How to Make Your New Year's and Other Goals More Successful

Source: Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay

Three in ten Americans report making at least one New Year’s resolution/goal, with half of this group making more than one. This is according to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey of 5,140 adults weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, and education.[1]

What drives people to make New Year's resolutions and set goals? Although the answer may be different for different people, common factors include the following:

The fresh start effect. The fresh start effect motivates individuals to pursue aspirational goals in connection with an event, such as the start of a new year. Such events represent natural opportunities to seek positive change.

Purpose and motivation. Goals provide direction and purpose, driven by an intrinsic desire for growth and quality of life improvement.

A recent survey conducted by Forbes Health suggests that the attitudes of U.S. adults toward New Year's resolutions and the types of goals they prioritize have undergone a significant shift. Although fitness and weight loss remain popular, 36% of participants expressed a commitment to improving their mental health. In fact, 55% of participants acknowledged that mental health should be given equal significance to physical well-being in their goals for the coming year.[2]

For a variety of reasons, most people do not stay with and successfully achieve their New Year's resolutions and other goals. Often this has to do with setting unrealistic goals that lead to frustration, and eventual abandonment. Moreover, as more and more distractions (often related to ever-proliferating forms of social media and other technologies), enter our daily lives, clamoring for our precious limited attention, maintaining the focus and commitment necessary to keep resolutions can be that much more difficult.

The types of goals you set also make a difference. Research indicates that action-oriented goals (goals focused on achieving something) are more likely to result in success after a year than avoidance-oriented goals (goals focused on stopping/avoiding something)—58.9% versus 47.1%.[3]

The Relationship Between Goals and Habits

Part of the challenge is that achieving New Year’s resolutions and other goals that require sustained change involves the development of habits—either forming new beneficial habits or quitting unhealthy habits—and this process is more complex than people may realize.

Habits are only created and solidified by repetition and reinforcement. Repetition involves doing something regularly, and the more you do it, the more likely you are to continue doing it. Reinforcement occurs when you achieve a desired outcome—when the action moves you closer to achieving your goals. A 2009 study on habit creation found that it took an average of about 66 days to reliably incorporate a new activity into one’s daily routine and establish it as a habit.[4]

An especially beneficial approach to creating new habits is to pair the desired behavior with a reliable cue. This is also known as habit stacking, which involves connecting behaviors by taking an existing/current behavior and effectively “stacking” the new desired behavior directly on top of it—reinforcing the association and effectively training the brain. For example, I established my daily meditation practice by stacking it between showering and getting dressed (regardless of my schedule for the day). The more closely related the two behaviors are, the stronger the resulting neural connections in brain regions involved in memory and habit formation will be, and the more likely it is that the new habit will stick.

Setbacks Are Normal

While it is important to remember that setbacks are a common and even expected part of any process of meaningful life change, such setbacks often provide important information that can be applied to facilitate course correction and progress toward ultimate success.

New Year's resolutions are an excellent opportunity to set goals that align with your aspirations for personal growth and well-being. However, goals can be set at any point in the year. The beauty of goal setting is you don’t need a ball drop or cannons of confetti to signal a fresh start. You can commit—and recommit—to your desired life changes at any time.

Copyright 2025 Dan Mager, MSW