More than one-third of Americans made a New Year’s resolution ahead of 2024, according to polling firm YouGov. Of those who did, 87 percent believed they would keep them all year. That belief is wildly off-base. Researchers in one of the few significant studies on New Year’s resolutions found that only about 1 in 5 people followed through after two years.
When it comes to keeping resolutions, the odds are stacked against us. But if we look closely at the debris of all those aborted plans and abandoned dreams, we can see what went wrong and come up with strategies and tactics to help us tilt the odds more in our favor.
One of the most powerful tools you can employ to increase the chances you stick to your goals is the “precommitment contract” — a formal or informal agreement you make before facing the real-time choices required to keep a resolution.