Five Science-Based Strategies for Fulfilling Your New Year’s Resolutions

It’s that time of year again. Champagne bottles have been popped, balls have been dropped, and now your friends, family, and colleagues are starting to ask, “What’s your New Year’s resolution?”

Some people love the tradition of setting a goal every January 1st. Others argue that it’s a waste of time, as most resolutions fail by mid-March. But there is actually a logic to jumping on the New Year’s resolution bandwagon, despite the dismal numbers.

On new beginnings—dates like New Year’s Day, your birthday, even Mondays—you’re more motivated to tackle your goals because you feel like you can turn the page on past failures.

Perhaps you intended to quit smoking, get in shape, or start going to bed at a reasonable time last year and didn’t.

A fresh start like the New Year allows you to relegate those mistakes to a past chapter and tell yourself, “That was the old me, but the new me will be different.”

It may sound delusional, but it’s really helpful to be able to let go of failures and try again. After all, you can’t accomplish anything if you don’t try, and many goals worth achieving can be difficult to get right the first time.

If you want to increase your chances of fulfilling your 2023 New Year’s resolution, behavioral scientists have discovered a number of techniques that can help. These tactics are most useful if you’ve chosen a concrete, small goal.

This means that you should avoid vague goals like “I’m going to exercise more” and instead set specific goals like “I’m going to work out four times a week”.

Here are my five favorite science tips for keeping your resolutions, taken from my book “How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” .

1. Make a plan based on suggestions

Research has shown that adding a suggestion to your plan helps you remember when to take action. Be sure to detail when and where you will be following up.

If your New Year’s resolution is to meditate five days a week, a plan like “I’m going to meditate on weekdays” would be too vague. But a plan based on suggestions like “I’ll meditate at the office during the week during my lunch break” would fit the bill.

Plotting out when and where you’ll execute your resolution jogs your memory when it’s opportune and builds up guilt if you fail – putting your plan on the calendar and setting a digital reminder wouldn’t hurt either.

Detailed planning can also help you anticipate and avoid obstacles, so if you plan on meditating over lunch, you’re sure to turn down an offered lunch meeting.

2. Consider a penalty clause

This might sound strange, but ensuring that you face some penalty if you don’t stick to your New Year’s resolution can work wonders.

An easy way to do this is to tell a few people about your goal so you feel embarrassed if they come back later and find you missed it. Telling all of her social media followers would up the ante even more.

A more severe penalty than shame, however, is putting cash on the table, and there is excellent evidence that self-imposed cash penalties motivate success.

You can bet a friend that you’ll make your New Year’s resolution, or you’ll pay off.

Alternatively, technology can help. Sites like StickK.com and Beeminder.com invite you to put in money that you’ll have to donate to a charity if you don’t reach a stated goal. You just need to nominate an arbitrator and set the stakes.

The rationale for why this works is simple: incentives change our decisions, and penalties are even more motivating than rewards.

We’re used to being fined for mistakes made by outsiders (governments, health plans, neighborhood associations), but this time you’re fining yourself for bad behavior.

3. Make it fun

Most of us strive for efficiency when it comes to achieving our goals.

If you want to get in shape, you might think that a hard workout will be ideal for producing rapid progress.

If you want to do well in a class, you assume that long, distraction-free study sessions are key.

But research has shown that focusing on efficiency can lead you astray, because you’ll neglect an even more important part of the equation: whether you enjoy the act of pursuing the goal.

If exercising or studying isn’t fun, you’re unlikely to keep going. But if you enjoy your workouts or study sessions, research has found you’ll stick with them longer. And in the end, that’s what matters most in reaching a resolution.

One way to make pursuing a goal that normally feels like a chore more fun is to pair it with a guilty pleasure. I call this “temptation packaging”.

Consider just watching your favorite TV show at the gym to start looking forward to workouts. Or just indulge in a mocha latte during study sessions so there’s a hook to take it to the library.

My own research shows that clustering temptations can come in handy when you might want to abandon your New Year’s resolution.

4. Allow emergencies

If you deviate from your New Year’s resolution, your instinct may be to declare yourself a failure and throw in the towel. The researchers call this “What the hell is the effect”.

Here’s what it looks like: You planned to go to bed early every night, but you couldn’t resist staying up late one Friday to watch an extra episode of “Succession” . After that, your early sleep plans went out the window because “What the hell,” you already failed.

Fortunately, there is a way to avoid this fate. By setting hard goals (like sleeping by 10pm every night) but giving yourself a get out of jail card or two each week, you may get better results than setting hard or easy goals with no wiggle room, research has revealed. .

Your extended aim keeps you motivated, and the ability to declare an “emergency” (instead of saying “what the hell”) keeps you moving forward after a misstep.

5. Get a little help from your friends

Why not get a little help from your friends? Spending time with high achievers can boost your own performance.

If your New Year’s resolution is to run a marathon or write a book, it would be wise to start hanging out with friends who have made it to the finish line (literally or figuratively) and can show you how it’s done.

You’ll learn quite a bit just by spending time together, because you’ll be inclined to conform to their standards of behavior. But my research and studies by others show that if you explicitly ask successful friends how they achieved a shared goal and try these tactics yourself, you’ll gain even more ground.

Strangely enough, there’s evidence that coaching friends with common goals can also improve your success rate.

When you’re about to drop tips on how to reach someone, it boosts their self-confidence (why would they listen to you if you don’t have something to offer?).

It also forces you to be introspective about what works in ways you wouldn’t otherwise. And, of course, you’ll feel like a hypocrite if you don’t follow your own words of wisdom.

Luckily, chasing your New Year’s resolutions with friends is more fun too, and that’s another key to success.

6. One more thing

New Year’s Day has passed when you are reading this article and you feel like you have already failed. Science says no. You can start over at any new beginning you choose – next Monday, next month, or on your birthday. Or pick any day to start over and follow these five steps to establish another good habit.