When we think of the New Year, it often serves as a time for reflection and renewal—a moment to pause and consider the significance of new beginnings. It is common for people to hit a proverbial “reset button” and establish New Year’s resolutions that reflect the physical, emotional, mental, or social changes they wish to make in their lives. For many, setting resolutions represents a personal commitment to growth and change, acting as a powerful motivator to pursue one’s aspirations. However, many people struggle to follow through on these commitments. This often stems from unrealistic expectations, a lack of planning and accountability, and failure to form lasting habits. But is there science behind this?
History of New Year’s Resolutions
The concept of New Year’s resolutions can be traced back to the Babylonians. In 2000 B.C., they hosted some of the first recorded New Year’s celebrations, which occurred in March to coincide with the planting of new crops. During a twelve-day holiday called Akitu, the Babylonians made promises to the gods to pay their debts. The most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment, since Babylonian society was agricultural.
The Babylonian New Year and the tradition of resolutions were later adopted by the ancient Romans. The festival’s timing shifted in 46 B.C., when the Julian calendar designated the start of the year as January 1. The Romans would offer sacrifices to Janus, the two-faced god who represented looking into the past and future simultaneously, as they made promises of good behavior and conduct for the coming year. Recent evidence has shown that New Year’s resolutions were also made during the Middle Ages. Christians took part in Watch Night services at their churches to reflect on the past year and pledge to lead a more virtuous life, while knights renewed their vows of chivalry and loyalty.
By the nineteenth century, New Year’s resolutions had become so common that people found humor in making and breaking their pledges. An 1802 article from Walker’s Hibernian Magazine listed several comical resolutions, such as “statesmen have resolved to have no other object in view than the good of their country” and “the physicians have determined to follow nature in her operations and to prescribe no more than is necessary, and to be very moderate in their fees.”
The term New Year’s resolution was coined in a Boston newspaper from January 1, 1813. The article noted, “And yet, I believe there are multitudes of people, accustomed to receiving injunctions of New Year resolutions, who will sin all the month of December, with a serious determination of beginning the new year with new resolutions and new behavior, and with the full belief that they shall thus expiate and wipe away all their former faults.” Evidently, the tendency to break our resolutions has existed for just as long as the practice of making them.
Research on Resolutions
By the mid-twentieth century, resolutions had become focused on self-improvement, such as getting more sleep or pursuing a new skill. Medical sociologist Natalie Boero of San Jose State University suggests that these kinds of resolutions reflect societal values like status, responsibility, and self-discipline.
Recent research by Forbes Health shed light on the most common New Year’s resolutions. They found that fitness was the most popular resolution topic, followed by mental health. A smaller proportion of resolutions focused on learning a new skill, making more time for hobbies, and traveling more.
To explore New Year’s resolutions in the Tri-I, we surveyed our very own Natural Selections team about their resolutions and the plans they had for achieving them. All eight respondents had resolutions focused on self-improvement—for example, spending more time with relatives, learning a new language, and practicing forgiveness and gratitude. Participants had distinct strategies for achieving their resolutions. One respondent planned to improve their Spanish by listening to podcasts, reading, and completing online language lessons. In order to “stop leaving the lab at 9pm,” another participant laid out a strategy of establishing a consistent schedule to prevent their work and bedtime hours from being pushed back later and later.
When we followed up with our survey respondents three months into the year, 60% of them said they had achieved their first resolution, while 40% stated they had not. Success rate appeared to decline with each additional resolution reported. For the two respondents with a second resolution, one was able to achieve it, and the one participant who had a third resolution was also unable to achieve it.
Our respondents mentioned similar reasons as to why they could not maintain their resolutions. A respondent who resolved to go to the gym more found that their work made it challenging to stay consistent. The respondent who had set out to leave lab at a more reasonable time failed, stating, “My lab schedule is still all over the place… [it’s] difficult to keep regular hours.”
“I totally fell off the bandwagon,” admitted the participant who had resolved to improve their Spanish. “I was really good about practicing my Spanish for the first week of the year, when I was still on break, but then I let things slide as soon as lab work picked back up again.”
The Psychology of Goal-Setting
Psychologists have long studied goal-setting and the factors that contribute to completing our resolutions. A common motivation for setting new goals is the fresh start effect, which encourages individuals to pursue aspirational goals immediately after significant milestones. Events like the beginning of a new year are seen as natural opportunities for change, and aligning goals to a specific timeframe can enhance a person’s commitment to them.
Another common motivation is the sense of purpose goals can provide. This intrinsic motivation aligns with psychological theories that emphasize our natural drive for fulfillment and self-actualization. Setting goals releases dopamine, the key neurotransmitter in the brain’s reward centers. Neuroscientists have found that pursuing goals activates these reward centers, regardless of whether we achieve our resolutions or not; the process of pursuing a goal can be as impactful as attaining it.
Why Do Resolutions Fail?
The intent to keep one’s resolution statistically lasts two to four months. In general, there are three major reasons why people fail to achieve their resolutions: (a) they lack clear, specific goals; (b) they fail to monitor their progress toward the goal; and (c) they cannot maintain their goals in the face of obstacles and distractions. Researchers have theorized that self-control is a limited psychological resource that can be quickly exhausted. This makes altering habitual behaviors an uphill battle, especially when goals are disrupted by life’s other demands.
Conflicts between automated behaviors and long-term goals are a common reason why many people struggle to complete their resolutions. False hope syndrome can produce frustration with one’s inability to commit to unrealistic goals, leading to abandonment of resolutions. Behavioral scientist Ayelet Fishbach speaks about another phenomenon, the middle problem. People are often highly motivated when they set their goals, but their motivation tends to decline over time. With goals that have a clear endpoint (for example, reading twelve books by the end of the year), motivation may increase again as a person approaches that endpoint. The challenge in this case lies in the middle phase.
Strategies for Success
While keeping to our resolutions can feel like an insurmountable challenge, there are some strategies to increase success. First, make your resolution specific and detailed. Fishbach has compared setting goals to following a baking recipe: “You need to list the exact quantities.” For example, defining your goal as “walk 10,000 steps per day” instead of just “walk more” provides a clear, achievable target.
People are also more likely to remain motivated to accomplish goals that reflect their values and interests. One of our survey respondents successfully completed their resolution of dedicating more time to crocheting projects, finishing two before the follow-up survey. The participant explained that they were “working a lot in January and needed time to decompress… a lot of my experiments are long term, so it was good to feel some sort of accomplishment once I completed a crochet project.”
Another strategy for completing your New Year’s resolutions is to use behavior analytic tools, which are often deployed by Applied Behavior Analysts (ABA). ABA emphasizes task analysis—breaking down a long-term goal into smaller and more manageable tasks. Positive reinforcement is another core principle of ABA: providing a reward immediately after a desired behavior makes one more likely to repeat that behavior. Finally, consistent monitoring and data can help a person visualize what they have accomplished and provide insight on where and how to make adjustments. One way to do this is to use a journal to track everything you have done related to completing your resolution.
New Year’s resolutions are important because they provide us with an opportunity to set goals and improve ourselves. By reflecting on what we wish to change and breaking our goals into smaller, manageable steps, we can make meaningful progress. It’s important to remember that facing challenges is a normal part of the process, but each small success can motivate us to keep pushing forward. Let’s embrace the New Year with hope and determination, knowing that with effort, we can transform our resolutions into reality and create positive change in our lives.