There's a saying, "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time." It's true, which makes setting New Year's resolutions a very pragmatic activity. As we put the holidays behind us and dig out from underneath all of the wrapping paper (or snow! or both), many of us turn to the upcoming New Year’s celebration to engage in a ritual that any visiting alien might be puzzled by — New Year’s resolutions. Why do humans pick a single point in time each year to try and change certain things in their life — behaviours, attitudes, whatnot — make resolutions about them, and then proceed to fail at them within a month’s time? The most popular New Year’s goals people set are: * 37% - Starting to exercise * 13% - Eating better * 7% - Reducing the consumption of alcohol, caffeine and other drugs, or quitting smoking Most people — 75 percent — who make a resolution fail on their first attempt and most people — 67 percent — make more than one resolution. So, from a psychological perspective, it might be interesting to ask what exactly determines how many goals people set and how successful they are. Luckily for us, researchers Mukhopadhyay and Johar (2005) did just that and came to some interesting conclusions. Their research found that people who believe that self-control is something dynamic, changing and unlimited (e.g., “I can stop smoking, all I have to do is put my mind to it. I can also change my eating and be a better person, it just takes willpower.”) tend to set more resolutions. People who believe that we all are born with a limited, set amount of self-control that one cannot change (e.g., “I can’t help myself from eating all this chocolate — I inherited the ‘chocolate gene’ from my mom!”) and who also have little belief in their own capabilities to carry out their own goals naturally did worse on obtaining their New Year’s resolution goals. What all of this means is that you’ll do better on your New Year’s goals if you believe that self-control is indeed an unlimited resource that we all have access to and can leverage with our resolutions. The more you believe in your own capabilities - the more likely you will succeed as well. And it also seems to help to set more goals, because you will be more likely to succeed at them if you do (people who set fewer goals seem to often go into the exercise with the self-fulfilling expectation of failing). Got interested?! Read more here!
By the way, do you make New Year's resolutions? Do you manage to keep to them?
I've never made these resolutions either. I tend to think that it is just a kind of self-deception. if a person says: "I'll do it, but not now... a little bit later...", so in 9 cases of 10 he//she will never do it. speaking about New Year Wishes... Well, I used to make them when I was a schoolgirl, but, as far as I remember, in vain... I've understood that the only one way to make your wishes come true is your action. Wonder doesn't deal with those who don't fight for it.
I've never made New Year's resolution. There is a sort of people who like phrases like "from the next week I'll start to lose some weigh" or "from the next month I'll be more economical". I think these are just words. If you want to do something, do it right now, at this very moment. What prevents you?
I adore New Year. For me it's one of the best holidays. And I guess the reasons for this are lots of presents and this wonderful atmosphere that is in the house:) And of course I never miss the chance to make a wish when the chime strikes. It's a kind of tradition for me. And I even don't pay attantion then whether it come true or not... It's just a nice ceremony:)
Well, if speaking about New Year's resolutions, I never make them as I reckon it is the most useless and actually foolish thing to plan changing yourself from a certain date. You live right now and you should make changes right now! Why do you need to wait for another year? I think the smartest thing to do before the New Year comes is to analyse what you have achieved and what mistakes you've done. And I suppose many people make a wish when the chime strikes. I haven't got such a habit, and what about you?
Well, it so revealing! I think we all make resolutions and the researchers are right saying that it's about learning to control your own behaviour patterns. Another thing is that we often have good memrory of what went wrong and wish we would be able to change it. Psychologically it comes from our instict for survival. What went wrong should be stopped and corrected for us to be able to find a sort of inner balance. What is a New Year? Just another week day in the calendar? Or a certain frontier beyond which new opportunities arise hoping that we can programme ourselves for new positive happenings. Right, we want to believe that we have unlimited resources for positive self-development! It proves that a human being was born to construct, to build, to develop, to create, to help, to learn, to dream, to believe, to see light in the tunnel!
