Promises, promises: research reveals secrets of successful New Year's resolutions

If you’ve made one or more resolutions for the New Year, good luck. According to the papers listed above, you will need it. The most common resolutions include losing weight, improving diet, quitting smoking, reducing alcohol consumption, taking exercise, eliminating debt and seeking better employment. While those who make resolutions are 10 times more likely to change behaviour than those who do not make explicit resolutions, after six months only four in 10 resolvers were successful. After a year, that number sinks to one or two in 10.

Researchers have found that determination and willpower are beneficial (psychologist Albert Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy); also, having a specific plan on how to achieve one’s goal aids success substantially. It all sounds like common sense. What may be less expected are the findings that suggest that failure in the course of trying to keep a resolution, which is common, should be handled with understanding. Those who avoid undue guilt and a complete relapse of a habit have a better chance of permanently changing behaviour. A single cigarette should not be seen as an inability to stop smoking. Such thinking leads to a downward spiral.

Moreover, willpower has its limits. Other helpful strategies include imagining the benefits of the change, telling friends about the resolution in order to receive support, and keeping a log to help understand what works and what doesn’t, especially in terms of particular environments or social situations.

One New Year’s resolution researcher helpfully quotes Victor Frankl, the late psychiatrist and neurologist, who observed: “Between stimulus and response, there’s a space, and in that space is our power to choose our response, and in our response lies our growth and freedom.”