New Year’s resolutions are a common practice for most Americans. A recent piece by NPR (National Public Radio) (1) discusses the history of resolutions and suggests that making resolutions dates back centuries. They cite historians who date the practice back to the ancient Romans and Babylonians. However, they also note that the making of resolutions did not appear to become commonplace in America until the mid to late 19th century. The historians also suggest that the idea of resolutions may have developed out of religious traditions, as a time of taking stock and of having intent to do better, to improve ourselves.
The historian, Alexis McCrossen (2) has written about the history of New Years and its evolution from a time of sober (no pun intended) reflection on the previous year, our failings, and our strivings to improve. McCrossen suggests that we might benefit from returning to the practice of reflecting on the previous year as we usher in a new year.
In our current society the making of resolutions has become commonplace. However, failure to adhere to our resolutions is all too common. More recently some have called into question the value of this process. This prompts several questions: is there value to making resolutions, and if so, how can we be more successful in keeping our resolutions.
Why resolutions fail. There are probably many reasons that resolutions fail. These likely ranging from choosing unrealistic resolutions to situational factors that disrupt our ability to follow through on resolutions (sudden health problems, family and work stressors and the like). However, one factor that many people theorize underlies difficulties keeping our resolutions is that we lack adequate will power (3,4). There are many debates in psychology about will power (which can also be referred to as self-control) with some emphasizing it is over-rated to others highlighting its importance and arguing that will power or self-control can be taught (see the work of famed social psychologist Walter Mischel whose fascinating research on self-control with children clearly suggests that those with more self-control are more successful and who also argues that self-control can be taught) (5).
One area where there seems to be more agreement involves our understanding of what facilitates our being able to keep resolutions. This idea has been discussed by a number of psychologists including Angela Duckworth (3, 6), Shawn Achor (author of the Happiness Advantage) (7)and many others. The basic argument is that if we structure our environment in ways that facilitate certain behaviors we are more likely to accomplish them. Examples abound. Achor talks about the idea of taking the batteries out of your TV remote and putting them somewhere inconvenient to make it harder to watch TV and waste time. On a personal note, I love pretzels, but they are not good for me. How do I not eat them? I never buy them so there are none in my home. This helps me succeed whereas I doubt I would be so successful if I actually had pretzels in my home. Moreover, there is research that supports this type of intervention. For example, a study of healthy eating found that keeping unhealthy foods (for me, pretzels) further away from you, and healthy food closer, improves the likelihood of increasing healthy eating (8). Thus one way of increasing our chances of keeping resolutions is to make them easier to implement. I do not think we can underestimate the power of situational factors in facilitating or undermining change. Thus, if we want to be more successful in keeping our resolutions, we should probably pick realistic ones and then work to set up a structure to help us keep our resolutions.
To return to what is both an old fashioned approach to the New Year, as well as a more personal perspective: the idea of using New Years more as a time of reflection on the past, as well as time to examine our hopes for the future strikes me as particularly salient. As I age the opportunity to reflect on what has transpired the past year, its significance and meaning, becomes more appealing to me. Possibly younger people might find the idea of looking ahead more relevant, but even for younger people the opportunity to reflect on what has occurred, its meaning, strikes me as important. Returning to a more religious or spiritual perspective may also have value. While I am not advocating specific religious or spiritual beliefs, I am suggesting that the opportunity to reflect on meaning of our lives, what matters to us, and whether we are living in ways that are congruent with our values, strikes me as valuable, perhaps far more important than promising myself to work out more or not eat cookies, at least store bought cookies loaded with sugar and preservatives. Perhaps the best answer is to approach the New Year as a time of reflection: both looking ahead and looking back, and as an opportunity to set goals for ourselves.
References:
- NPR article on the history of New Years eve and of resolutions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q6Wg3OE4Sx-hjgGQxHh1j5dtlc9wwNoyxlp4sFLnHXs/edit?tab=t.0
- Alexis McCrossen, professor of history at SMU, on New Years and its meaning over time: https://www.smu.edu/news/archives/2017/alexis-mccrossen-03jan2017
- This op-ed provides a clever and clear summary of the challenges of trying to rely on will power to make changes: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/opinion/willpower-doesnt-work-this-does.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
- Survey research cited by the American Psychological Association suggests that we are prone to blaming a lack of will power for our failure to make changes: https://www.apaservices.org/practice/update/2012/02-23/willpower
- Mischel, Walter, The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self Control, 2014 by Little, Brown Spark. A fascinating book that studies self-control in children.