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Growth Mindset
6 Tips for Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution
Behavioral science strategies for getting started and overcoming setbacks.
Posted January 3, 2019
Approximately 100 million Americans made New Year’s resolutions this week, the most popular being to improve their health, save more money, or spend more time in enjoyable activities. My resolution is to participate more in my community, while my wife is writing a letter—yes, an honest-to-goodness, handwritten, stamped and mailed letter—to a different person in her life each week. What’s your resolution for 2019?
Unfortunately, an estimated 80 percent of resolutions fall apart by February, with another 12 percent failing by the end of the year. So what can you do to increase your odds of success? Here are six tips derived from behavioral science that can help you stick to your resolutions in 2019.
Get Your Mind Right
Before you change, you must believe you can change. Seems obvious, right? Yet deep down many of us believe that we were born just the way we are. However, adopting a “growth mindset,” or the belief that people can change through effort, is imperative for long-term success. Research conducted from middle school to college found that students with a growth mindset are healthier, less stressed, less aggressive, and earn better grades. Among adults, a growth mindset can influence how you engage with your current and future employers. So do you truly believe that you can cut out the junk food or hit the gym regularly? If not, write down examples of other times in your life when you’ve successfully made a big change. Better yet, tell someone else about those experiences and how you plan to follow through this time around.
Another obstacle to fulfilling our resolutions is our emotions. Change is scary, and the prospect of failure can be enough to hinder our success, inspire self-sabotage, or stop us from ever really trying in the first place. Instead of bottling up those feelings, write them down. Expressive writing has been shown to reduce depression, alleviate anxiety, and improve performance during high-stakes moments, like a big exam. Before beginning your resolution, write about all of the negative emotions that it dredges up. The key is to be honest with yourself—nobody else has to read what you write, so lay it all out there. As you continue toward your goal, continue with your expressive writing to help keep those negative thoughts at bay.
Stick to a Plan
Perhaps the best way to keep your resolution is to tell others about it so that they can encourage, remind, or maybe shame you into sticking to your goal. Taking this one step further, tell people “I’m going to be a runner” instead of “I’m going to run more,” or “I’m going to be a well-rested person” instead of “I’m going to sleep more.” Behaviors stop and start all of the time, but a new identity, once adopted, is harder to shake. By Feb. 1, if you and those around you see yourself as this new person, you’ll be doubly motivated to not let those perceptions wane.
On top of adopting a new identity, many of our resolutions require us to carve time out of our busy schedules to exercise regularly, read more, or spend more time with friends. A process known as Mental Contrasting/Implementation Intentions (MCII) can help. The first step, the "MC," is to think of everything that could derail your plan. What if you get sick, or your kid gets sick, or you need to travel for work—how will you keep up with your resolution? Next comes the "II" piece. For each obstacle, come up with a detailed plan for how you will address it. For instance: “If I have to travel for work, then I will book a hotel with an indoor pool and swim 10 laps before breakfast.” The more specific you are, the more likely your “MCII” will work.
Overcome Setbacks
Anyone who has ever lost weight or quit smoking will tell you that initially, you’ll feel like Sisyphus, forever rolling a boulder up a hill without success. But unlike Sisyphus, you can get the boulder to the top if you keep trying. In the meantime, you need strategies to help you overcome the frustration that comes with watching the boulder roll down the hill over and over again.
One such strategy is a values-affirmation exercise. When we fail at something, we feel bad, and we tend to look for quick fixes for those feelings, like food or alcohol. Reaffirming our values can assuage those bad feelings before they ruin our resolution. When you’re struggling, take a few minutes to write down two or three values that are very important to you: perhaps your family, your friends, or your religion. Then write a few sentences about why those things matter to you and how they make you a better person. Even if what you write has nothing to do with your resolution, it will help to insulate your self-worth from the blow of failure and get you back on track.
Another technique is to write about the everyday utility of your resolution. Often what we really want out of our resolution is far in the future, like losing 15 pounds or saving enough for a European vacation. Yet we are creatures of the here-and-now. Fortunately, these big goals often accrue smaller benefits that we tend to overlook. So when you feel like giving up, write down a few ways that your resolution has helped you already. For example, if you’re trying to exercise more, are you sleeping better? More focused at work? More libidinous? During a challenging period, focus on what you’re getting out of your resolution right now and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.
Happy New Year!
As you set out to find your new self with renewed aplomb, keep these strategies in mind so that you can look back in 12 months and know that you stuck to your resolution. Good luck!
