When I was a kid, New Year’s Eve fascinated me. What was all of the hoopla about? I tried to stay up until midnight several years running and never quite made it. One year I hit eleven o’clock and thought I saw the New Year come in. There it was on television, Guy Lombardo and his orchestra playing Auld Lang Syne and the ball dropping in Time Square, the cheering crowds and all the rest heralding the New Year. I went to bed excited I had made it to the New Year, which I would have – IF I lived in New York City – but I lived in Minnesota and on Central Time so, in actuality, I missed saying goodbye to Father Time and hello to Baby New Year.
Finally, I stayed up to greet the New Year and it was a big yawn – figuratively and literally. Nothing was different. There was no excitement, all of the sensible people in my house had gone to bed hours before. Since then, I haven’t stayed up to ring in the New Year. Now I celebrate New Year’s on London Time, that’s 6pm Central Time and that’s been close enough for me.
New Year’s Eve is a time of celebration, reflection and resolution. The most popular annual resolutions in 2023 were 1) Improved Fitness 2) Finances – get on top of bills, make a job change, hit the lottery – whatever 3) Improved Mental Health – and that may involve the first two resolutions as well 4) Lose weight 5) Improved diet. Forbes Magazine conducted a poll and found that 64% of women and 60% of men feel pressured to set a resolution for the New Year this year and 80% of respondents say they are confident that they will achieve the goa(ls) they set in their New Year’s resolution(s).
We all mean well when the ball drops and the clock hits midnight and swear we will (fill in the blank) in the coming year. However, research suggests that only 9% of people actually complete their New Year’s resolution(s) and they do it by having interim goals. For example, if the goal is to lose weight then you’re more likely to achieve that if you have a month by month objective rather than “I’ll lose x amount of weight by December 31st next year.” On average, 23% of us decide life’s too short and quit trying to achieve a New Year’s resolution by the end of the first week of January. (For some people, that time period corresponds to the end of their New Year’s Eve hangover!) The reason gym memberships are yearly most places is because 43% of people give up on their New Year’s resolution by the end of January. A yearlong membership is somewhat of a “commitment device”. A commitment device is something that is used to hold people accountable. It can be a reward system – once a goal is achieved then a prize of some kind is bestowed – or it can be negative in nature as in the loss of privileges or finances. A “swear jar” is a commitment device, where one “donates” to the jar every time curse words are uttered with the goal being the eventual diminishment and ultimate elimination of profanity. Gyms require a yearlong membership not only as a way to generate revenue but as a commitment device to get the well-meaning but unmotivated to stick to their resolutions.
Research out of Ohio State University suggests four reasons for the failure of New Year’s resolutions. First, you have got to want to change – as opposed to a transformation suggested by a spouse or someone else. Next, it has to be a logical time for a change. For Instance, pregnancy isn’t a good time to talk about weight loss. It may seem trite, but folks expect modifications of their behavior or habits to be relatively easy. It won’t be, expect obstacles. Resolutions tend to suggest a dramatic triumphant finale instead of slow, steady progress towards final success. For example, if your resolution is to quit smoking perhaps the way to do it is to set goals about reductions in smoking, gradually leading up to absolute abstinence instead of trying to quit cold turkey. When I quit smoking, I went from cigarettes to cigars (because I couldn’t smoke as many of those in a day) to a pipe, which ended up being a lot of bother. Eventually, the cost and trouble of my nicotine addiction as well as the carping from my girlfriend at the time (who didn’t marry me anyway) led to a successful campaign of quitting. Finally, there has to be accountability of some kind both positive and negative. Again, having interim goals are a help here. Reward yourself for progress and have another get after you (a friend, a spouse etc.) when you fall short, in order to help you stay focused on your goal. Setbacks are to be expected but that doesn’t mean one should just give up.
Persistence is the key to success in achieving New Year’s resolutions and in life. Educational research has shown that, while a number of factors combine to make a student success, the number one predictor of kids’ success in school is not innate intelligence but rather is simple persistence. Those who just give up are the failures. Those who stumble, learn from those experiences and pick themselves up to continue to work for their goals with grit and determination are the successes in life. If you make a New Year’s resolution, even if you don’t achieve every facet of it, take pride in the progress and the interim goals you do achieve.
In this New Year and in all the New Years to come, remember what Winston Churchill said to the people of Britain in the darkest days of World War Two, “This is the lesson: never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”
Happy New Year!