The year 2023 has barely started and there are already people who are giving up on fulfilling their New Year's resolutions. In fact, abandoning goals is one of the most predictable things around, which also discourages people from setting goals in the first place. But why does this happen? Here are some explanations for this behavior.
Lack of delimitation
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One of the possible explanations given by behavioral scientists is that we have established goals vague and impersonal. For example, we define that we want to take better care of our health, but we do not delimit how we are going to do this, nor what it means to have more health, that is, why we care about it.
After all, these goals are common among all people, so we just repeat them, although they are important. Therefore, the lack of connection with the objective prevents us from devising strategies to achieve it, as well as discourages us from making sacrifices in favor of the result. As a result, we often abandon the goal.
Furthermore, we have to understand that our mind is always looking to reduce the cognitive load and create shortcuts to reduce all work, which are habits. Thus, breaking habits is one of the most complicated tasks that exist, but it is possible, as long as there is a reason in particular that is capable of motivating us at all times.
How to stick to New Year's resolutions?
First of all, we can say that you need to establish resolutions that make sense to you. For example, try exchanging “be healthier” for “take care of your health more to spend quality time with my family”. Another suggestion is to exchange “study more” for “train myself more to get the job I want and be able to travel more”.
That way you put the real reward in the goal and that will be able to stimulate you. But beyond that, we can also set goals that are more accessible, therefore small but important steps. Try changing “studying five hours a day” to “studying forty minutes a day”, as constancy is better than intensity.
