They may be well-intentioned, but the fact is only one in four of us stick to our New Year’s resolutions.
Now researchers say the secret to making them a success is to tell other people about them.
This bolsters support from friends and family and reduces the likelihood that we will abandon our goals at the first opportunity.
The tradition of making New Year resolutions dates back some 4,000 years.
For many, it’s a chance to implement life-changing choices – whether it’s losing weight, learning a musical instrument or running a marathon.
But a recent poll showed most people have given up on them by the end of February.
Psychologists from the University of Toronto in Canada carried out a series of experiments to see whether sharing goals with loved ones or on social media increased the chances of them being achieved.
They may be well-intentioned, but the fact is only one in four of us stick to our New Year’s resolutions, studies show
Psychologists from the University of Toronto in Canada found that telling others about your resolutions leads to greater encouragement and a higher chance of success than keeping the details private
During the experiments, involving more than 1,000 participants, volunteers were told to identify a goal that they wanted to achieve and either keep it to themselves, or share it with a partner, parent, sibling, work colleagues or even a complete stranger.
This could be in person, via email or on social media posts.
Researchers followed them up a few weeks later to gauge how much support they had received and how close they were to achieving their aims.
The results, in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, showed telling others about your resolutions leads to greater encouragement and a higher chance of success than keeping the details private.
In a report on their findings psychologists said: ‘Following through on personal goals can be difficult.
‘There can be many temptations, obstacles and distractions that arise. We found sharing goals motivates greater goal pursuit effort.
‘To increase their chances of following through on a personal goal, people may be well advised to take a moment and chat about it with someone special.’