This year, you tell yourself, you really are going to go to the gym four times a week.
You’ll drink less soda and read more books. You’re going to keep your credit card debt down and waste less time on Facebook.
You are going to quit smoking and have promised yourself (and your roomies) that you’ll wash the dishes and take out the trash more often.
This year, it’s all going to change.
Right?
University psychology assistant professor Elliot Berkman@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Elliot+Berkman@@ researches the pursuit of long-term goals and the factors that contribute to their success or failure. He explained why we struggle with New Year’s resolutions.
“Resolutions commonly involve replacing an old behavior with a new one,” Berkman said. “Initiating a new behavior is relatively easy compared to overriding an old, habitual behavior.”
Berkman explained that the brain is good at forming habits, which helps to free up one’s attention for other tasks. Unfortunately, bad habits are formed in the same way.
“Those brain systems are ‘stubborn’ in the sense that they are difficult – though not impossible – to change once a habit has been formed,” he said.
Even if you’ve slipped up on your resolutions, Berkman said not to give up.
“First, don’t give up hope. The belief that you have the motivation and ability to live up to your resolution is a hugely important piece of getting there,” Berkman said.
“Second, if you’ve slipped up, it probably means that your old habits were triggered by something that you saw, did or thought. Try a different approach. Identify the situations, people or things that cue you to engage in whatever behavior you are trying to replace and change them.”
You’re determined to achieve your resolutions, but why is making goals at the beginning of a new year so common?
Berkman explained that because New Year’s resolutions are a cultural tradition, people are more inclined to make changes because others are doing the same.
“Having a supportive social network is a key factor that has been shown consistently to improve the chance of making a successful change,” he said.
University history professor emeritus John Nicols@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=John+Nicols@@ detailed the origins of the tradition.
“Vows taken at the beginning of the year is something that is pretty common in most pre-modern societies,” Nicols said. “At the beginning of every year in the middle ages, sacrifices and services would be held in the prosperity of a king and an empire.”
Nicols noted that early forms of the tradition date back to an even earlier time period.
The ancient Roman civilization, which has origins dating as far back as the eighth century B.C., had a tradition of making resolutions of sorts at the beginning of each calendar year.
“The resolution in the Roman sense was the ‘vow,’” Nicols said. “In the beginning of the year you would say that, ‘I promise to Jupiter that I will make an offering every day to him if I have a child or if I am successful.’
“It’s a promise to do something. And in return, the god will give you something. It’s a promise with an expectation of something that will be returned. It’s a contractual arrangement.”
Nicols explained that although ancient Roman society was similar to modern society because its members made New Year’s resolutions of sorts, they were still different because their resolutions or vows were more like explicit contracts while the resolutions of today are more implicit.
“In making resolutions, we don’t think about the two kinds of the contract,” Nicols said. “It’s implied that if we don’t eat Big Macs, we’ll lose weight.”
According to Nicols, ancient Rome’s version of a resolution in modern society might sound like this: “If I give students A’s in my class all year, will God give the Ducks a victory in the BCS next year? If God doesn’t follow through, then I don’t have to give those students an A.”
Berkman encouraged students to remain strong on their resolutions.
“Being successful in your New Year’s resolutions will demand a good deal of self-control or willpower. And one fascinating thing about willpower is that it can improve with practice,” Berkman said.
“The more you exert self-control the better you will get at it, and those improvements will help you not only with this year’s resolution but also all of the other tasks you work at in your daily life that involve overcoming a habit of some kind.”