If you’re one of the many who struggle to keep your New Year’s resolutions, you’re in luck.
A new study published this week has uncovered an effective method for making sure those New Year’s Eve promises will have a better chance of sticking next year.
According to the research, rephrasing a resolution from something like ‘I will quit/avoid’ to ‘I will start’, goes a long way toward making it more likely to work.
The study looked at the resolutions of 1,066 people, from the end of 2017, with each participant given a particular level of support – none, some and extended.
The highest rate of success came from the group who created an ‘approach goal’, whereby a person implements a new habit or lifestyle change.
Meanwhile, those who chose an ‘avoidance goal’, trying to quit something, had a lower rate of success.
Professor Per Carlbring, from the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, said he was surprised to discover how much more effective phrasing was over support.
“You cannot erase a behavior, but you can replace it with something else,” he said.
It seems like a method worth taking up – according to another study, just 12% of people who made a New Year’s resolution felt they were successful in reaching their goal.
