Before the first day of January arrives, the general public has normally already compiled together a list of "New Years Resolutions", or a "to-do" list of things they think will help improve their life in the year to come. According to "Statistic Brain Research Institute", statistics show that 41% of Americans prepare a list of New Years Resolutions, and only 9.2% of these people believe they were successful in achieving their goals. Research shows that there is a reason why you are not achieving the most common resolutions shared by the American people.
10. "Find the love of my life"
There is a reason why most people are failing to achieve this New Year's Resolution, and it is because this is a goal that is not easily achieved. The odds are if you are actively going out and searching for the love of your life, you are not going to find him/her, because a lot of factors when finding a steady successful relationship are left up to chance. A better resolution would be to be, "to let yourself open up to someone," or to "take a chance with a potential partner, and don't shut him/her down right away."
9. "Do more good deeds for others"
This resolution is a little trickier than the last, because this goal is in our control (unlike finding the love of your life), and could easily be achieved, yet it is not. The only reasonable explanation for the decrease in good deeds as the year goes on, is that we fall back to our old habits. Maybe in the beginning of the year we are attentive to how often we perform good deeds for others. But good deeds only occur as situations present themselves. For example, you can only give a homeless person money if you cross paths with a homeless person. This doesn't happen every day, and so the reminder to perform a good deed is diminished. In order to achieve a resolution like this, it is necessary to make your goal a habit. Perform a good deed that is possible to perform every day. For example, you could pay for the order behind you in the drive-through line at Dunkin Donuts. This way, you remember to do it every day, and the action becomes a habit; the reminder to perform a good deed is always in your head.
8. "Learn Something New on my own"
To "learn something new" is an odd resolution in my opinion, and is probably a resolution for older generations who have not been in school for some time, and want to stimulate their brains with a subject that they do not experience every day at work. This resolution could be hard to achieve because the subject matter to be learned is probably one that requires time and attention, a luxury most Americans cannot afford with their already busy lifestyles. To fix this problem, pick a subject matter that you know you can fit into your day or can learn about on the go. "To learn to play the guitar" is a hard resolution to tackle because it requires not only extra time and practice out of your day, but it also requires money in order to buy the guitar, so that if you never actually learn how to play guitar, not only was your time wasted, but your money was wasted as well. Try learning how to speak sign language while you're on the train on the way to work, or listen to tapes/CDs in the car about how a communist country operates. This way you will never waste time, and you will never waste money.
7. "Work out more often"
To "work out more often" is a resolution that is also plenty achievable, and yet most of the time, it is never achieved. According to the Wall Street Journal, there is something known as the "February Dip" where attendance at workout gyms nationwide shoots up in January, and then dips back down significantly in February. A study performed in 2009 by researchers from the College of London suggested that it takes about 66 days to form a habit. Going to the gym repeatedly every day for 66 days should be enough for it to start to feel natural as apart of your every day routine. However, the February Dip demonstrates that gym-goers give up around day 30. Whether it is from frustration due to a lack of desired results or a scarcity of perseverance, those who resolve to work out more often during the coming year should promise themselves to do 66 days before taking a break. That way, a habit can be formed and they will bypass any thoughts of quitting until after the initial rough patch.
6. "Spend More Time with Family Members and Loved ones"
Spending more time with family is also a very vague resolution and cannot be executed effectively unless you consciously set aside specific reoccurring time intervals that can be spent together. If you do not, for example, make every Monday night a "mandatory family game night", or make Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays "family dinner night", then it is likely that you will go on seeing your family as much as you previously did.
5. "Do More Exciting Things"
"Do more exciting things" is also a very ambiguous resolution. It is basically a resolution to make your life a more exciting one. You more than likely feel like you do boring things, and you want to take more chances, add more dramatic stories to your name. To do this, you will once again need to set plans to do specific things. It is advisable to research a list of "exciting things" you would be willing to do. For example, bungee jump or write your number down on the receipt that your cute waiter gave you. Make a list, and one by one, cross them off as you complete them. For daring events that you want to cross off your bucket list, schedule them on your calendar in advance and gather a group who agrees to do them with you, in order to make sure you complete them. Otherwise, you will keep putting them off until next year.
4. "Quit Smoking"
Quitting smoking has been a very popular resolution over the past couple of years, although it has become decreasingly popular as less and less of the population smokes now. It takes a long time. It is not something that most can do over night. It is better to start earlier on in the year, although most obtain a mindset that they have all year to quit, therefore they will wait until October. It is tough. Take all the necessary precautions so that you won't have a relapse. There are a multitude of different treatments and you will find that some work better than others. Therefore, the earlier you start, the more time you will have to try out the pen, then the patch, then the gum, then the vape and figure out which one works best for you. By next year, you will hopefully have saved not only your health, but your money as well.
3. "Make Better Decisions about Money"
It has been a consistent theme throughout this list that the reason these resolutions are failing is because they are not planned out and specified as to how they are to get done. The same applies to making better financial decisions. Maybe it is smart to download a budgeting app on your phone so you can better plan out how much you should be spending on all aspects of your life. Once you figure out what needs to spent on required factors of your life, you can gauge how much extra money you can spend on extra things, and work from there.
2. "Life/self improvements"
Maybe you want to be less judgmental, or maybe you want to start seeing the world through a "glass-half-full" kind of outlook. This is definitely the hardest form of resolution, because it cannot be planned out in advance, or scheduled into your calendar. The only way to successfully execute this type of goal is to stop yourself the next time you hear the little voice in your head being judgmental, or you feel yourself being pessimistic, and force yourself to stop and think of a silver lining, or look for the positive aspect.
1. "Lose Weight/ Eat Healthier"
takes away the option of getting up from the couch and grabbing the bag of Doritos, because you know that is not in your scheduled diet for the day. If you just say that you will start eating a generally healthier diet, you are eliminating the strict boundaries and guidelines that will keep you on track towards your goal.
