A Forbes Health study highlights that most people struggle to maintain their New Year’s resolutions. Ambitious lifestyle overhauls often fall short, but adopting smaller, more specific changes that integrate into daily routines is a more effective approach for fostering lasting success and meaningful behaviour change.
Every country has its own unique way of ushering in the new year—the Spaniards famously eat 12 grapes while the people of the people of Colombia reportedly carry an empty suitcase and walk around their block at midnight to invite adventure and journeys—but New Year's resolutions remain a unifying thread. Despite the popularity of these bold proclamations, research has shown that they rarely result in long-term change for individuals. "The problem is people, when they want to be better in the new year, they never focus on understanding what are the exact behaviours that I need to be done to turn into habits, and what's the plan I'm going to create to make that thing habitual," says author Justin Hale, an adviser, and speaker at leadership and management consulting company Crucial Learning.
While failure to keep a New Year’s resolution may seem like an indictment of an individual’s determination or commitment, it’s reflective of a much larger issue: societal attitudes towards changed behaviour. According to a study by Forbes Health only 1% of people’s resolutions lasted for 11 or 12 months. This suggests that introducing a complete lifestyle overhaul is unlikely to create a habit. Instead, individuals should look to adopt small, bite-sized changes that can fit into their existing lifestyle to create longevity. Resolutions have to be specific and deliberate to make that new behaviour habitual. As BJ Fogg illustrates in Tiny Habits, building associations with existing routines (e.g. habit stacking), such as drinking water before meals to encourage healthier eating, is a proven strategy for fostering change. Similarly, in cybersecurity, creating simple associations—like always double-checking the BCC section when sending mass emails to protect personal information or logging out before closing a laptop to secure sensitive data—can lead to sustainable change and better practices over time. Starting small also leads to feelings of self-efficacy, preparing individuals to take on bigger changes with confidence.