A current television ad pointed out that most people who make New Year’s resolutions quit by the second Friday in January. “Look it up,” the ad said, before proceeding to reveal that the secret to keeping New Year’s resolutions is buying a particular brand of smart watch.
If you do “look it up,” you will find there are several alleged dates that most people have given up on their resolutions. One suggests that 80% of New Year’s resolutions are abandoned by the second Friday of January, perhaps because, having made it through one weekend with great difficulty, the prospects of enduring another weekend sticking to their resolutions melts their resolve.
Of course, it’s not as though everyone hangs in there until the second Friday, but by then the quitting has reached its crescendo at 80%. An actual study of 1,000 people conducted by Forbes Magazine in 2013, showed that 44% of those in the study stuck with their resolutions for two-to-three months. In case you’re wondering, just 6% reported that they had managed to stick with their resolutions the entire year.
A 2022 poll by YouGov indicated that only 37% of Americans said they had a goal or resolution they wanted to achieve in 2023. That’s depressing. Not having a goal is worse than not achieving a goal.
Why do so many people fail? There are likely a multitude of reasons. The goal may be unreasonable or, perhaps, wrongly considered. A person whose resolution is to lose weight is more likely to achieve that goal than setting a goal of losing 50 pounds.
Another misconception is that once you fail, you can’t start again. Who says? The new year is 365 days, so no matter how soon you fail, there’s always time for redemption. Unless your goal is perfect attendance, you’re still in the game so to quit after that first lapse is like a baseball player going back to the dugout after strike one.
There are all sorts of ideas dismissed as bromides that can actually serve to inspire and motivate you if you’ve slipped. We’ve heard some of them since childhood – “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” or “It’s not how many times you get knocked down that counts, it’s how many times you get up” or “Don’t let the perfect the enemy of the good” or “It’s a marathon not a sprint.” There is sound counsel in each of these sayings.
The person who wanted to lose 50 pounds has not failed if he loses “only” 30 pounds. He finds himself in a better position than he was before he made the resolution. Likewise, what you fail to do in January, you may succeed in doing in February.
Really, the only certain way to fail is to quit. The simple act of not quitting moves you inexorably toward that goal, even if you have achieved entirely in a calendar year.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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