It’s that time of year, when everyone and their moms set (and then forget) a New Year’s resolution. Trust us, we’re guilty, too. But there’s some interesting data points out there that can in fact make the follow through of those intentions more successful:
- 48% of consumers plan to make a New Year’s resolution – Numerator, 2023
- And 64% of women say they feel pressured to set a resolution, compared to just 60% of men – Forbes Health, 2023
- Yet 43% of goal-setters have forgotten their resolution by February – Drive Research, 2023
- However… 59% of people set set approach-oriented goals succeed! Compared to just 47% of avoidance-oriented goals – PLoS One, 2020
So what’s the difference between an approach-oriented goal versus and avoidance-oriented one? According to PLoS One’s “A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions”, when goals are formulated in terms of approaching some thing/ some objective/ some practice rather than avoiding an existing daily habit or behavior, the chances of that goal succeeding drastically increases. And yet, only 65% of us tend to instinctually think of goals as approaching. Who knew this one small change could increase our ability to stick with our goals!? Here’s to setting, and not forgetting, your New Year’s resolutions for 2025!