New year’s resolutions are far from a modern day invention, with them dating back to the 5th centuary when Romans would make resolutions of good conduct to the gods. Now, around half of all adults make new year’s resolutions, but fewer than 10% manage to keep them for more than a few months, with 80% failing by the second week of February. Yet, this annual goal-setting trend continues, partly based on the fact that people who make resolutions are ten times more likely to achieve their goals than those who don’t.

The most common ones (55.2%) are health related, such as losing weight, doing more exercise and quitting smoking. 34.4% are work related, such as saving money, getting out of debt and getting organised. The type of resolution is not the only thing that is common among humans, but the reasons why they fail can be simplified into just a few psychological factors.

A study by Woolley and Fishbach found their participants believed the most important factors in predicting how successful they would be in sticking with their goals were importance and enjoyment. However, the researchers discovered that only enjoyment predicted long-term success, as the most important factor was how much pleasure can be taken from the efforts. This means that the most successful resolutions are those that are personal and something that the individual wants to change for their own happiness, and not what society thinks is important. Researchers at Harvard Medical School stated that ‘long-lasting change is most likely when it’s self-motivated and rooted in positive thinking’, underlying the importance that the resolution is based on personal enjoyment.

Positive thinking is a very imporant part of forming resolutions, and many fail because of negative words that are used in them. This language often backfires, as it makes the individual think of the very thing that they are trying to avoid. Jonathan Alpert, psychotherapist and author phrased it in this way: ‘It’s almost like I say to you, I don’t want you to think about what a zebra with pink and blue stripes looks like. You kind of have to think about what that would look like to not think about it, right?’ This is exactly the same for resolutions. For example, if the resolution was to give up drinking, it shouldn’t be phrased as ‘don’t drink alcohol’, but rather ‘drink more water and soft drinks’, so that the individual isn’t prompted to think about alcohol, which they are trying to avoid.

However, this phrasing is far from perfect. Psychologists discuss the notion of ‘false hope syndrome’, which is the unrealistic expectations about the speed, amount, ease and consequences of a person changing their behaviour. Resolutions need to be realistic, which they are often not, especially in the timing of the year in which they are made: at the end of the holidays. With our alcohol resolution, it is extremely unlikely to immediately stop drinking alcohol, especially when most are still in the holiday season. It would be far more beneficial if the goal was rephrased to allow room for error and lapses in progress, such as ‘don’t drink as much alcohol’. This removes an all-or-nothing mindset that many people hold which leads them to abandoning their goal after just a miniscule slip-up.

Allowing room for failure is an important part of resolutions, and one which is often ignored, leading to most fighting against their very psychology to achieve their goals. Lally et al. conducted a study on habit formation, which proves this very point. 96 volunteers chose an eating, drinking or activity behaviour to carry out daily in the same context, and completed a self-report habit index every day. She found that it can take as long as 254 days to pick up a new routine or habit (differing depending on what said habit was). Not only did she discover this, but also revealed that missing out one oppurtunity, or even multiple oppurtunities, to perform the behaviour or habit didn’t affect the habit formation process. This proves that failure and a long slog, although it may be frustrating, when trying to complete a new years resolution, is normal and not something that will affect the strength of the habit in the long term, as long as the individual stays mainly consistent.

This leads me to my last point in how psychology can affect new years resolutions: consistency. Professor Seppo Iso-Ahola at the university of Maryland declared that understanding why we don’t succeed at our resolutions and goals, particularly exercise-based ones, boils down to grasping what happens when we start having to think about the decision to follow the resolution or not. Choosing to complete an activity such as going out for a run twice a week, or getting out of bed by 7:00 is mentally straining, and many feel like it undermines their sense of freedom while alternate activites don’t. Iso-Ahola outlined the ‘law of least effort’ that follows these decisions. Individuals view going out for a run as being tiring and requiring lots of effort, while sitting in front of the television isn’t, and therefore choose the easier activity. This decision to not exercise is less mentally straining, and so the resolution isn’t completed. However, once individuals establish a routine, such as running every Monday and Friday, they begin to operate below conscious awareness, and running just becomes something that is usually done and not thought about much. How much of the decision involves conscious debating with yourself will predict how likely you are to keep your resolution.

Therefore, many people who write or speak about goal-setting and motivation highlight that resolutions cannot be perceived and presented as choices of whether or not to complete it that particular day, but rather activites or habits that have to be undertaken. This is called a ‘forced choice’, which helps to cause the habit decision to move into the unconscious level. Iso-Ahola revealed that once a high level of habitualness has been attained, it is difficult to remove the old habit, as it has become an unconscious choice. This is why it is often hard to get rid of old behaviours, as individuals are so accustomed to it, that it operates below the conscious level. However, the positive of this is that once a person has stayed consistent enough, will stick.

So, how can you stick to your new year’s resolutions through psychology?

1. Be positive – remove negative words from your goal and don’t think about what you are trying to avoid
2. Stay away from non-committal words like ‘should’ and use affirmative ones like ‘will’
3. Be realistic – remove the all-or-nothing mindset and don’t get tricked into false hope syndrome
4. Be consistent – the resolution will become habitual one day, it just takes time
5. Be more consciously aware of habits and choices, and use this elevated consciousness to make choices that are initially difficult. This conscious decisions will become unconscious habits

What resolutions have you made this year and how long do you think you will keep them? Let us know in the comments and have a great 2022!

– Molly Light