{"id":27971,"date":"2021-12-21T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T07:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=27971"},"modified":"2021-12-26T14:16:51","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T14:16:51","slug":"the-best-way-to-follow-through-on-your-new-years-resolution-make-an-old-years-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-best-way-to-follow-through-on-your-new-years-resolution-make-an-old-years-resolution\/","title":{"rendered":"The best way to follow through on your New Year\u2019s resolution? Make an \u2018old year\u2019s resolution\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mark Canada<\/a>, Indiana University Kokomo<\/a><\/em> and Christina Downey<\/a>, Indiana University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve made a New Year\u2019s resolution, your plot for self-improvement probably kicks into gear sometime on Jan. 1, when the hangover wears off and the quest for the \u201cnew you\u201d begins in earnest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if research on habit change is any indication, only about half<\/a> of New Year\u2019s resolutions are likely to make it out of January, much less last a lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As experts in positive psychology<\/a> and literature<\/a>, we recommend an unconventional but more promising approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We call it the \u201cold year\u2019s resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It combines insights from psychologists and America\u2019s first self-improvement guru, Benjamin Franklin, who pioneered a habit-change model that was way ahead of its time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the \u201cold year\u201d approach, perhaps you can sidestep the inevitable challenges that come with traditional New Year\u2019s resolutions and achieve lasting, positive changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A period to practice \u2013 and fail<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Research has highlighted<\/a> two potential pitfalls with New Year\u2019s resolutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, if you lack the confidence to invest in a full-fledged effort, failure to achieve the goal may become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Furthermore, if you maintain the change but perceive progress as unacceptably slow or inadequate, you may abandon the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old year\u2019s resolution is different. Instead of waiting until January to start trying to change your life, you do a dry run before the New Year begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does that work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, identify a change you want to make in your life. Do you want to eat better? Move more? Sock away more savings? Now, with Jan. 1 days away, start living according to your commitment. Track your progress. You might stumble now and then, but here\u2019s the thing: You\u2019re just practicing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve ever rehearsed for a play or played scrimmages, you\u2019ve used this kind of low-stakes practice to prepare for the real thing. Such experiences give us permission to fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psychologist Carol Dweck<\/a> and her colleagues have shown<\/a> that when people see failure as the natural result of striving to achieve something challenging, they are more likely to persist to the goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if people perceive failure as a definitive sign that they are not capable \u2013 or even deserving \u2013 of success, failure can lead to surrender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you become convinced that you cannot achieve a goal, something called \u201clearned helplessness<\/a>\u201d can result, which means you\u2019re likely to abandon the endeavor altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us unintentionally set ourselves up for failure with our New Year\u2019s resolutions. On Jan. 1, we jump right into a new lifestyle and, unsurprisingly, slip, fall, slip again \u2013 and eventually never get up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old year\u2019s resolution takes the pressure off. It gives you permission to fail and even learn from failure. You can slowly build confidence, while failures become less of a big deal, since they\u2019re all happening before the official \u201cstart date\u201d of the resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A gardener weeding one bed at a time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Long before he became one of America\u2019s greatest success stories, Franklin devised a method that helped him overcome life\u2019s inevitable failures \u2013 and could help you master your old year\u2019s resolutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he was still a young man, Franklin came up with what he called his \u201cbold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection.\u201d With charming confidence, he set out to master 13 virtues, including temperance, frugality, chastity, industry, order and humility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a typically Franklinian move, he applied a little strategy to his efforts, concentrating on one virtue at a time. He likened this approach to that of a gardener who \u201cdoes not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his autobiography<\/a>, where he described this project in detail, Franklin did not say that he tied his project to a new year. He also did not give up when he slipped once \u2013 or more than once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was surpris\u2019d to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish,\u201d Franklin wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Open<\/a>
Benjamin Franklin recorded his slip-ups over the course of a week. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He made his progress visible in a book, where he recorded his slip-ups. One page<\/a> \u2013 perhaps only a hypothetical example \u2013 shows 16 of them tied to \u201ctemperance\u201d in a single week. (Instead of marking faults, we recommend recording successes in line with the work of habit expert B.J. Fogg<\/a>, whose research suggests that celebrating victories helps to drive habit change.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repeated failures might discourage someone enough to abandon the endeavor altogether. But Franklin kept at it \u2013 for years. To Franklin, it was all about perspective: This effort to make himself better was a \u201cproject,\u201d and projects take time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.<\/em> Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A better and a happier man\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many years later, Franklin admitted that he never was perfect<\/a>, despite his best efforts. His final assessment, however, is worth remembering:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut, on the whole, tho\u2019 I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Treating self-improvement as a project with no rigid time frame worked for Franklin. In fact, his scheme probably helped him succeed wildly in business, science and politics<\/a>. Importantly, he also found immense personal satisfaction in the endeavor: \u201cThis little artifice, with the blessing of God,\u201d he wrote<\/a>, was the key to \u201cthe constant felicity of his life, down to his 79th year, in which this is written.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can enjoy the same success Franklin did if you start on your own schedule \u2013 now, during the old year \u2013 and treat self-improvement not as a goal with a starting date but as an ongoing \u201cproject.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might also help to remember Franklin\u2019s note to himself on a virtue he called, coincidentally, \u201cResolution\u201d: \u201cResolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Canada<\/a>, Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Indiana University Kokomo<\/a><\/em> and Christina Downey<\/a>, Professor of Psychology, Indiana University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Canada, Indiana University Kokomo and Christina Downey, Indiana University If you\u2019ve made a New Year\u2019s resolution, your plot for self-improvement probably kicks into gear sometime on Jan. 1, when the hangover wears off and the quest for the \u201cnew you\u201d begins in earnest. But if research on habit change is any indication, only about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":27972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[7601,5707,11018,11017,228],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27971"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28016,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27971\/revisions\/28016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}