New Year’s Resolutions are Meant to Be Broken, Right?
December 31, 2013, ten minutes before midnight. Friends and I are discussing our New Year’s resolutions and I tell them I’m not making any this year. I’m off the roller coaster, hamster wheel or whatever analogy you’d like to use to describe the make it/break it pattern of New Year’s resolutions. I then guiltlessly cut myself a slice of cheesecake, down it with a glass of champagne and prepare for the inevitable countdown to the new year.
January 4, 2014. Articles about sticking to New Year’s resolutions are ubiquitous. I’ve even done one myself but I’m sticking to my resolution to not make any resolutions. Of course, having said that, in the back of my mind I’m thinking, “It’s four days into the new year and I’ve been good. I’ve been good. Haven’t dipped into the chocolate I got for my birthday. Been exercising regularly (for the past four days.) I got this. It’s a new year, new me.” So much for not making New Year’s resolutions. It’s inbred into my psyche – and probably most people’s – to assess, rethink and try to break bad habits or relearn new behaviors at this time of year. Did you know that January is the busiest month for new gym memberships in all parts of the country? Yup. January and the beginning of bathing suit season are the busiest times for gyms. But, by mid-February, the gym crowds thin and well-intentioned memberships fall by the wayside. And, sadly, that’s true for most New Year’s resolutions.
A study from the University of Scranton, Journal of Clinical Psychology, dated January 1, 2104* indicates that the top ten New Year’s resolutions for 2014 are, in descending order of popularity: losing weight, getting organized, spending less and saving more, enjoying life to the fullest, staying fit and healthy, learning something exciting, quitting smoking, helping others achieve their dreams, falling in love and spending more time with family. (Interesting, don’t you think? I’m frankly surprised that quitting smoking isn’t higher up in the hierarchy and I love that people resolve to help others achieve their dreams.)
But – and here’s the sobering news which, or course, you knew was coming – of the 45 percent of Americans who usually make New Year’s resolutions coupled with the 17 percent who infrequently make them, only eight percent of people succeed in fully achieving their resolution while 24 percent never succeed and fail on their resolution each year. Hm, so I’m, not surprisingly, in the majority. However, the data goes on to state that “people who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions.” Maybe I should rethink my resolution to not make resolutions next year.
And, it seems that the older we get, the harder it is to achieve our resolutions. According to the U of Scranton’s data, 39 percent of people in their twenties achieve their resolution each year compared with 14 percent of people over 50 who achieve theirs. And you’d think we’d have developed more willpower with age, right?
The one thing I have learned with age is to not beat myself up if I break my New Year’s resolutions. It’s just plain silly to make promises to myself on one day of the year.
So, changing my mind about New Year’s resolutions (it’s my prerogative): I resolve to try to be my best self every day of every year. And, if I don’t live up to my expectations, I will neither beat myself up, feel guilty about it nor consider the day a total waste and immerse myself in an entire lemon meringue pie. Nope. While “tomorrow is another day,” thank you, Scarlett O’Hara, I prefer to adopt the words of Jonathan Larson, the author of the play Rent, when he wrote, there’s “no day but today.”
*http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/
If you made New Year’s resolutions, how are you doing with them? Leave a comment in the section below.
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