Resolved, for 2015, to eat more, exercise less, become more disorganized and less productive.
Have you ever wondered why people don't make New Year's resolutions they are more likely to keep?
Some people avoid resolutions tied to the New Year. They subscribe to the "you-can-start-over-anytime" school of thought.
That ideology apparently conflicts with the more widely accepted "temporal landmark" explanation for resolutions. Writing for Bloomberg News, Cass R. Sunstein said: "The simplest explanation (for resolutions) is that our highest aspirations for ourselves often conflict with our daily desires. Resolutions are designed to give our aspirations the upper hand. In the terms of modern social science, human beings engage in fast, automatic, short-term thinking, and also in slower, more deliberative, long-term thinking. When we make New Year's resolutions, we're taking advantage of a "temporal landmark' that helps us to strengthen our best intentions."
Advertiser have tapped into the "temporal landmark' concept. Why else would January ads feature clear plastic storage containers to help people get organized, treadmills and exercise equipment to help people get thin, fit and healthy; and smoking-cessation products to help people quit tobacco?
The inherent problem with resolutions, however, is that many fail.
A partial explanation is resolutions require change, which introduces the unknown and elicits responses ranging from anxiety to dread. The alternative, failure, is not unattractive because it permits people to preserve the noble desire to change and the opportunity to resolve anew at some future time, maybe next year.
But some resolutions remain unbroken.
So what's the formula for success? Sunstein writes: "Behavioral economists have three answers: Make them easy and automatic, make them a matter of habit, and make them fun. A resolution is more likely to work if it is concrete and can be translated into a simple routine."
If the best way around a problem sometimes is through, "a matter of habit" may be the best approach.
A resolution is more likely to succeed if it is adopted as a lifestyle change.
We may not be "behavioral economists," but a resolution gathers permanence when it creates a lifestyle change - a new attitude coupled with a new way of seeing ourselves and our purpose.