Many people make New Year's resolutions and today marks the start of the second week of the New Year. I decided to take a look at what the most common resolutions are, whether they're achieved or not and how long the average person sticks to his/her resolution. What I found supported what I thought and also surprised me at the same time. Intrigued?
Not surprisingly, losing weight/improving health, self improvement, improving finances and quitting smoking topped the list. What did surprise me was "doing more exciting things". What this tells me is that so many people are merely existing vs living their lives. It also tells me that people are settling instead of venturing out. They yearn for more exciting things, yet are often too content with where they are or are paralyzed by fear to go out and live their dreams.
Only about half of the population makes resolutions and of those who do, less than 10% state that they achieve their resolution. A larger portion achieve some success and close to half fail year after year in their resolution. How long do most people stick to their resolution? About three quarters last a week and roughly half last a month. After that, it goes downhill quickly.
What can you do to stick to your resolution? Set explicit goals. Write them down in a "SMART" format (Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-based). Share your resolutions on social media and tell others about them. Why? Accountability. Start small and look to change one behavior at a time. Lastly, don't beat yourself up. You're on a journey to a better you and it will take time. Celebrate the small victories along the way!
Read the research by Statistic Brain here.