New Research Reveals 8 Secrets That Will Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Succeed

New Year’s resolutions: the annual ritual of declaring war on your own bad habits while simultaneously proving that you, in fact, are your own worst enemy.

“I’m going to learn Spanish, quit caffeine, organize my closet, and become someone who hits the gym every morning!”

Aaaaand a few days later, it’s all on fire.

New Year’s resolutions failing doesn’t even seem like an accident anymore; it feels as much a part of the tradition as resolutions in the first place. The worst part is how quickly it happens. You join a gym, and for the first week, you’re there every day. By the second week, the gym is just something you wave at on your way to get a burrito.

New Year’s resolutions are a yearly reminder that humans, despite millennia of evolution and technological progress, remain delusional creatures who believe they can fundamentally change their personalities because the date on the calendar has ticked up by one. It’s an elaborate chess game against yourself, and let’s be honest: you are not Bobby Fischer.

The good news? There’s a ton of science on the subject. If we really want to achieve those New Year’s Resolutions, we can. Ready to actually make a change for the better?

Let’s get to it…

 

New Year’s Resolution — Singular

Pick one resolution. That’s it. No, you can’t get fit, learn Mandarin, and read 100 books this year unless you live in a montage sequence.

Let’s get one thing straight: you and I are not multitaskers. We’re barely taskers. You are a regular human whose greatest accomplishment last year might have been finding the “Skip Intro” button faster than Netflix could auto-play.

As Richard Wiseman, professor of psychology at University of Hertfordshire, says: “Make only one resolution; your chances of success are greater when you channel energy into changing just one aspect of your behaviour.”

It’s like trying to train a puppy. Do you teach it to fetch, sit, and roll over all at once? No, you teach it one thing at a time.

Pick one resolution and devote all your energy to it. Then you’ve got a shot.

(To learn more about the science of a successful life, check out my book here.)

So what else do we do wrong when planning resolutions? Apologies in advance, I’m about to take all the fun out of this annual ritual…

 

Stop Fantasizing

Research by Gabriele Oettingen, professor of psychology at New York University, found that when you fantasize about something, your brain thinks you’ve already achieved it. Dreaming actually reduces motivation.

So what works? Thinking about obstacles. Next time you catch yourself fantasizing about Future You — shredded abs, best-selling memoir, a closet full of clothes that actually fit — stop. Slap yourself metaphorically and ask: “What’s going to screw this up, and how do I deal with it?”

Because the real secret to success here isn’t imagining a better version of yourself. It’s figuring out how to keep going when everything inevitably goes sideways.

Here’s the thing about considering obstacles: it’s not fun. But planning for the difficulties is what leads to success. Want to lose weight? Great. Think about what you’re going to say when your friends invite you to Taco Night.

(To learn more about the science of losing weight, click here.)

So what’s our next step?

 

Make A Plan

You need a battle plan, a strategy so airtight it could withstand a cross-examination on Law & Order. And that plan needs to be granular.

Yes, “granularity” sounds like something you’d find in a dermatology pamphlet, but it’s actually the secret sauce. Granularity means getting specific. “I’ll exercise more.” That’s not specific. That’s a wish, whispered into the void. Specific is, “I will go to the gym every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:00 a.m. I will run for 20 minutes and then lift weights.”

And write your plan down. By writing it down, you’ve increased your chances from “never gonna happen” to “might accidentally do it.” Research shows this helps.

Writing your plan down is like telling a friend you’ll meet them for coffee. You might not want to go, but now that you’ve said it, you kind of have to. It’s a commitment, a handshake agreement with Future You who, let’s be honest, can be just as unreliable as Present You.

(To learn more about the science of being lucky, click here.)

So how ambitious should your resolution be? You’re going to like this one, I promise…

 

Lower the Bar… No, Lower

You don’t need to “go big or go home.” You need to start so small it’s embarrassing.

Stanford researcher BJ Fogg calls this strategy MVE. Sounds like a trendy DJ but it’s actually your ticket to success: Minimum Viable Effort.

Here’s the thing: when it comes to new habits, consistency beats ambition. So the secret is initially setting the bar so low that you can’t help but trip over it into success.

Minimum Viable Effort bypasses your brain’s lazy “But I Don’t Wanna” mechanism. The initial goal is so small, you can’t argue with it. Want to read more? Start with one page per day. One page. The goal is so pathetically small that your brain will roll its eyes and comply.

Then, once you’ve got some momentum, turn up the heat. It’s like boiling a frog but with self-improvement instead of animal cruelty.

(To learn more about how to be happier in the coming year, click here.)

But what about getting rid of bad habits?

 

Swap, Not Stop

Sadly, your brain is not a fan of subtraction. Instead, you need to pull a sneaky little bait-and-switch. Replace your bad habit with something less destructive.

Maybe your bad habit is snacking on chips at midnight. A purist might tell you to stop eating after dinner altogether, but let’s be honest — that’s not happening. Instead, you replace the chips with something slightly less horrifying. Baby carrots, maybe. Boom. You’ve swapped “crispy death” for “crunchy mediocrity.” That’s progress.

The same logic applies across the board. Want to reduce social media use? Replace it with reading. Click the Kindle app instead of Instagram. Something entertaining but with fewer algorithms trying to sell you novelty socks.

(To learn more about how to become wealthy, click here.)

Many people worry that they lack self-control. It’s a legitimate concern. So let’s eliminate the issue by leveraging laziness, something we all seem to have an infinite supply of…

 

Manipulate Context

The research shows willpower is overrated. We need to rig the game. Manipulate your environment so success becomes the path of least resistance. Make the bad stuff harder and the good stuff easier.

Want to stop eating junk food? Don’t bring snacks into the living room. Hide them on the top shelf in the kitchen behind something heavy. Out of sight, out of mind, out of stomach. The more difficult you make snacking, the less likely you are to follow through, because your impulsiveness is no match for your laziness.

Want to stop doomscrolling on your phone? Log out of every app every time you finish using it. Nothing kills the urge to check Instagram like having to remember a password you made five years ago that includes your ex’s birthday.

This isn’t cheating; it’s engineering. Mold your surroundings into a giant self-improvement funnel and let inertia do the rest, subtly steering you towards the person you want to become.

(To learn how to keep your brain sharp as you age, click here.)

But what about a few weeks into January when you’re tired of good behavior? That little energy light starts blinking, warning us that we’re running low on goal-achieving juice. You’re going to need some incentives…

 

Use Commitment Devices

Stop trusting yourself. Set traps for Future You and outsource your willpower.

Hand $100 to a friend and say, “If I skip the gym, donate this to [insert soul-crushing political figure here].” Suddenly, working out isn’t about fitness — it’s about not funding something you loathe.

The best commitment devices create stakes so horrifying that Future You is terrified not to comply. Maybe you don’t care about political donations, but you do care about public humiliation. Fine. Make a video of yourself singing an Ed Sheeran song. If you don’t hit the gym daily, your friend posts it to social media. You’ll suddenly discover reserves of willpower you didn’t know existed.

The beauty of commitment devices is that they take the responsibility out of your hands. You don’t get to negotiate with yourself anymore. You make the rules but someone else enforces them. Think of it as self-bullying with a higher purpose.

(To learn how to stop procrastinating, click here.)

Want a tip that’s fun, un-scary, and largely acts without you noticing? I’m happy to indulge…

 

Use Peer Pressure

Spend more time with those disciplined people who unintentionally shame you into doing better because their lives are a constant reminder of how much better you could be.

Find a friend who’s already good at the thing you want to do and cling to them like a barnacle. Their presence will remind you of your goal every time you try to backslide, like a walking, talking Post-it note of guilt.

The beauty of this approach is that it works without you even realizing it. When you’re surrounded by people who prioritize their goals, you’ll unconsciously start doing the same.

(To learn more about the science of successful relationships, check out my book here.)

Okay, if I go on much longer January 1st will already be here. Let’s round it all up and cover what to do when you fumble…

 

Sum Up

Here’s how to make your New Year’s resolutions succeed:

• New Year’s Resolution. Singular: Having five resolutions is like deciding you’re going to climb Mount Everest, but first, you’ll stop off at the Moon.
• Stop Fantasizing: When you dream about having that perfect beach body, your brain is like, “Hell yes, we did it! Let’s celebrate by doing absolutely nothing.”
• Make A Plan: Saying “I want to be healthier” is not a resolution. It’s a sentence. It’s as actionable as saying, “I’d like to be taller.” What does “healthier” even mean to you? Be specific and write it down.
• MVE: Minimum Viable Effort is about realizing that if you aim for the moon and miss, you won’t land among the stars; you’ll just float aimlessly in the vast, cold emptiness of space. Initially, the bar for success should be so low it’s practically underground.
• Swap, Not Stop: Want to stop drinking so much coffee? Replace it with herbal tea. Now, instead of being wired and jittery, you’re just mildly disappointed all the time.
• Manipulate Context: Alter your surroundings so that the good choices become stupidly easy and bad ones require just enough effort to make your brain go, “Meh, never mind.”
• Use Commitment Devices: Commitment devices aren’t about relying on willpower; they’re about booby-trapping your life so Future You has no choice but to obey.
• Use Peer Pressure: Surround yourself with the people you want to be, and their success will rub off on you like glitter at a craft party.

And you know what’s going to happen if you do all of this?

You’re still going to screw up. Epically. On day three.

And that’s okay. Really. It’s fine. Screwing up is part of the process.

Let’s get this straight: you are not a robot. You are not a sleek, flawless automaton programmed to crush goals while spouting motivational quotes. You’re a human being. A messy, soft, impulse-driven chaos creature who, no matter how many planners or apps or color-coded charts you buy, will occasionally cave to the siren song of pizza and bad decisions.

And that’s fine. Expected, even. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It means you’re alive. And alive people screw up all the time.

Richard Wiseman discovered that the people who succeed in sticking to their resolutions aren’t the ones who go full monk mode and live on discipline alone. They’re the ones who mess up, get annoyed, and try again the next day.

Instead of treating failure like a Greek Tragedy, treat it like a speed bump. You hit it, you spill your coffee a little, and then you keep driving. That’s the path to long term success.

You committed to working out every day. At first, it was torture. Dragging yourself to the gym felt like reenacting The Revenant. You screw up. But you keep going. And, with time, you become a mythical creature: The Person Who Followed Through.

Instead of enlightenment, you discover that you’re capable of doing what you said you’d do. And that feels amazing, mostly because it’s so rare. You want to stop strangers on the street just to tell them about it.

Sticking to New Year’s resolutions feels great, but the real cake is knowing you outsmarted yourself. It’s like you played a prank on the lazy, excuse-making version of you, and now that person has to sit in the corner while you bask in your own unexpected glory.

New Year’s resolutions might be the butt of many a joke, but they’re also emblematic of a fundamental human trait — hope. Hope that we can change, that things can be different, that we’re not irrevocably anchored to our past mistakes or circumstances.

May this coming year be a chapter where you inch ever closer to the you that you hope to be.

Happy New Year!