Will Your New Year’s Resolution Last?

Less than 5% of adults will stick with their New Year’s Resolution after 6 months 
Source: Forbes Health

You’re not alone if you have ever found it difficult to stick to a New Year’s resolution. Making a fresh start on January 1st feels good, particularly when we aim to create better habits. However, intention wanes fast, and most of us may give up our resolve by April, according to Forbes. But with a shift in mindset toward those milestones, you just might achieve all you set out to do, change or be in 2024!

The tradition of New Year’s resolutions was born over 4,000 years ago. Babylonians promised the Gods to pay their debts owed to them at the start of each spring, the History Channel explains. The Babylonians considered March to be the start of the new year, when they celebrated both a newly appointed king and crops. January was a more symbolic time for ancient Roman resolutions, when they offered sacrifices to deities in a promise of good conduct in the year ahead. Early Christians later adopted the annual tradition at the turn of the year. They sang hymns and read scriptures to rectify past mistakes while resolving to be better in the future.

Today, people tend to make promises to keep only to themselves. According to clinical psychologist Sabrina Romanoff, Psy.D., we relish the idea of renewal as we gaze upon the calendar year ahead. Romanoff told WebMD, “The New Year serves as a cyclical marker of time during which we reevaluate and take inventory on our lives. The drive for making resolutions is motivated by this punctuation in time.”

What are the top resolutions for 2024?

A majority of New Year’s resolutions focus on fitness, or physical activity, in 2024.

Forbes conducts an annual survey on New Year’s resolutions. For 2024, nearly half of the 1,000 people polled in the U.S. made improved fitness their top priority. Secondly, improving finances was a goal for 38% of those surveyed, while mental health resolutions ranked third this year, compared to first place in 2023. However, physical activity, or fitness can also improve mental wellbeing. Dr. Judy Ho shared with Forbes, “Exercise increases the amount of happy and excitatory neurotransmitters in your brain, including endorphins and dopamine.” Additionally, respondents listed losing weight, improving diet, meditating regularly, and making more time for hobbies or family as worthwhile resolutions.

How to Sustain a Resolution Throughout the Year

A large-scale experiment on new year resolutions was published in the National Library of Medicine in 2020.  Researchers followed 200 participants who had made a New Year’s resolution. The top five resolutions included physical health, weight loss, eating habits, personal growth and mental health. Only 40% maintained their resolve after six months.

Researchers found those who reported a greater use of stimulus control, greater willpower, and the more consistent use of self-reward achieved greater success rates. And approach-oriented goals were more successful than avoidance-oriented ones. Additionally, those who received some support throughout the study were significantly more successful compared to others, who received no support at all.

Tips to boost your New Year’s resolution success rate may include the following:

Set positive intentions for yourself versus negative ones

Be specific when identifying goals: both short and long term

Rather than dwell on the outcome, focus on milestones

Define measurable means to track your progress

Plan ahead to overcome potential obstacles

Seek out a support system or resolution buddy

Reward yourself; celebrate small victories along the way

Not achieving your goals may cause you to feel a sense of grief or loss. Just remember that the key to lasting behavior changes is consistency. So, pick yourself up and resolve to try, and try again.