Lose weight, quit a bad habit, or pursue a passion – a New Year resolution could be lingering in one’s head right now whether they believe in it or not. However, only eight percent of people fulfill their New Year’s resolutions according to a study.
Fulfilling a New Year resolution is not easy but understanding why people fail to keep it can help them re-evaluate their New Year resolution for 2020. What people wish for and how they approach it matter.
Researchers revealed that 55% of resolutions were health related. According to the study “Immediate Rewards Predict Adherence”, published in 2016 in the scientific journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, these health goals were about exercising more and eating healthier. Meanwhile, 20 percent of the goals were about paying off debt.
What make people stick to resolutions? The study, by Kaitlin Woolley from Cornell University and Ayelet Fishbach from the University of Chicago, indicated that enjoyment and importance are major factors in whether people keep their resolutions.
“People primarily pursue long-term goals, such as exercising, to receive delayed rewards (e.g., improved health). However, we find that the presence of immediate rewards is a stronger predictor of persistence in goal-related activities than the presence of delayed rewards,” the study states.
Why do some people exercise, and some don’t despite the health benefits of physical movement? Seppo Iso-Ahola, University of Maryland professor and author of the study “Conscious-Nonconscious Processing Explains Why Some People Exercise but Most Don’t”, explained that lack of consistency in achieving goals is the internal battle between what one wants to do and what they should do.
The study, published in the Journal of Nature and Science, revealed that only a fifth of people practice the recommended amount of exercise. The study explains the role of nonconscious processing, which refers to mental operations, such as feelings and thoughts, of which a person is unaware, in keeping habits. “When behaviors become routine and automatic with little or no conscious awareness, they grow habitual. Emerging habits are ‘chunks’ of neural activity located in the specific regions of the brain,” the study states.
Why New Year resolutions don’t last
In his article for U.S. News, Dr. Joseph J. Luciani wrote that 80 percent of resolutions fade by February. A clinical psychologist for four decades, Dr. Luciani emphasized that stress causes failure to keep one’s goals.
“The unfortunate truth is that change, all change, entails some degree of emotional friction, which in turn generates a ‘heated state’ we call stress. Whether you're feeling anxious, depressed, frustrated, fatigued, weak and out of control, or simply bored, emotional friction (stress) becomes the high-octane fuel of failure,” he wrote.
Dr. Luciani points out that people are not born with discipline; one should acquire it. It must be developed one challenge at a time. “Unless you first change your mind, don't expect your health goals to materialize. As the saying goes, it's not the horse that draws the cart, it's the oats. It's not the gym, Pilates class or diet that will change you – it's your mind,” he said.
Making health changes all at once is also not advisable, according to Dr. Carly Moores, associate lecturer at Flinders University and registered nutritionist.
“Start with small changes and continue to build on these or try to tackle one change at a time,” Moores was quoted saying. “Try to set yourself goals, reflect on your progress towards these, acknowledge that changes can be hard, and results won’t happen overnight … or even in the first two weeks of the new year.”
Change is a process
Dr. Marcelo Campos, in his blog post for Harvard Health, proposes a science-backed framework that people can adapt as they try to fulfill their New Year’s resolutions. He emphasizes that Change is a process, not an event, and usually a teamwork. To help people improve their attitude toward goals, he came up with five questions to challenge them:
- Why do you want to make the change?
- Is your goal concrete and measurable?
- What is your plan?
- Who can support you as you work toward change?
- How will you celebrate your victories?
A resolution is not just about ending a bad habit, says Elliot Berkman, director of the University of Oregon’s social and affective neuroscience lab. He recommends replacing a bad habit with a good one. “Habits are basically behaviors that become entrenched because of our very evolutionarily ancient reward learning system,” Berkman explains.
