It’s part of the new year ritual – an annual attempt to start afresh and turn over a new leaf. But making resolutions is a near pointless exercise, psychologists say. We break them, become dispirited in the process and finally more despondent than we were before.
Less than a quarter of those asked for a university study had managed to stick to their resolutions. Of those who failed, many had followed the spurious advice of self-help gurus – which almost guarantees disaster, apparently.
Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, who led the analysis, said he and his team had asked 700 people about their strategies for achieving new year resolutions. Their goals ranged from losing weight or giving up smoking to gaining a qualification or starting a better relationship.
Of the 78% who failed, many had focused on the downside of not achieving the goals; they had suppressed their cravings, fantasised about being successful, and adopted a role model or relied on willpower alone.
“Many of these ideas are frequently recommended by self-help experts but our results suggest that they simply don’t work,” Wiseman said. “If you are trying to lose weight, it’s not enough to stick a picture of a model on your fridge or fantasise about being slimmer.”
Read more at The Guardian
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Hmm, I never have any. New Year’s resolutions. They remind me of the book ‘Les jeux sont faits’ from Jean-Paul Sartre -you make the same mistake over and over again. Ok, I will have some more chocolate now, with a nice glass of wine….:) Happy New Year to everyone xxx
I like this article but why is it people seem to focus on the negatives on making resolutions, at least if anything you are admitting you need change. I think the more you read YOU ARE GOING TO FAIL you actually probably will!
I think it’s all about attitude, when you wake up in the morning and it’s raining outside you are likely to say “what a sh*t day” but is it? no, it’s your attitude that makes it poo, change the attitude and you can do or be whatever you want so if you want to lose weight, change your resolution to I want to get fit and healthy, the emphasis of losing weight is minimised but you are more likely to achieve your goal, dont concentrate on the end goal but on the bits inbetween, and dont punish yourself! if you eat crap 1 day so what! You may not agree but I believe it
Happy new year 
Negatives are so much easier to prove than positives. That’s why people who can’t live with uncertainty flock to the negatives. I’m starting to get annoyed with the mindset behind this blog. I feel like I’m constantly being preached to by a magician (note: not a scientist) who doesn’t understand the fact that since the beginning of the last century model agnosticism is the only pragmatic scientific approach to take. Unfollow….
- Well Robert, if you actually read the report it’s put together by Psychologists who are scientists. The article wasn’t written by us – see Guardian link – or posted by Derren. – Phillis
It doesn’t hurt to look at it another way… one in four/five succeed in keeping their new years resolutions. To me, that sounds like quite a good hit rate for something which seems to be given such a bad rep.
The ones who don’t stick to it, well at least it was a push in the right direction. As they say.. if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
Good luck new year resolutionaries! : )
Kris
HFNY!
it’s well known that most, if not almost all, new years resolutions dont last much past february. anybody who goes to a gym can tell ya that. hehe!
wow this is depressing, im gona go listen to I beleive I can fly to lift my mood a bit
I will be taking the remainder of this year in preparation of my resolution in 2011. Happy new year to all.
Can’t say I ever make any New Year’s resolutions if I’m honest. It’s not that I think I’m perfect or anything (far from it) but rather I’ll alter something to myself or in my life, as and when I want to, irrelevant of the time of year.
I think too much emphasis is placed on making New Year’s resolutions to the point where you half kill yourself trying so hard to keep to them that you’re practically doomed to failure from the start.
Happy New Year everyone. And good luck to anyone who DOES make any resolutions!
LC x
@robertdee, come on robert, it’s a news blog not an IQ test. You’ve well and truly missed the point here. Don’t even get me started on your “model agnosticism” argument either.
I like Richard Wiseman’s books a lot but the regular sniping about “self help” literature gets a bit wearing after a while -especially as many of his own observations can be found in various self help books anyway.
Having said that he is right that you are better off focussing on the positive aspects of making a change rather than the negatives and also concentrating on the acual process rather than some imagined end result.
My resolutions in 09 were to lose 50 pounds! Weight put on working in a stressful job and using beer and fish & chips as comfort food each night. Having never really been too successful with resolutions I did wonder how I would actually do it this time around! Believe it or not I lost all the weight in 6 months! What did I do differently this time? Talk and talk about the food and drink I love, but know was bad for me. Rather than run away from the negatives, face them daily. Watch other people in the pub enjoy the grub for me! Pigging out mentally, rather than trying to ignore my feelings, it made the process fun and easy! Not sure why I wrote this now? Just to say that you (on your terms) have to enjoy the process of change. Suffering creates more suffering, joy creates more joy! If it ain’t fun it ain’t gonna happen! Happy 2010!