ending up like the average American by actually keeping your resolution past February 1. In order to do that, as you probably could’ve guessed, there are several steps. I will continue to write blog posts this month in an effort to help people better understand how they can keep their motivation going strong. 

And today’s post, I want to start highlighting the actual goal setting process. While creating smart goals is by far a great way to set resolutions (I will post on that later this week), to break it down very simply, start small and build. 

For example, let’s say your New Year’s resolution is you want to lose 30 pounds this year and to do that you are going to weigh yourself every day, start a diet regimen of some kind, and start working out at least three days per week. In the beginning, you are feeling great and start off strong. However, eventually, there will be a day where you are so busy you have to take out that completely breaks your diet. There will be a day that you feel so exhausted after a long day at work or wrangling children that you just don’t have it in you to do the work out. There will be a day you simply just forgot to weigh yourself one morning or maybe you actually do weigh-in one morning and gain 3 pounds overnight for no discernible reason. When any of these things occur, we can feel like a failure. And if you are like me, and most Americans, the feeling of failure will not be a first, and it will be a very quick demotivator. This is where a lot of people will throw their hands up and give up on all of the goals altogether. 

Throughout this month, I will continue to release more posts on why this occurs in order to help you to better understand yourself. However, in the meantime, check in to see if your New Year’s resolutions, or any goals in general, are starting small to build later. If the answer is no, think about how you can simplify your goals to start out. Your long-term goal can still be all of the things in your original goal (and possibly even more) but to start off, what if you just made a conscious effort to change one smaller thing. For example, studies have shown that simply weighing yourself every day can make you more accountable to what you eat. Or, if you’d like it to be something that requires more effort, you could start tracking everything that you eat each day or making it a goal to hit a certain step count. Whichever thing you choose, make it some thing that will be simple and achievable even on your very busy days or your very exhausted days. This will be the first step to set you up for success in pushing through the February 1st date.

Are you in need of help figuring out which goals will help you the most? Or maybe you feel like you are doomed to fail before you even start. If so, we’d love to help. Reach out on our contact page or call us to get your FREE 15 minute consultation.