Sustaining New Year’s resolutions: do these 2 things

Do you want your New Year’s resolutions to be sustained long terms? If so, then a large-scale research experiment on New Year’s resolutions suggests you need to do 2 things to be most successful:

1) engage some support rather than trying to do it on your own and set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-framed) goals, and

2) make your goals approach-orientated rather than avoidant oriented.

Sometimes referred to as the “fresh-start effect’, New Year presents many people with the opportunity to set new milestones to be achieved in their lives. However, despite peoples’ best intentions at the time, prior research has shown that sustaining these milestones past the first 2 months can vary from as little as 12-18% in some populations, such as in Swedish studies to 44% in other western populations. 

A recent study of 1062 participants published in the peer-reviewed open-access journal PLOS One demonstrates the importance of setting SMART goals (i.e. specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-framed goals) to increase the potential for success and also gaining some online support. In the study participants, divided into 3 groups (no support, medium level support and higher-level support), the medium level of support group (supported by an internet site to set goals) reported the highest sustained resolution success across the following 12 months. The most popular resolutions related to participants’ physical health, weight loss, and eating habits. At the one-year follow-up, 55% of participants considered themselves successful in sustaining their resolutions, but interestingly participants who set approach-oriented goals were significantly more successful than those with avoidance-oriented goals (58.9% vs. 47.1%). 

The study investigators conclude that New Year can be an opportunistic time to potentially effective behaviour change for individuals. Participants receiving some online support to set SMART goals seemed to have the greatest success setting approach oriented goals appear to be more likely to be sustained a year later.

Our take at StriveStronger 

As a behavioural scientist, I’ve always been fascinated with the fact that so often we set new year’s resolutions and while most have good intentions, in the back of our minds we accept that the likelihood of keeping these resolutions is low, and in effect, we give ourselves an excuse when we don’t sustain our resolution behaviour. This study demonstrates that this doesn’t have to be the case. Prior studies have shown on goal-setting theory demonstrate specific goals as being superior to vague or abstract goals). In this study participants randomised and supported to setting SMART goals had the greatest success but interestingly those who set too many interim goals, rather than a few longer-term goals, had much less success. This is consistent with our experience at StriveStronger in that setting goals that are too focused on a distant future can enable people to postpone, and postpone their efforts, or in other words, procrastinate. This study would suggest that the key is to have long term goals but be very specific, ensure they are measurable, achievable and it is realistic in a defined timeframe. At StriveStronger we also advocate setting up accountability structures so as to be accountable to oneself to be successful. Also, remember, what gets measured gets changed.   

Another observation from this study, and consistent with our experience at StriveStronger is that for many it can be harder to sustain goals that are avoidance orientated compared to goals that are approach orientated. In other words, it can be harder to give something up (e.g. alcohol, smoking, sugar etc.) than to take something on such as exercising, mindfulness, adding vegetables to your diet). So our advice, when setting new resolutions, is set goals that are positively worded and at first work to achieve these more approach focused behaviour changes before setting goals that in which in you have to avoid doing something to be successful. Then attack the giving up behaviours. A common example of this with clients is that I will almost always try to increase day to day mobility time with clients before then addressing the giving up behaviours like smoking, sugar, alcohol etc. Just purely by consistently increasing steps daily, its less of a sacrifice to stop those negative wellbeing behaviours once some of the ability benefits kick in. The KISS principle (Keep It Simple Sam) is never more important than when working with the complex nature of sustained human behaviour change.

Study reference: Oscarsson M, Carlbring P, Andersson G, Rozental A (2020) A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals. PLoS ONE 15(12): e0234097.

You can access the full study here: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234097