Start waking up at 7 a.m. Work out seven days a week. Read 10 pages every day. Find a new hobby. Stop buying iced lattes and make coffee at home! Those were my New Year’s resolutions, stripped right from the notes app on my phone. While I like to say I’ve gotten closer to these goals, in reality, I have a lot of work to do. Studies have shown it takes an average of 66 days to form a new habit. Seeing as it’s the end of March, we have just passed that benchmark from Jan. 1. I guess now I must officially admit to my failure.
I share these sentiments knowing that I’m far from alone in this defeat. New Year’s resolutions have a notoriously slim success rate, with 91% of people on average failing to turn their resolutions into permanent habits. Admittedly, this statistic is comforting and allows me to preserve my inner peace and pride. I relieve myself of the blame knowing I’m well in the majority of individuals by being unsuccessful for yet another year.
Instead, I submit to the belief that it’s not me, it’s the inherent flaw of New Year’s resolutions.
Most people derive motivation for their resolutions solely from the date of “January 1st.” The date provides an ideal opportunity to leave behind our bad habits from the year prior, and commit ourselves to a fresh start in the new year. Despite failing at our New Year’s resolutions in the past, we remain optimistic that we’ll be successful this time around. Personally, I’m even more driven by my increased sluggishness that accompanies the holidays — on New Year’s Day, my motivation is sky high, and I have high hopes I’ll stick with these resolutions.
The truth is, I, along with the millions of others who make resolutions, cherish the idea that the new year will be a step up from the last. I’ll purge all my unhealthy habits and transform into an idealized version of myself. However, time progresses, and that spark of motivation prompted by the new year proves once again temporary. Suddenly, it’s March; that note you created back in December is no longer in your recents, instead drowning under email drafts and grocery lists.
New Year’s resolutions continually fail because we are going at several new habits cold turkey, and the burnout is real. As the new year settles in, we don’t maintain that same level of motivation we had in the first few weeks of January. The problem is that the recycled phrase “new year, new me” is simply not enough to create lasting change. Why is it so difficult to stick to these habits?
Defined as our ability to delay gratification, willpower is not something that comes naturally to us. When my alarm goes off at 7 a.m., I simply lack the willpower to overcome the instant relief from snoozing my alarm. While a part of this is due to the fact that I went to bed at 1 a.m. the night prior, that lack of self control isn’t the sole reason. Research has begun to think of willpower as a muscle; in regards to my willpower to get out of bed, it’s one I haven’t worked out in a while.
When someone has good lifestyle habits, they are often commended for their “willpower” or motivation. However, this is actually a myth. While your motivation is certainly a component, the ability for one to form strong habits comes from the fact that it’s been integrated into their lifestyle through effort and consistency. So how do we go about molding these resolutions into permanent lifestyle changes?
Part of the problem is that we are overly ambitious. I, too, am guilty of setting unrealistic goals framed as New Year’s resolutions. It’s practically impossible to go from rolling out of bed at 9 a.m. with only enough time to make your coffee before class, to instead waking up at 7 a.m. for a workout, meditation and some time to read. Habits are most successfully made into routines by smaller behavioral modifications — also referred to as “micro-habits” — that bring you closer to your end result.
James Clear, author of “Atomic Habits,” has most famously coined this phenomenon, referred to as the “1% habit.” Making change gradually, starting with more realistic tasks, is ultimately the key to exponential self-improvement. Think of it this way (my apologies in advance for talking numbers here): Instead of going 0 to 100, as New Year resolutions represent, start at 1. With a 1% increase each day for a year (1.01)365, you’re approximately 38 times better off than you were the year prior. Numbers don’t lie, but this mathematical fact feels like magic. And while numbers may not seem representative of real life scenarios, the principle holds true. A 1% change each day may not seem noticeable, but over a duration of time, you’ll start to see progress that lasts.
For instance, your resolution to wake up earlier is unlikely to stick if you continue going to bed hours past midnight. Instead of just setting your alarm at 7 a.m., plan to put your phone down 30 minutes earlier the night before and instead, wake up at 8:30 a.m. Keep at this routine, making small adjustments accordingly. We convince ourselves we must take big actions to see big changes when in reality, it occurs through the summation of small actions.
There’s a quote from James Clear which encapsulates this idea: “habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.” Eventually, with time, practice and consistency, these gradual changes create exponential growth.
So don’t feel too bad if you’ve forgotten about or given up on your New Year’s resolutions. We’ve just been going about it the wrong way. It’s nearly impossible to fit working out, cooking three meals, reading and journaling into your schedule if they weren’t there before. Remember that willpower is a strength that must be built; your motivation is not what ultimately determines your ability to form a habit. Instead of challenging yourself to read a book a month, start with reading five pages a day. Then work yourself up to 10, and then 20. Let yourself make mistakes, but start back up again the next day.
The arbitrary practice of setting New Year’s resolutions is outdated. If you want to change something about your life, start with small changes and begin tomorrow. Soon enough, you’ll be an exponentially better version of yourself (in fact, exactly 37.8 times better).
Kate Micallef is an Opinion Columnist from Boca Raton, FL. She writes about lifestyle, trend cycles and college culture for The Daily and can be reached at katemic@umich.edu.