The downside is that it can lead us to overreach and make goals that, when sober, seem unreachable. In the heat of the New Year, there’s plenty of passion and motivation to go around. Still, motivation has starting power, especially for people who have failed before or who are conflicted between choices. That has its pros and cons: PassionĪs for me, I’m not a fan of “ra ra” “passion” and “motivation.” I’ve been excited about many projects that fizzled out, and none of the achievements I’m proud of came because I “hit rock bottom” or “lit a fire under my ass.” To channel your New Year’s resolution into a success, treat your plans more like a Michelangelo and thoughtfully strategize while capitalizing on the excitement of the season.Īt 11:59 on December 31st, when you flipped 2020 the bird and promised to make 2021 “your year,” you were in a “Rebirth” mindset. Just throw something on paper and make up a good-sounding explanation. Most people’s goal plans resemble a Jackson Pollock painting. ” Bah humbug.įorty-six percent may not be the best success rate, but it’s a great start, and with a little bit of work in advance, you’ll be even more likely to succeed. This is incredible: a single factor driving an 11X increase in goal achievement! Why didn’t this go viral? Because the public clicks things they already believe to be true, so the headline read like this: “ How Fast You’ll Abandon Your New Year’s Resolutions. The resolutioners, on the other hand, had a 46% success rate. Using a six-month follow-up survey, researchers at the University of Scranton found that between matched groups of goal-setters-one starting at the New Year and another later-the non-resolutioners had only a 4% chance of sticking to their big goals for six months. Resolutioners are more (not less) likely to meet their new goals. This bias double-whammy blinds us to the truth: On top of that, when we expect something to be true, we look for and remember observations that confirm our bias rather than those which would disprove it. This error of focusing on bad outcomes and forgetting good or neutral ones is so common that it has a name in psychology-negativity bias. What about your friend who starts with a low-carb diet January 5th, sees steady results until April 10th, gains a few pounds back, steadies out at a spot they’re happy with, and makes that the new, healthier normal for their life? Do you count that as a success? Do you notice? Or do you see that partial regain as just another failed resolution? When your friend starts drinking again on January 24th with a “#yolo” Instagram selfie, you shake your head and sigh. We see NYRs fail all the time, so we assume they are doomed to fail. Odds, probabilities, and statistics are funny things, especially when they’re based on bad data. What if I told you that NYRs were more likely than non-resolutioners to stick to a goal? What if I told you that there are simple and effective (not easy) strategies to make your resolutions more likely to stick? What if I told you that today’s resolution could, five years from now, be a daily habit? They are, there are, and it can. After all, “if you were really committed, it wouldn’t matter whether it was January 1st or August 14th, right?” Google Trends graph for fitness-related terms over multiple years, showing a consistent spike each January followed by a steady downward trend.Īs a culture, we take it for granted that New Year’s Resolutioners (NYRs) will fail.
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