New Year’s Resolutions: Why We Make Them and How to Keep Them
It’s been the first few weeks of January, and someone inevitably asks: Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions? After a moment of thought, you are instantly reminded of your loose commitment to live healthier. You respond, yes, and plan to join the local gym and exercise more, and put a reminder in your phone to subscribe to a gym. This year will be different and I will be healthier, you say, and you are not alone in doing so. Many individuals will join a gym in January, in pursuit of New Year’s resolutions to be healthier. But will this year actually be different?
New Year’s is a popular time to “turn over a new leaf”, where individuals intend to make changes to their routine to pursue long-term goals. Our understanding of New Year’s resolutions has been benefited from behavioral science insights, as prominent research has highlighted two main reasons why this phenomenon occurs: 1) long-term goal pursuit is challenging, and 2) New Year’s presents a unique motivational opportunity. However, maintaining New Year’s resolutions is another challenge in itself. To preserve this motivation, behavioral researchers have explored methods to help individuals persevere in pursuit of their long-term goals.
Challenge of Long-Term Goal Pursuit
The first component defining New Year’s resolutions involves the challenging aspect of long-term goal pursuit. While we know how important a goal may be, the benefits of achieving the goal are difficult to measure in the moment. If a person hopes to live healthier, the individual may recognize the importance of the goal, but may be unable to realize the outcome of being healthier, since the rewards are distant and abstract.
Therefore, the most salient rewards are those that occur instantaneously. [5] Consider running on the treadmill: running is good for you in the long term, but is dull and effortful in the moment. The dull momentary experience of running becomes our focus when the time for decision-making arrives. Immediate rewards are the driving force behind our decisions, and in this case, the healthier option loses. [5] The short-term barriers of goal pursuit prevent us from achieving our healthy objectives. But why does the New Year see a huge increase in the creation of these objectives?
References
[1] Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., & Riis, J. (2014). The fresh start effect: Temporal landmarks motivate aspirational behavior. Management Science, 60(10), 2563-2582.
[2] Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American psychologist, 54(7), 493.
[3] Hennecke, M., & Converse, B. A. (2017). Next Week, Next Month, Next Year: How Perceived Temporal Boundaries Affect Initiation Expectations. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1948550617691099.
[4] Milne, S., Orbell, S., & Sheeran, P. (2002). Combining motivational and volitional interventions to promote exercise participation: Protection motivation theory and implementation intentions. British journal of health psychology, 7(2), 163-184.
[5] Woolley, K., & Fishbach, A. (2016). For the fun of it: Harnessing immediate rewards to increase persistence in long-term goals. Journal of Consumer Research, 42(6), 952-966.
About the Author
Ilana Brody
Ilana Brody has a BA in Psychology and Economics from the University of Virginia. In school, she researched social behavior, and her thesis studied barriers to long-term goal pursuit. Ilana hopes to apply behavioral science findings to public policy to address social problems. She currently works for a social and economic policy think tank in Washington, D.C.
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