Source: Radio New Zealand
What is the science behind setting a New Year’s resolution? SIRA JANTARARUNGSAN / 123RF
New Year’s resolutions may trigger mixed feelings, but when done correctly, they can improve our motivation and have an overall positive impact.
UK science writer David Robson has looked into the psychology behind a successful New Year’s resolution.
It’s something he takes seriously and believes it’s a positive way to start the year.
He told Summer Weekends that, like many he had a “checkered history” with keeping his resolutions, but over the years, he had become better.
“In general, I’m pretty good at keeping my resolutions, and I think that’s partly now because I do know about the psychology of, you know, self control and willpower”
It’s OK to fall off the wagon
Robson said one of the most important steps was to not “catastrophise” the times when we fell off the wagon.
He said occasionally stepping out of line did not have to undo days of hard work
“This is something that psychologists call the ‘what the hell effect’.
“It’s this quite toxic tendency that we have that, once we break a resolution, we just give up entirely.”
He said this happened because people felt they had proven to themselves that they lacked the willpower to commit to a goal, therefore losing all hope and giving up entirely.
Do we set ourselves up to fail?
There was also a tendency to set goals that were easy to give up on, a habit that stemmed from a very self-critical culture.
Robson said the amount of pressure manufactured by media, lifestyle magazines, social media and television could encourage people to feel poorly about themselves.
“It’s kind of setting these standards for what it means to be beautiful or what it means to be successful.”
This meant resolutions could then become a product of the surrounding culture.
“A lot of the time, we’re not really thinking about what we want in life, but we’re doing these things because we have those goals kind of imposed on us.”
He said psychological research had shown goals that stem from societal pressure were not only bad for our mental health, but made it harder to keep a resolution, whereas goals chosen purely using our own autonomy were easier to keep, as they mattered more to us.
The magic of the new year
Although some may feel there was no need to wait for the new year to set a resolution, Robson agreed there was some magic in setting them during this time.
He said this desire was based on the psychological phenomenon of how we processed our autobiographical memories.
“What psychologists have found is that we actually do tend to look at our life as a series of chapters that are very often based around big life events.”
Significant life events, like graduating or getting married, acted as landmarks of a life journey, but Robson said research had shown that, within the bigger chapters, people also created smaller “chapter headings” and the new year was one of them.
“Research shows us that, when people do make new goals on those key moments, like the first of the year, they do tend to have more motivation.
“The brain is always looking for this organisational principle, a way to chunk that data into meaningful sections.”
Bigger or smaller scale resolutions?
Overall balance was key, but Robson said it all came down to personal preference and knowing how to manage your resolutions
“I think there is this kind of sweetspot between something that’s so mundane, you quickly forget about it and something that’s so ambitious, it feels unmanageable.”
With bigger goals, it was better to break it down into smaller ‘sub goals’.
“If you do want to write your novel over the course of 2026, I think it’s essential that you make a plan for how you’re going to go about that, because you’re really then creating these little stepping stones that feel far less daunting to achieve.”
Should resolutions be a secret?
Robson said telling people could be helpful, as it created a sense of accountability that made sticking to goals easier.
“I know some people are going to be quite pessimistic and gloomy, and they’re just going to sap some of that excitement away from it, but I think, if you do have people who can be your cheerleaders, then it’s great to share it with them.”
Psychological tricks to achieving resolutions
Robson said his own resolution for the year was to run a marathon and he had prepared some tricks to make sure it happened. One of them was what he referred to as ‘temptation bundling”.
“That is just making sure that, when something starts to feel like a grind, you have some kind of pleasure that you experience alongside that. In my case, it’ll be listening to really great audio books, as I go about my training.”
He also said the more specific the goal, the easier it would be to stick to it.
For example, with a popular resolution like losing weight or getting fit, it was better to set a target weight and have a workout plan, so the task did not feel vague and daunting..
“Just make it measurable, because that way, it’s easier to keep track of your progress and, when you do meet that goal, you get that dopamine kick that leaves you feeling motivated.”
‘Monetising insecurities’
Robson said one things to be wary of was the tendency to commercialise people’s insecurities during this time of year.
“You’ll always read in a new magazine about a particular kind of exercise that’s going to have these magic properties for you or you’ll start seeing new photos of a particular muscle group that you’re meant to be developing.”
He said it was important to protect ourselves from this kind of targeted marketing, and make goals that were based on our personal improvement and journey.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand