This is the first post on the Parea column of this blog! Check out the full column here.

I know this post was written after New Year’s Day, but it’s not too late to make New Year’s Resolutions 🙂 

I’ll be honest; I quit making New Year’s Resolutions years ago (not exactly sure when). Just as a fun story, in third grade, before heading off for winter break, my class did an activity with New Year’s Resolutions. We had to write a personal New Year’s Resolution on a sticky note; our teacher then collected all the sticky notes, and read them out loud to the class (he didn’t identify who wrote the notes, though). I suppose the whole idea was to build a collective motivation, which would inspire us to push through with our goals. 

However, this year, I decided to create a New Year’s Resolution (I won’t say what it is, though). Also this year, I began to wonder if New Year’s Resolutions actually work, or how they could be implemented to be most effective. Believe it or not, this subject encompasses some principles in psychology, which I will be talking about in today’s post! 

We Suck at Resolutions… But Why? 

It’s important to acknowledge that many of us do not stick with New Year’s Resolutions. In fact, researchers from Edith Cowan University found that two in three people give up on their resolutions by January 31st. Creating resolutions for the New Year gives us aspiration; it’s like turning a new page, where the possibilities feel both endless and tangible. According to Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD, a clinical psychologist and professor at Yeshiva University in New York City, the drive for making resolutions is “motivated by this punctuation in time,” similar to how one may feel at a “college graduation.” In other words, you wouldn’t wake up on a random day in October and say, “I want to change my life.” We naturally associate big changes with special occasions, and it all boils down to that aspiration and sense of “renewal.” 

This theory, termed the “fresh start effect,” was proposed in a 2014 study in the journal Management Science, which found evidence of people engaging in “aspirational behaviors” following “temporal landmarks” such as new calendar cycles and holidays. The paper relies on field data and data analysis to prove its case, and does not conduct a study to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of the fresh start effect. 

While optimism is positive and can be a wonderful motivator, it is also part of the problem. When we make a resolution, we tend to envision the “end-goal” in mind; and, this is important for mapping out the goal. The issue is that these desires are temporary, and we don’t consider all the little steps required to reach that “end-goal.” 

Robert West, a professor emeritus of health psychology at University College London (UCL), England, and an associate of UCL’s Center for Behavior Change, says that it is “so often hard to do things we set out to do” since “we act in pursuit of what we most desire at that precise point in time.” New Year’s Resolutions fuel an initial desire to change, but something else always takes precedence, and that desire doesn’t sustain. 

Another factor that contributes to people’s inability to follow New Year’s Resolutions is the intention-behavior gap, a concept that has been studied by many psychologists. Here, there’s a gap between the our intentions and the task we’re completing. 

According to the diagram above, our ability to execute a behavior is dependent on our capability, opportunity, and motivation (these factors contribute to the “gap”). For instance, if Jimmy set a goal to run a mile each day, but caught the flu and was sick for a week, then he did not have the opportunity to fulfill his goal at that time. However, if Jimmy was binge-watching his favorite TV show instead, then he lacked the motivation to pursue his goal. 

Currently, more research needs to be done into the intention-behavior gap, especially as it centers around how one can successfully avoid it. However, I do find it quite interesting, and see how it can be a significant factor in following through on our resolutions. 

Effective Resolutions

Based on the research described above, it appears that the best tactics to sustain resolutions include: 

• Setting goals we’re truly passionate about. 
• Developing habits that will enable us to sustain our goals.  

For example, Timmy (Jimmy’s twin brother) aspires to launch an online store, selling artwork and other DIY items. If he’s passionate about this goal, he will be more likely to achieve it, in spite of the hard work and obstacles that lay ahead. 

Of course, we’re not going to be passionate about everything we do, as that is life. Kimmy (Timmy and Jimmy’s older sister) resolves to eat healthier this year. She would much rather have ice cream sandwiches for dinner everyday, but is attempting to prepare vegetables and meats instead. In this case, habits can play a big role, since according to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the human brain relies more heavily on habit-creating mechanisms than personal desires when motivation is low. Habits enable us to start small, and repetitive, daily behaviors tend to persist – allowing us to reach the “end-goal” we set. 

Though I haven’t come across a specific article that supports this, I think that the same “micro-habit” mindset can allow us to be consistent with the goals we are passionate about. Going back to Timmy – he has a pretty huge, and potentially a rewarding, goal. However, building the road to get to his end-goal requires more than an innate passion. The road needs to be broken down into manageable bits, where progress is routinely made. The micro-habits may be incredibly small (i.e. “read ten pages everyday”). But overtime, it adds up, and who knows – we may be able to increase our endurance, modifying this micro-habit as a result. 

Regardless, I wish you all the best in succeeding in your New Year’s Resolutions! I hope you found some of the information here interesting, and feel free to comment your thoughts below. If you have any tips on fulfilling resolutions (and goals in general), I would love to hear them!