A familiar story unfolds every January. You’re hyped up about the year ahead and resolve to exercise more, eat healthier, and save more money as part of your New Year’s resolutions. Quite often you start strong. You sign up for a gym, swap pizza for a fruit smoothie at lunch, and even open a savings account.
Yet, despite the familiar letdown, you\’ve already set big goals for 2024 and beyond. Why is that? More importantly, how can you make this year different and stick to your New Year’s resolutions?
Read on for more insight.
The Fresh Start Effect
Turns out the annual ritual of setting New Year’s resolutions even though we often don’t achieve them is rooted in a psychological phenomenon called the “fresh start effect.” So what’s that? Because humans have an inherent craving for a fresh start, we get an extra boost of motivation when a new week, month, or year kicks in. These aren’t just dates on the calendar. Our brains interpret them as a moment to reflect and start afresh.
Two psychological processes drive this fresh start effect. First, the start of a new year allows you to mentally step away from the not-so-great past year and think about improving your life. Second, the turn of the calendar year disrupts your everyday routine, prompting you to perform a stock-take of your life. This introspection, coupled with visualizing a better you, then sparks the idea of setting new resolutions.
So, that motivation and energy you feel at the beginning of the year is real. But unless you channel it into a specific, measurable, achievable goal, brace yourself for the February slump. Speaking of which…
Why Do Most New Year’s Resolutions Fail?
1. We Depend On Wlpower
Willpower, synonymous with self-control, resolve, and determination, is the ability to say no to short-term temptations in pursuit of long-term goals. But akin to the gas in your car, willpower is a limited resource that runs out with constant use.
Every day, your decision-making taps into this willpower reserve. Choosing a gym workout over extra snooze time, ordering a salad over pizza, saving money instead of spending it at the bar-it all chips away at your willpower. That’s why a few weeks into the new year, you might be running on fumes, with little willpower left to stick to your goals.
Social psychologist Roy Baumeister highlighted this point with his “cookies and radishes experiment. He observed that individuals who used willpower to resist one thing had too little left to fend off subsequent temptations.
2. We Don’t Ask Why
The New Year comes with a societal pressure cooker prompting most people to jump on the resolution-making bandwagon. It’s a Roman tradition that’s been around since 153 B.C. The problem is we make resolutions on a whim without really thinking about why we want the changes in the first place.
Let’s say you’ve resolved to get fitter. First, you need to figure out a clear, intrinsic reason behind it. Do you want to get in shape and make shopping for clothes easier? Or stay healthy and avoid draining your health insurance with frequent hospital visits?
Without a strong, personal reason pushing you to work out regularly, it’s tough to get up and work out on those gloomy days when your willpower takes a leave. You’ll likely go back to bed telling yourself, “What’s the point anyway?
3. We Think Too Big
We often get caught up in the desire to make drastic lifestyle changes around the New Year. No more sugar. Lose 40 pounds in a month. Run a marathon. These are big, ambitious goals. And it’s not that these aren’t inspiring goals. The problem is they are too big to start. You need to break them down into small, achievable changes.
The thing is, our brains resist these big, lifestyle changes. Why? They are all about efficiency and create neural pathways for habits to run on autopilot with little or no conscious effort. But introduce a big change, like going from a couch potato to a marathon runner, and the brain freaks out. It sees it as a threat that requires more brainpower and so puts up a fight.
The funny thing is we set these lofty goals subconsciously knowing deep down they are a tough nut to crack. And give us the perfect excuse when we inevitably fail to achieve them.
4. We Are Vague
Most New Year’s resolutions sound like this: “I’m going to travel more.” “I’m going to learn a foreign language.” “I’m going to lose weight.” The problem, of course, is they are too broad and lack details. And that’s a recipe for failure.
Take “travel more” for example. What does it mean? Are you jumping on a plane every month or just driving to the next town? It’s like you set off on a journey with a map- not exactly actionable.
When you say “you’ll lose weight” without a specific target then you’re setting yourself up for failure. How much weight do you intend to lose? 10 pounds or fifty? Without the specifics, you’ll find it difficult to track and celebrate little progress along the way. Soon, you’ll lose sight of the goal. Such vague resolutions are just too wishy-washy for your brain to get a grip on.
The Habit Loop
A lot of New Year\’s resolutions involve picking up new habits like starting a keto diet or ditching old ones like quitting smoking. Habits pretty much run our lives, and they are repeated behaviors done with little or no conscious effort. Duke University researchers even found out that around 40% of our daily behaviors are automatic.
- The cue—a trigger or reminder that initiates a craving which then motivates your brain to perform a habit to get the reward.
- The routine—It’s what you do, think, or feel in response to the cue.
- The reward—the result of the routine and end goal/benefit of every habit. Not only does it satisfy your craving, but it also teaches your brain whether this behavior is worth remembering or not.
For example, when you get stressed (cue), you crave the feeling of relief (craving), so you smoke a cigarette (routine), to satisfy your craving and feel relaxed (reward).
Duhigg explains that this three-step loop for habit formation exists because the brain loves to conserve mental energy. By turning routine behaviors into automatic habits—like brushing your teeth or tying your shoelaces—the brain frees up energy for the big, brainy tasks. So, the more you repeat this loop, the more a new behavior sticks, becoming an automatic habit that you do with little or no thinking.
Now, here’s how you can use this habit loop to make changes that stick in the year ahead.
1. Find A Routine Trigger
The first step to forming new lasting habits is to set up an obvious trigger to initiate your desired behavior. According to the literature on habit formation, there are five primary ways that a new habit can be triggered:
- Location
- Time
- Emotional state
- Other people
- Preceding event
According to BJ Fogg, a behavioral scientist at Stanford University, the preceding event is arguably the most powerful trigger for building new habits. In his “Tiny Habits Course”, Fogg proposes that you anchor the new behavior to an existing habit. In other words, you identify a routine habit and then pair it with a new habit.
For example, “After I brew my morning coffee, I’ll gulp down a spoonful of vitamins”. In this case, “the morning routine of making coffee” becomes the cue to “take vitamins.”
Why does this approach work so well? You’re stacking the new habit on top of a routine habit your brain knows inside out. With little conscious effort needed to execute it, the new habit is more likely to stick as a routine.
According to Duhigg, the more you practice the new habit, the more your brain links the habit’s trigger to the eventual reward. So, your brain develops a craving for the reward before you even start the routine. It is this craving that motivates your brain to perform the new habit over and over again seeking satisfaction from the reward.
2. Start Small
If you want a new habit to stick, then start small. How small you may ask? In his book, Tiny Habits, Fogg says your new behaviour should be tiny. For example, if your goal is to do 30 push-ups a day, start with just one push-up. Yes, only one!
Fogg’s approach works so well because it doesn’t rely on willpower. If an action is tiny, you can do it even if your motivation is low. The author of \”Atomic Habits\” James Clear shares the same view:
All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger.
Atomic Habits, page 22
Even better news, once you nail that first baby step, the rest just flows. \”Oh, I did one push-up, I might as well go for another and another…\”
3. Be Specific
Let’s say you want to run more often this year. Saying “I’m going to run thrice a week” sounds like a good goal but in reality, it’s pretty much vague. Which three days? Morning or evening? What distance will you run and where’s this happening?
Without being super-specific, you’re banking on your willpower to decide everything for you. But as earlier explained, willpower gets fatigued and depleted and is not the most reliable resource.
Picture this: “I’m going to run a solid 5K at 7.00 am sharp every Monday and Friday for 5 months. Now, that’s a super-specific goal. It lays it all out: 5K distance, twice a week (on Mondays and Fridays), starting at the crack of dawn (7:00 AM) and committing to this routine for 5 months.
4. Reward Yourself
The last part of Duhigg’s three-step habit loop is the reward. You have to celebrate and reward yourself every time you nail that new habit. For example, you can reward yourself with a smoothie or positive self-talk after each gym workout.
Our brains love rewards and consequently get flooded with the pleasure hormone called dopamine. So, the brain associates the new habit with feeling good, encouraging you to stick with it. Remember to make sure the reward is something you’ll be able to crave or anticipate as you practice this new habit.
Ready To Make New Year’s Resolutions that Stick?
If you have ever pondered, “Why do I always abandon my New Year’s goals just a few weeks into the year and revert to old habits?” Well, the solution lies in these science-backed habit-forming steps: find a routine trigger for your new habit, be specific, start small, and always reward yourself.
These tips sync with the way your brain functions, turning new habits into routine habits. If you\’re struggling to stick to a resolution, Hugs\’ counselors can help you reassess it and pivot to something more measurable and achievable. Get in touch with a therapist today.
P.S. This year, commit to goals that help you become a better version of yourself. Break the cycle of not sticking to your resolutions. Make this year different. Make yourself better. If you need an accountability partner who will push you toward your resolutions, reach out to us. You’ll love it.