Make New Year's Resolutions Stick

Keep your New Year’s resolutions by following some timely advice from University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) behavioral psychologist Joshua Klapow, Ph.D.  

Posted on December 30, 2004 at 11:35 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Keep your New Year’s resolutions by following some timely advice from University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) behavioral psychologist Joshua Klapow, Ph.D.

Why resolutions fail:

  • New Year’s resolutions are an attempt to reach a specific goal — weight loss, smoking cessation, etc. — by introducing a set of new behaviors into your lifestyle.

  • Because the behaviors are new, and not learned habits, people tend to slip back to old behavior patterns.

How to keep those resolutions:

  • Turn goals into specific behaviors: “To say that you are going to exercise doesn’t tell you which exercise to do, for how long and how frequently. If you don’t know what to do, you are less likely to do the behavior. So, be specific. Saying that you plan to walk five minutes a day and increase the time by one minute each week until you are walking 30 minutes per day is better than just saying that you plan to exercise.”

  • Be realistic: Don’t set yourself up for failure. “Resolutions need to be things you can actually do. This is important because you are more likely to repeat the behaviors in which you are successful. Set short- and long-term target goals, and make the short-term goals easy to reach.”

  • Chart your progress: Get a calendar and write down your healthy habit every day. Don’t leave it up to memory. Three days without doing the health habit is your sign that you may be slipping.

  • Get back on track: If you have slipped, call a friend or family member and tell them you need encouragement.

  • Keep your perspective: “Finally, put all of this into perspective. Missing two-to-five days of the behavior isn’t the end of the world. The critical point here is that you catch the slip early, implement your plan and get back on track.”

CONTACT: Deb Lucas, UAB Media Relations, 934-8946 (wk), 908-6808 (cell).

NOTE: We are the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The University of Alabama is in Tuscaloosa and is a separate, independent campus. Please use University of Alabama at Birmingham on first reference and UAB thereafter. Thank you.