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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, They're

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Speaker 1: brain stuff Lauren Vogel bomb here. Thirty percent of us

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Speaker 1: who make New Year's resolutions break them by the end

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Speaker 1: of January, and beyond that, only of everyone who makes

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Speaker 1: a resolution will see it through to completion. Are you

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Speaker 1: part of to make resolutions only to find you've given

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Speaker 1: up before you ever really got started. Let's break down

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Speaker 1: how that happens. One of the most common reasons we

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Speaker 1: break our New Year's resolutions is that we get a

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Speaker 1: little overzealous when we make them. Basically, we overcommit by

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Speaker 1: making too many resolutions, and as a result, forty percent

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Speaker 1: of us wind up blaming our busy schedules for our

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Speaker 1: lack of follow through. Research shows that it's easier to

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Speaker 1: keep just one resolution than several. Another part of the

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Speaker 1: problem is that we often make the wrong resolution, or

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Speaker 1: more than one wrong resolution is the case, Maybe the

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Speaker 1: key to successful goal making is to not be hasty

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Speaker 1: when you do it. Make resolutions that you've thought through

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Speaker 1: and are willing to dedicate your time and enter. G two.

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Speaker 1: Don't make a resolution on the fly after too many

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Speaker 1: toasts at a New Year's party. If you're not committed

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Speaker 1: to your goal. The odds of staying motivated are not

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Speaker 1: in your favor, but hey, who are we kidding? It

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Speaker 1: can be difficult to stay motivated even when you've chosen

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Speaker 1: a single, well reasoned goal. Many of us lack motivation

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Speaker 1: and accountability despite our best intentions. Remove one easy way

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Speaker 1: out by sharing your plans with family and friends. The

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Speaker 1: more who know your goal, the less likely you'll be

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Speaker 1: to talk yourself out of sticking with your new habits.

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Speaker 1: And despite what you might have heard, it can take

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Speaker 1: longer than just twenty one days for a lot of

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Speaker 1: us to change a habit. One so that he found

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Speaker 1: it took anywhere between eighteen and two hundred and forty

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Speaker 1: five days. Sharing your goals with those close to you

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Speaker 1: not only adds accountability, which many of us need to

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Speaker 1: motivate ourselves, but also gives you a support system. In

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Speaker 1: the end, whether or not we keep our New Year's

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Speaker 1: resolutions comes down to whether or not we give ourselves

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Speaker 1: a resolution. We can stick to resolutions that are small

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Speaker 1: in scope and involves specific and realistic goals, help, especially

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Speaker 1: for those of us who make goals like get in shape,

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Speaker 1: which is frequently the most made resolution in America. Without

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Speaker 1: then planning how will go about achieving that goal. We

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Speaker 1: need to be more specific and realistic with ourselves, give

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Speaker 1: ourselves deadlines and track our progress. Yes, promising yourself that

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Speaker 1: this is the year you'll lose weight is a great goal,

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Speaker 1: but how will you do it? More than thirty percent

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Speaker 1: of us who make this new year's resolution break it.

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Speaker 1: If you want to stack the odds, define what your

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Speaker 1: specific weight loss goals are and give yourself a deadline

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Speaker 1: within which to meet those goals. Make the goal reasonable

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Speaker 1: enough that you're not intimidated by it, and the deadline

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Speaker 1: realistic too. Resolved to lose ten pounds by Memorial Day

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Speaker 1: and keep yourself honest with weekly progress reports. If you

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Speaker 1: want to get in shape, make it your resolution to,

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Speaker 1: for instance, always take the stairs. It's a good start.

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Speaker 1: Keep a journal of your progress, the good and the bad,

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Speaker 1: including those days when you took the elevator because you

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Speaker 1: were running late. To help keep yourself focused and on task,

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Speaker 1: digital tracking devices can help, but only if you actually

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Speaker 1: sit down and look at all that data they collect.

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Speaker 1: Progress reports are a good way to keep yourself motivated

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Speaker 1: and moving in the right direction towards your goal without them,

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Speaker 1: and sometimes despite them, we can become discouraged, and when

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Speaker 1: we're discouraged, we tend to give up on the goal.

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Speaker 1: But hey, a bit of good news. Our researchers have

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Speaker 1: found that a few days off from time to time

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Speaker 1: doesn't have much, if any effect on overall success. Instead

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Speaker 1: of giving up on your goal when you have a setback,

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Speaker 1: take things one day at a time. Researchers are also

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Speaker 1: examining a phenomenon called decision fatigue that plays a part

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Speaker 1: in how likely we are to keep resolutions. The more decisions,

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Speaker 1: even small ones, that you have to make in a day,

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Speaker 1: including deciding to go for a walk or run, selecting

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Speaker 1: healthy foods, and putting away cash for a rainy day,

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Speaker 1: the more depleted your willpower and self control will be

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Speaker 1: as the day wears on. So think about how you

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Speaker 1: can incorporate small steps to your goal in your daily

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Speaker 1: life so they'll be automatic and require little or no

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Speaker 1: decision effort. Making tough decisions related to your resolution early

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Speaker 1: in the day, for example, get your workout in earlier,

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Speaker 1: pay bills and handle finances before you leave work could

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Speaker 1: help and share a successful outcome. Today's episode was written

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Speaker 1: by Maria Tremarchi and produced by Tristan McNeil. By the way,

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Speaker 1: if you're listening on the day this publishes Happy New Year,

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Speaker 1: and of course, for lots more on this and other

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Speaker 1: psychological topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot

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Speaker 1: com m HM