As we head into 2024, we will no doubt have several conversations starting with the question "what are your New Year's resolutions?". If your 2023 has been anything like mine, you may be inadvertently dragged into feelings of failure and guilt for not having kept up with your 2023 resolutions. In fact, just last night I found myself scrolling the internet for 'walking pads', having only sold one in the spring of 2023 after realising it had been doing nothing but gathering dust since I bought it.

So, why do we get pulled into "New Year, New Me" on a 12-monthly cycle?
According to a study by Dai, Milkman & Riis (2014), we may be following the "fresh start effect". They found that there is a higher likelihood of people engaging in "aspirational behaviours", such as dieting and going to the gym, following time-bound landmarks (so, whilst this does suggest the New Year is a good time for us to make some changes, not all hope is lost if we fail. The research shows that the start of a new week, month, or even after a birthday, is equally as good if you want to kickstart a new habit).
Dai et al., (2014) suggested that time-bound landmarks allow us to psychologically distance our current selves from our past selves, allowing us to leave those imperfections behind as we start a new year, and encouraging us to be more focused on developing a more positive sense of self. Secondly, they suggested that time-bound landmarks help to break up the repetitive nature of every day life. A fresh start causes us to reflect on where we have been and where we might be going, taking a birds eye view of our lives which can kickstart a renewed focus on our goals.
Cynically, I don't think that we can ignore the fact that consumerism probably drives this, too. There is no doubt that the diet and health industry benefit from the new year boom as we all feel tired and sluggish following a festive overindulgence.
Despite the fresh start effect, there are multiple research papers and general surveys showing that by the end of January most of us will have given up or failed at our resolutions.

Time to change your goals
Importantly, a large-scale study by Oscarsson, Carlbring, Andersson & Rozental (2020) demonstrated that people with approach-oriented goals were significantly more likely to keep their resolutions than people with avoidance-oriented goals. In other words, if you set a resolution where you choose to start doing something, rather than stop doing something, you are more likely to feel successful. Instead of having a resolution to "drink less wine" (avoidance based) you could set a resolution to "drink more non-alcoholic drinks" (approach based).
This goals can be strengthened using the SMART goal formula, which is used across multiple therapy approaches. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. Using this formula, we might alter the goal of "drink more non-alcoholic drinks" in the following way:
S - For every glass of wine I drink, I am going to drink one glass of non-alcoholic wine.
M - I am going to use an app to help me track my drinks.
A - I have the resources available to achieve this goal. The app is free, and the bars I go to offer non-alcoholic wine.
R - This is important to me to help reduce the amount of alcohol I consume and to improve my health.
T - I will do this every time I go to a bar. I am going on Saturday, so I will start then.
Writing this post caused me to reflect on my own goals. Here is how they have changed:
Keep my desk organised
S - I will keep my desk clear of rubbish and clutter.
M - I will visually be able to see if I have done this.
A - I have the resources available to me to achieve this.
R - This is important so that I can feel focused at my desk.
T - I will clear my desk every evening at 6pm.
Track my finances
S - I will keep a record of my weekly in- and out-goings.
M - I will use a spreadsheet to track my finances.
A - I have the resources available to me to achieve this.
R - This is important so that I can monitor my spending and saving.
T - I will update my spreadsheet every Sunday at 8pm.
Eat less snacks
S - I will eat a more balanced diet by adding a side salad to my meals.
M - I will be able to see I have done this when I make my meals.
A - I can easily purchase salad ingredients at the supermarket.
R - This is important so that I can nourish my body.
T - I will add salad ingredients to my weekly shopping list.
Have you set yourself and New Year's resolutions? Has this post helped you to think about how you might adapt them so they feel more achievable? Let me know in the comments.
References:
Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman, Jason Riis (2014) The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior. Management Science Published online in Articles in Advance 23 Jun 2014 . http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1901
Oscarsson M, Carlbring P, Andersson G, Rozental A (2020) A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals. PLoS ONE 15(12): e0234097. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234097
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