How to use psychological strategies to ensure your New Year's resolutions won't fail

Some 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail. It’s not more willpower you need but the right psychological strategies, say experts

A brand new year is on the horizon, and millions around the globe are considering what we would like to change and improve in the new year. Our goals might range from getting fitter to learning a new skill or cutting back on alcohol but achieving them will require tenacity and perseverance.

We used to think that all we needed to make or break a habit was more willpower. We also thought willpower was something some of us had and others didn’t. We subscribed to the idea that if we belonged in the latter group, there was nothing we could do about it.

US social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and author of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, has helped to debunk this theory. “Willpower or self-control is like a muscle,” he says. “It gets stronger from regular exercise. However, it can also get temporarily tired. Hundreds of studies have shown that exerting self-control in one domain later leads to poorer self-control in a different domain. Just as a physical muscle gets tired after exercise, willpower tires too and doesn’t perform as well as normal.”

Some of these experiments are his own. In 2012, he asked students not to laugh at a comedy and then make a handful of decisions. Those who had spent 90 minutes smothering their laughter chose poorly, while a control group who had not made much better choices.

“After exercising our willpower for a sustained period, our self-control is poorer for a short time,” says Baumeister. “But after some rest, it becomes stronger again and with frequent exercise, it will become stronger over time.”

Building up your willpower is essential to helping you achieve your goals, but it’s not enough - it has to be combined with other strategies.

An effective strategy is to focus on one goal at a time. “The problem at new year is that people make multiple resolutions for self-improvement, and all require self-control,” says Baumeister. “Because willpower is limited, what you expend on one resolution undermines your ability to work on the others. Make your resolutions but work on them one at a time.”

Focus on a single goal

A 2015 study found that people who tried to accomplish multiple goals were less committed and less likely to succeed than those who focused on a single goal.

“That should convince us to abandon the all-or-nothing approach, which sees us trying to overhaul our entire lives every January,” says organisational psychologist and coach Leisha McGrath. “It’s an unrealistic approach for most people.”

One of her suggestions is to anchor a new behaviour in an existing one. “Say you already take a daily walk around the park, why not use some of the workout machines along the way,” she says. “Or if you visit the farmers’ market at the weekend, make time to batch cook some healthy meals when you get home.”

This anchoring approach makes change easier, which is what we should all be aiming for, says leadership coach Síle Walsh. “Humans tend to do what’s easy,” she says. “If we can integrate the changes we’re trying to make into our lives so that they are easy, it will increase our chances of success. It will also require less of our willpower, leaving us with more willpower for when it’s needed.”

That’s why Baumeister recommends starting with the easiest of our goals. “Keep going after it until it becomes automatic and then move on to the next easiest,” he says. “Leave the hardest until last as your self-control muscle will have strengthened by then, improving your chances of success.”

Making a detailed plan of how we intend to achieve our goals can also be beneficial. In a 2006 study of participants who wrote down a plan of where and when they would exercise successfully met their goals.

Consider breaking goals down into small bite-sized steps. “That’s what positive psychology is all about,” says McGrath. “Instead of trying to walk ten kilometres a day, start by walking one. Those small wins will garner enough energy and motivation to keep you going until you reach your end goal.”

Keep doomsayers at bay

We tend to want to go from zero to 60, says career coach Jane Downes. “But breaking things down into smaller steps takes the pressure off a bit, allows us to start practising the habit and to see the benefits before building upon the behaviour.”

But trying to accelerate to 60 too quickly can be harmful. A 2014 Harvard study found that large goals were associated with greater psychological distress such as anxiety and depression while small concrete goals were linked to increased happiness.

Some people enlist the support of others to help them achieve their goals. Downes thinks this can work as long as you tell the right people.

“Be selective,” she says. “Tell those who will encourage you, who will be delighted with you for trying to make a change. Keep the doomsayers out of it.”

According to Walsh, sharing our goals with the wrong people may result in more pressure and less support. “And it’s not just individuals you need to consider; it’s also ensuring you’re in social settings that support your goals. For example, if you’re not drinking, it makes sense to meet people in cafés instead of bars.”

We need to accept that change will be difficult regardless of our strategies. “We don’t tend to learn, thrive or change without some discomfort,” says McGrath. “But we shouldn’t be afraid of that. If we’re not feeling some discomfort, we’re still in our comfort zone and that’s not the place where new goals are achieved. Accept that change will take time and involve some discomfort and be kind to yourself in the process.”

This is particularly important when we have setbacks. “We can berate ourselves for being useless when we have one small slip-up,” says Downes. “We would succeed better if we were gentler with ourselves.”

Research proves that punishing ourselves is counterproductive. A 2009 study of athletes and musicians found that self-criticism at times of setback was negatively associated with subsequent success.

“Practice ‘next-time thinking’ instead,” says Downes. “Learn from the experience by asking what you need to do differently next time. Then draw a line in the sand and move on.”

Recovery first

McGrath says the time of year makes changing negative habits particularly difficult.

“We’ve overeaten, had too much wine and not moved for days,” she says. “We’re a little more sluggish than we might be at other times of year. That’s not an ideal basis for success, and we might be better equipped to succeed if we allowed ourselves some time to recover from the excesses of Christmas.”

Whether our motivation is positive or negative is a factor too, says Walsh. “There are many things people think they should do or change based on the notion of not being good enough. This focus on inadequacies or deficits can mean that the person becomes preoccupied with what’s wrong or not working, rather than focussing on the goal they wish to achieve and what they need to do to achieve it.”

Downes agrees with the importance of identifying motivation. “We have to be clear about what we want to achieve and why we want to achieve it,” she says. “Only then will we be able to put a strategy in place to support the habit we want to make or break.”

A small change may only need a simple strategy.

For example, if you want to start your day with ten minutes of meditation, all you have to do is get up ten minutes earlier. More challenging goals are likely to require more thought: “Often, people don’t realise that it’s not just their immediate behaviour that has to change but the emotions, environment and experiences around that behaviour,” says Walsh. “A whole structure has to be built up to support the change.”

She uses the goal of eating healthier as an example. “We tell ourselves we’ll feel better if we eat healthier,” she says.

“But we ignore the fact that we may not have time to prepare food, or we may not be very good cooks, or we may not get the comfort high we used to get from fast food from the healthier food we are eating now.

“Eating fast food meets our needs in a way that healthier food won’t until we deal with those underlying issues. We can’t just will ourselves into new behaviour without taking steps to support that behaviour first.”

The odds might be against us when it comes to achieving our New Year’s resolutions, but with the right strategies and supports in place, it is possible to be among the 20% who will consciously make positive changes to their lives in the new year.

“The new year brings a clean slate and a fresh start,” says Downes. “It’s full of promise, and all we have to do is decide what we want to change and then take steps to maximise our chances of success.”

Setting goals

We may all start out with the best of intentions, but the odds are stacked against us when it comes to achieving our New Year’s resolutions. In fact, it is estimated that four out of five of us will have broken them by the end of February.

Here, some of our experts share useful tips to give you a better chance of success:

• Be mindful of your willpower, advises Roy F. Baumeister. It’s a muscle that can be strengthened, but it can also tire easily.
  “And remember that external demands can also consume it,” he says. “So don’t take up a new resolution during a stressful period at work, or while moving to a new apartment, or having relationship conflict. And always get enough sleep. Too little sleep depletes your willpower.”
  
• Leisha McGrath recommends getting to know yourself better.
  “Build your self-awareness by tracking your behaviour,” she says.
  “For example, if you’re trying to change your eating habits, pay attention to how you’re eating. Are there certain times of the day, the week, or the month that you eat more of the foods you don’t want to eat? Is it when you are around other people? Being aware of our patterns can help us to break free of them.”
  
• Jane Downes tells us that paying attention to the words we use could help us meet our goals.
  “Instead of saying: ‘I will try to go for a walk this afternoon’, say: ‘I will go for a walk at 4pm’,” she says.
  “Using definite and specific language increases our chances of meeting our goals.”
  
• Síle Walsh reminds us that for change to be sustainable, it should come from a positive place. “Changes we make from a position of hope and desire rather than a position of self-criticism or punishment tend to be more effective,” she says. “Make sure that the goals you have set are ones that are truly good for you.”