For many, mid-January is the time of year when all motivation for our resolutions goes out the window. By the second week of the year, it starts to sink in: sticking to our resolutions for an entire 365 days is going to be a lot more challenging than we imagined.
That said, this dip in motivation isn’t entirely surprising—nor is it a unique experience. According to a Forbes 2023 survey, only 8% of individuals actually stick to their new year resolutions for over a month. Considering how many people commit to something new each new year, this is a very low statistic.
Many people break their goals for countless reasons, from unrealistic expectations and waving motivation to social pressure. But, what if you could ensure that you would complete your new year resolution by this time next year? Believe it or not, it’s possible to make that January 1st promise to yourself bulletproof. Here’s four ways to truly commit to them, according to psychological research.
1. Redefine Your Resolution
Let’s be honest—most of us are taught to make resolutions as soon as we learn what the new year is. The problem, however, is that they lose all meaning over time. While you may feel committed to your resolution as the clock counts down on December 31st, this motivation eventually runs low as the year progresses. Once we lose track of a resolution, it’s all too easy to tell ourselves that “There’s always next year.”
To break this pattern, you need to redefine your goal to be more than just a list item on paper. Instead, use it as a strategic mechanism to shape the rest of your year. According to 2021 research from Frontiers in Psychology, you can achieve this by reframing your goal from a personal resolution to an “unbreakable resolution”—a strong personal commitment that helps us change undesirable behaviors.
For this to occur, your goals have to create real meaning in your life. According to a 2022 article in the Harvard Business Review, one way to accomplish this is to find your “why” for wanting to achieve the goal in the first place. Rather than putting down a list of goals you want to accomplish, try to paint a personal picture of what this resolution really means to you.
How will this goal better you as a person? What will achieving it mean for you, and your future self? These questions should be your focus—not the goal itself.
2. Envision The Domino Effect
Redefining your resolution also invites you to see the bigger picture—that is, how this resolution will actually fit into your life. Our goals do not exist in a vacuum; changing one thing in our lives will ultimately affect another area of our lives. Thus, understanding this could be the difference between sticking to your goals and giving up by the second week of January.
In light of this, you’ll need to track your progress, as well as celebrate it, in more ways than one. For instance, if you aim to get healthy this year, you will likely see the results in far more places than the gym. You might find yourself better able to keep up with your kids, have better concentration at work and even sleep better—all because you made one decision for your new year.
The 2022 book The Ripple Effect: How Small Actions Create Big Changes examines this phenomenon on a larger scale. It is the fact that a tiny, seemingly insignificant act can have massive implications on your life, as well as the lives of others. Your goals are no different: changing one thing in your life could change your whole worldview. Remembering the fact that your goals have the potential to create a domino effect is the ultimate key to mapping out your resolutions in 2025.
3. Break It Down Into 365 Days
Bold resolutions can feel overwhelming when we take them at face value, but they are far less intimidating when we consider them as small, actionable parts of a greater goal—as little steps we have to take each day. There is no point in looking at your big-picture resolution without a thorough understanding of how it will fit into your daily schedule. Without the grassroots of planning, scheduling or breaking it into smaller pieces, your resolution is likely to fail.
Let’s say, for instance, that you’re aiming to run a marathon this year. It would be impossible to wake up on race day and start running. Instead, you know you’ll have to build up to the big day by increasing your speed, stamina and endurance during training.
Even if your resolution is more tame than a marathon, the trick lies in approaching all of your goals in this way, with the same mindset. You need to create daily routines around your resolutions to reach them effortlessly. And, according to James Clear’s 2018 novel, Atomic Habits, “habit stacking” is the easiest way to achieve this.
Specifically, habit stacking involves pairing your new daily habit with a behavior that is already part of your routine. For example, you might tell yourself, “As soon as I have finished my morning coffee, I will go for a 20-minute run.”
This approach transforms your resolutions into a habitual part of your routine, which makes them much easier to seamlessly integrate into your life. Instead of restructuring everything around a single goal, it will naturally fall part of your daily to-do list. Over time, and with consistent practice, achieving your goal will feel more and more attainable—as, without even realizing it, it will have become just another part of your day.
Resolutions are opportunities to shape the life we envision. By realistically redefining them, breaking them into actionable steps and making these steps part of your routine, you set yourself up for long-term success. Remember, as you step into this journey, that resolutions are not a race to the finish line of your goal. Rather, it’s about how consistently and willingly you put in the work that they require.
Do you keep putting off working on your new year resolutions? Take this science-backed test, and find out if you have a procrastination problem: General Procrastination Scale