ScienceMeThis
- Jan 20, 2020
- 7 min read

“New Year, New Me!”

Updated: Feb 2, 2020

If you asked me for my new year resolution, it would be to find out who I am

~ Cyril Cusack

‘Tis this time of year again. The time when we realised how much we indulged and enjoyed food and drink over the holidays. The time to check the goals we set for last year, see what we accomplish, and think about the goals for the new year. How many people have said “2020 will be my year!” or the traditional “new year, new me!”?

How about this year, we tried to established goals we can actually achieve? Wouldn’t that be great? Of course, it would be! But how could we do it?

Most of the time, I think, new year’s resolutions are about changes: changes we want for ourselves and for our lives. Weight loss, quitting an addiction (usually smoking), being happy, finding love, and saving money are probably the most common resolutions every year. There is often one of two types of resolutions: the very concrete one (losing weight/quite smoking) and the very abstract ones (love/happiness), thus the one we could easily do something about (in theory) and the ones that could be completely out of our hands. Meta-analysis and reviews (i.e., studies looking at a lot of previously done research to find the bigger picture) have showed that only 40% of people can maintain their resolutions in general after 6 months, but if it concerns weight loss, only 20% of people maintain long-term weight loss without experiencing the yo-yo effect (weight loss followed by weight gain, loss, then gain, then…).

When we try to change something about ourselves or our lives, we usually try to break bad habits and look for behaviour changes. And that’s not easy to do. Setting goals is easy: you just have to sit down and think and make a list. There – you have your goals! Reaching them is a whole other story. It takes about 66 days to create a new habit – which means it takes at least over a month to break it. And the stronger/older the habit you are trying to break, the harder it gets. Indeed, strong habits are like default mode: they are activated mostly unconsciously by social and environmental situations and cues. If you go to the supermarket without a list of things you wanted to buy, chances are you will leave the supermarket with what you usually buy and not what you actually needed. Force of habit. Additionally, if you are trying to break an old habit but find yourself under time pressure to make a choice, you’ll most likely fall back into the routine and chose the habit you are trying to break. At least, 70% of people would do it.

Cheer up though, not all is lost! If research has been able to identify all the reasons why you could fail following your new year’s resolutions, it has also identified some ways to help people make the changes they want. Here 6 tips worthy of figuring in some fancy self-help book.

1. Be realistic

When making your list for 2020 (or any other year to come), be kind to yourself and try being realistic in the goals you are setting for yourself. Change takes time and yes it can very frustrating to not see it happening as fast as you would want it, but the long road is the one that pays off in the long-term. Make changes for yourself and not based on what other people think. You're the one that is going to live through them. So, who you you want to be?

If you want to lose weight, don’t put down to lose too much too fast – that the insurance of weight-gain as soon as you’re off the miraculous diet. Wanting to be happy is a fair wish but start by defining what “happy” means for you. It can be seeing your friends more often, reconnecting with someone, taking time to pamper once a week, get a pet. Happiness is not a universal thing; we all have our own version of it.

So, when making your resolutions list, be realistic in what you want and how much you want to change. Having fewer goals might just be the key to success.

2. Prioritise

Not only does change take time, but it demands a lot of energy and willpower. And we don’t have infinite resources of willpower. Resisting to craving or breaking habits drains your willpower: if you have to change more than one habit at a time, chances are you will fail. Instead of wanting it all and wanting it now, chose with goals to prioritise and focus on this one. Don’t be greedy.

3. Change your routines

As mentioned before, habits can be triggered by a social situation or a place/an environment. One way to break a habit is thus… to break the routine. Major life change like changing job or moving to a new house create new environment and force us to adopt new habits. Even having a baby would do. Anyone?

Routines ain’t all bad though. They are known to add stability to our lives and boost our productivity: things take a lot less time to do if you don’t have to think about them! That doesn’t mean we’re happy with all the habits we created over the year so introducing changes in our lives could help set new routines and new habits.

Take another route to work which doesn’t involve walking in front of a bakery might help you resist buying the daily croissant. Move the furniture around in your home, get rid of the things we don’t really use anymore (clue: if you haven’t touched it once in the last year, you can probably throw it away), use smaller plates for your dinner. Baby changes are still changes.

4. Monitor your actions

Saying you are going to do something is usually not enough for long-term change to happen. Instead, research has shown that following what you do (your actions and behaviours) is a very successful technic for weight-loss and exercising. The trick is to be honest about the things you ate or the exercise you did or did not do and monitor the overall progress. There will be slips once in a while. It’s okay, it’s part of the process. It can even be good to have one “cheat-day” a week, when you are more lenient with yourself (with measure) and you know it’s okay because overall, you are improving.

Another way to increase motivation is the use of app tracking your progress or use the power of social media and peer pressure. A goal written down, shared with people, is a goal we have greater motivation to reach.

5. Set new intentions

The most efficient way to break a habit is to replace the action by something that brings you something similar. You wouldn’t just stop eating chocolate, or smoking, you would replace it by something else that has fewer negative effects on your health. Studies conducted on behavioural change have demonstrate that “implementation intentions” were an efficient way to break habits. There are changes in the form of “if x then y” that can help go around the default mode created by routines and habits. Each time you are thinking about having a cigarette, you decide to have a glass of water instead.

Those implementation intentions can also have multiple options, allowing us to adapt to various situations; instead of having a glass of water when wanting to smoke, you could have a fruit or go for a walk. That provides you with 3 potential actions (have water, eat a fruit, go for a walk): in any given situation, you should be able to do at least one of those to replace smoking or eating chocolate (hence why a lot of people that quit smoking end up eating instead to keep their hand busy and distract themselves from the idea of smoking).

6. Visualise your future-self

I for one tend to talk a lot about “future-self issue” to refer to things I don’t want to think about at the present moment. However, my future-self is an incredible person and I don’t want to disappoint her. I want to give her the best possible circumstances to be the amazing person I’m sure she is. In the same way that I don’t want to disappoint my child-self and help all her dreams come true, I want to make sure I work hard to make my future-self proud.

It is hard to fight the “present-bias”, this state of mind that prefers instant reward to delayed greater gratification. By planning goals ahead, by “futureproofing” decisions, we tackle our tendency to postpone everything. It is by leaving decisions to the last that we tend to fall back into old habits. Know who your future-self want to be and plan accordingly. We live in the present, for the future, knowing our past.

7. Have a plan and deadlines

The ideal approach is taking one step at a time, adding changes as we go to replace an old habit with a desired action or behaviour. The resolutions we take are usually those big, abstract goals. “I want to lose weight”. Okay but how much, by when, doing what? For each of your (few) resolutions, try break it down and make a plan with a succession of easy reachable aims. You’ll notice there might be cross-over between your different plans for each resolution: if you want to lose weight and be healthier, you can tackle both by making an exercise plan combine with dietary changes.

Knowing ourselves is also about knowing how motivated we are or how to keep our motivation up. Celebrate your victories when you reach deadlines and landmark, you deserve it. Be kind to yourself and revise the plan if you see that life gets in the way and the changes are not as fast as you were hoping for. Rome was not built in a day, why would change take less?

Happy New Year everyone!