Jonah Lehrer wrote an excellent article for the Wall Street Journal on why New Year’s resolutions fail.
Quick overview of reasons:
- The more overloaded our brain is with ‘stuff’ (including resolutions we need to keep track of), the weaker its willpower is. We need to spread our resolutions across the year.
- Just like a muscle, our will-power has limited capacity – don’t make it do too much or you’ll lose self-control.
- Again, just like a muscle, exercising will-power uses up energy (glucose), so beware if you’re trying to lose weight as a resolution – starving yourself will reduce your will-power.
- When you reach the inevitable point of temptation, distract yourself rather than trying to power through.
- Will-power can be trained and training it in one domain (eg posture) increases will-power in others
I really recommend the article, it’s great stuff. You can also find Jonah’s blog here.
7 Comments
It might be better for us not to make any resolution than to have one and then fail.
I think most people are making new year resolution out for show rather than seriously want to succeed.
.-= scheng1´s last blog ..Reflection on Reading Newspaper Obituaries =-.
I advise clients to do the best they can with these resolutions — be it to work out at the gym three times a week, eat more fruits and vegetables, be nicer to co-workers, whatever — but consider the resolution a ‘good enough’ task.
Good enough means that if you forget or don’t follow through on the resolution one day or week, don’t punish yourself. Instead of, “I blew my resolution — I suck,” look at things another way.
Tell yourself. “OK, I blew my New Year’s resolution just for today, for this moment in time.” Then get back to whatever it is you vowed to do.
.-= Dr. Katrina Wood´s last blog ..Things that go bump in your life =-.
scheng,
Perhaps so. My resolution this year was to not make a new years’ resolution. So far I’m sticking to it well, but I do get urges from time to time…
Katrina,
Excellent point! Maybe it’s the black or white thinking that makes resolutions harder to stick to – if someone slips of their diet for a few days, is that the resolution failed or just those three days?
If we want to start something new, we need to stop something old, right? That’s one reason why Resolutions do not work. If you want to join a gym to get healthy, you also need to give up junk food! If you want to have more money, you need to stop spending money!
I never succeeded in so-called NYR… but I have succeeded in actual goals because goals usually take a plan: a written one. NYR’s usually are just ideas that pop into your head that disappear when something else comes up.
.-= Glenn Magas´s last blog ..Win $300 By mentioning Snipsly.com =-.
Hi there,
Very interesting post. I have often thought that everything can be tracked back to a biological process.
From this you could surmise that to have better will power you must eat well to keep glycogen topped up.
Andrew
Hi Warren
88% is horrible figure. Some nice advice though.
I came across a book that you might have heard of “Getting things done.” Quite helpful in completing tasks effectively.
Thanks
Yes, Getting Things Done is a classic. I also like a related book, Zen To Done which is a simplified version of the GTD system. Google it; you can download for free if interested.