As 2024 morphs into 2025 on January 1, tried and failed New Year’s resolutions will arrive. 

It doesn’t matter what they are, most New Year resolutions tend to fade as quickly as a bunch of flowers, they’re dead and gone within two weeks. But don’t feel too bad.

About 80 per cent of people don’t follow through with their plans for a ‘new you’ for more than a week after New Year’s Eve, according to research.

So The New Daily asked experts in psychology and habit change how it is possible for people to manage to keep them.

Choosing goals and self-reflection

Professor of psychology and mental health at Edith Cowan University Joanne Dickson told The New Daily it’s important to keep in mind how you set your New Year resolutions.

This could be treated as an opportunity for self-reflection and to consider what stopped you from keeping them last time, she said.

She recommends choosing goals that are driven by personal interests, values, and a deeper sense of motivation, as this has been shown to increase personal wellbeing and help us pursue our resolutions.

Setting goals such as ‘stop vaping’ might be a common resolution, but unless it is linked to a deeper personal desire and a reason to give up, it is likely to reappear on the same list next year.

Goals that are internally regulated and personally motivated – like a desire to quit vaping because of a health scare and wanting to improve one’s health – are more likely to sustain motivation.

 

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People need to find their ‘why’.

“If people are wanting to stick with things, and to promote wellbeing, then understanding why you are pursuing something can be helpful,” she said.

Setting specific goals can also be helpful, as they provide mental cues and are also less mentally taxing than vague goals to pursue, she said.

For example, setting a time and a place to go for a regular walk each week is less mentally taxing than setting a goal ‘to walk regularly’.

The cues of time and place will assist in developing a habit and achieving the resolution.

Finally, although a specific goal is usually easier to follow, it is important to maintain a sense of flexibility if things don’t go to plan.

This could mean adjusting our resolutions if they are unrealistic, or adjusting how we approach or pursue a particular goal.

So try to be flexible rather than adopting an all-or-nothing attitude.

No ‘magical fairy dust’

Habit Change Institute director Dr Gina Cleo, who has a PhD in habit change, told The New Daily although it is understandable to seek a reset, there is no “magical fairy dust” when the clock ticks over at midnight on December 31.

“The turn of the year is literally just another day and you’re going to have the same levels of motivation that you had before. You’re going to have the same barriers, the same finances and resources,”  Cleo said.

She said our brains can only change up to three things at one time, but we often aim to overhaul our entire lives each new year.

We want to lose weight, eat better, save more, get a better job, meditate and travel more all at the same time, she said.

“And what happens is we get really overwhelmed and when we’re overwhelmed, we tend to do nothing.”

Cleo said people should focus on the process not the results.

Her tips to change your life in 2025 include: 

• Start with one or two achievable goals that you can build on throughout the year
• When you have set your goals, break them into micro-habits; work out the small rituals you can introduce to help achieve goals
•  Work out the barriers that make change feel like too much effort and remove them so that new habits will be easy to do
• Attaching a habit to a trigger will make change easier; set up your triggers like this: ‘When I … wake up, I will … drink water’
• Count the cost of your new goals: No matter the goal, achieving it will take sacrifice – otherwise you would already be doing it. Sit down and work out what sacrifices you will be making and decide if it is worth it
• When you fall down, pick yourself up as quickly as possible: Even doing a tiny version of the habit is better than doing nothing and will help you stay on track.