How to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions: 7 Science-Backed Tips (+ 50 Ideas)

Only 9% of people keep their resolutions all year. Learn 7 research-backed strategies—like if-then planning and temptation bundling—to beat the odds.

Every January, millions of people make a promise to themselves: This is the year I finally change. And every January, most of them quietly abandon that promise before the month is over.

Research suggests that fewer than 1 in 10 people keep their resolutions all year.¹ About 23% quit within the first week, and roughly 43% have given up by the end of January. There’s even a name for the day most people throw in the towel — Quitters Day, the second Friday in January.

But here’s what those grim statistics don’t tell you: the people who fail aren’t lacking willpower. They’re lacking strategy. Dr. John Norcross’ longitudinal research found that 46% of resolvers who used evidence-based techniques were still succeeding at six months.² The difference between the 9% and the 46% isn’t discipline — it’s knowing which strategies actually work.

Why Do New Year’s Resolutions Fail?

You Set Vague, Outcome-Focused Goals

“Lose weight.” “Save money.” “Be healthier.” These are wishes, not goals.

According to the transtheoretical model of change, lasting behavioral change moves through stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Most resolutioners jump straight from contemplation to action, skipping the critical preparation stage — where you figure out the specific how.

For most of us, a goal like “losing weight” involves a complete overhaul of our lifestyle, habits, and even cognitive thinking abilities. And we often underestimate the “complete overhaul” part. Real goals worthy of pride take time and effort.

You Don’t Track Your Progress

Because change is slow and gradual, you often can’t see it happening day-to-day. That’s why tracking matters. Dr. Gail Matthews at Dominican University of California found that people who wrote down their goals and sent weekly progress reports to a friend achieved them at a 76% rate — compared to just 43% for those who simply thought about their goals.³

Whether it’s losing weight or cutting down on your number of weekly drinks, there are apps like Habit Forest or Habitica that let you effortlessly log and visualize your progress. Even if you slip up, being able to zoom out and see yourself trending upward over time will do wonders for your motivation.

People who wrote down their goals and tracked progress weekly achieved them at a 76% rate — compared to 43% for those who just thought about them.

You Don’t Have a Strong “Why”

Without a compelling personal reason, a resolution is just a performative promise. Most people don’t spend enough time focusing on the why of the change they want to make.

If you’ve ever read Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why, you know how important it is to know your motivations before jumping headfirst into a goal. Check out his TED Talk for some golden nuggets of wisdom:

Ask yourself: How exactly would this change benefit my life? What would be different in six months? If you can’t answer that clearly, you’re not ready to commit — and that’s OK. Spend more time in the preparation stage before taking action.

You Set Too Many Goals at Once

When you’re riding that New Year’s optimism, it’s tempting to overhaul everything simultaneously — lose weight, change your career, move to a new home, and read 40 books. But who’s got time for all that?

Focus on one major goal. Channel all your energy there. Spreading yourself across five resolutions almost guarantees you’ll make meaningful progress on none of them.

7 Science-Backed Strategies to Actually Keep Your Resolutions

1. Start Micro, Then Build

Most people think they need motivation to start. Research shows the opposite: action creates motivation. Set the absolute smallest goal you can think of — just one tiny step toward your bigger goal.

For example, let’s say your resolution is to “read more,” but you haven’t read a book since you were 16. Jumping straight into Dostoevsky probably wouldn’t be a good idea. Instead, a micro-goal could be: “Read 2 pages of that dusty old copy of The Catcher in the Rye sitting on my bookshelf.”

Literally so simple, it would only take you five minutes or less. Once you accomplish that micro-goal, start on the next one. And the next. Gradually ramp things up as you get more comfortable.

A 2024 meta-analysis in Healthcare found that simple habits take about 2 months to become automatic, while complex habits can take 5 to 7 months.⁴ The 21-day myth? Dead. And critically: missing one day does not reset the clock.

Alternatively, you could jump into the best self-help books out there — and perhaps change your life along the way: The Best Self-Help Books to Boost Self-Esteem.

Action Step: Shrink your resolution to a 2-minute version. Do that for one week before scaling up.

2. Make Your Goals SMART

SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. This is a great framework to apply when you’re past the micro-goal stage and want to create real, achievable goals.

Instead of “lose weight,” ask yourself: How much weight? By when? What specific actions will get you there?

• “Am I going to start doing more cardio? If so, what kind and how often?”
• “Am I going to start cooking more often instead of eating out?”
• “How many days a week will I exercise?”

Then create SMART goals:

For extra help with goal-setting: 5 Tips for Successful Goal Setting

3. Use “If-Then” Planning (Implementation Intentions)

Psychologist Peter Gollwitzer’s research shows that creating specific if-then plans dramatically improves follow-through.⁵ The technique works by delegating the decision to your environment — when the trigger happens, the behavior fires almost automatically.

Instead of “I’ll exercise more”: “If it’s 7 AM on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, then I put on my running shoes and walk for 20 minutes.”

Michael Phelps used a version of this before every race. His coach Bob Bowman had him mentally rehearse every possible scenario — goggles filling with water, a slow start, a tight lane — and pre-plan his response to each. When his goggles actually filled with water during the 2008 Olympics 200m butterfly final, Phelps executed the plan from muscle memory and won gold.

Action Step: Write three if-then plans for your resolution. Tape them to your bathroom mirror.

4. Frame Goals as Approach, Not Avoidance

A 2020 study in PLOS ONE tracked 1,066 people for a full year: approach-oriented goals had a 59% success rate, while avoidance-oriented goals succeeded only 47% of the time.⁶

Instead of running from a goal, focus on chasing one.

5. Try Temptation Bundling

Dr. Katy Milkman at Wharton developed this simple strategy: pair something you want to do with something you should do. People who could only listen to addictive audiobooks while at the gym exercised 51% more often than a control group.⁷

Examples: Only listen to your favorite podcast while exercising. Only watch your guilty-pleasure show while on the treadmill. Only call your best friend while going for a walk.

People who could only listen to addictive audiobooks at the gym exercised 51% more often than those with no restrictions.

6. Write It Down, Track Progress — and Fall in Love with the Process

Dr. Matthews’ research is clear: writing goals down makes you roughly 42% more likely to achieve them.³

Weekly tracking is what separates wishful thinking from real progress:

Sunday night: Review the past week. Did you hit your if-then plans? Rate yourself 1-10 on effort (not results). Adjust for the week ahead.

But beyond tracking, try to fall in love with the process. In a study on wealth, 86% of the rich liked what they did for a living, while 96% of the poor did not. If you can fall in love with the process, meeting your goals will come naturally.

7. Build an Accountability System

Researchers found that individuals’ success rate of completing a goal changed depending on the actions they took:

• Having an idea or goal: 10% likely to complete
• Consciously deciding to do it: 25%
• Deciding when to do it: 40%
• Planning how to do it: 50%
• Promising someone it will get done: 65%
• Setting a specific accountability appointment: 95%

Start by telling a few close friends or family members and asking them to follow up. Or find someone to do it with you — a gym partner, a reading buddy. You can use an accountability app like StickK or put together a mastermind for business goals.

But be careful about telling everyone. Research has shown that broadcasting your goals publicly actually decreases success rates by giving you a “premature sense of completion.” Tell 2-3 people whose opinion you genuinely care about — not your entire social media following.

Don’t Forget: Change the Date

Committing to change on New Year’s Day is both weirdly specific and kind of arbitrary. If you’re overwhelmed with work or school during January, start when you have more free time and mental bandwidth. Consider your life and your career, and implement change when you’re best positioned for it.

Embrace Failure (It’s Part of the Process)

No true change comes without at least some failure. Many of the greats failed:

• Sir James Dyson tweaked his bagless vacuum cleaner over 5,000 times
• Steven Spielberg got rejected from film school 3 times
• Abraham Lincoln lost 8 elections and failed at 2 businesses

For every one step backward, you’ll ultimately take two steps forward. Keep a failure journal, be grateful for your successes, and keep going!

Prioritize Sleep

Everything good in life comes from good sleep.

Neuroscientist Matthew Walker has said the negative effects of sleep deprivation rival those of smoking. In his bestseller Why We Sleep, Walker details how proper rest improves hormonal functioning, physical recovery, cognitive sharpness, and mental health.

If you want a promotion, you need to be mentally alert — good sleep helps. If you want to lose weight, sleep deprivation leads to hormonal imbalances that cause poor food choices. Whatever your goals, being well rested sets you up with the physiological foundations for success.

The 50 Best New Year’s Resolution Ideas

Now that you know how to keep your resolutions, what kind of goals should you set? Here are 50 ideas.

Health and Fitness

1. Go to the gym at least three times a week. Health is wealth.
2. Eat more leafy greens. Only 9% of Americans meet the recommended daily intake of vegetables.
3. Stretch for 10 minutes a day. Your sore neck will thank you.
4. Take cold showers. Improve your immune system and step out of your comfort zone.
5. Pick up a recreational sport. Volleyball, badminton, pickleball — cardio plus friends.
6. Replace junk food snacks with healthy alternatives. Trail mix and veggie chips instead of cookies.
7. Drink water every day. Get a bottle that holds your daily target and empty it before bedtime.
8. Replace soda with sparkling water. A good compromise when quitting cold turkey feels too hard.

Productivity and Career

9. Create a morning routine. Cold showers, meditation, yoga — every successful person has one.
10. Keep a daily schedule and plan in advance. Block out your days.
11. Achieve inbox zero. A cluttered inbox is the digital equivalent of a messy room.
12. Stay on top of your to-do list. Keep it manageable and you’ll master productivity.
13. Stop procrastinating. Kill two birds with one stone this year.
14. Stop multitasking. The science is clear — it just makes you do everything poorly.
15. Develop a secondary source of income. Freelancing, selling online, creating content.
16. Learn a new skill. Create a learning bucket list!

Mental Health and Mindfulness

17. Meditate. Take time to center yourself.
18. Keep a journal. Great for mental health — and journals make cool time capsules.
19. Write down things you’re grateful for every day.
20. Put your phone away 30 minutes before bed. Read a book instead.
21. Go on a digital detox. If social media sucks you in more than you’d like to admit.
22. Let go of your past. Be at peace with trauma and regret so you can live fully.
23. Sleep well and consistently. Set a consistent bedtime and wake time.

Social and Relationships

24. Reach out to friends more often. Make a list of 3 people you wish you were closer to.
25. Strike up a conversation with a stranger every week.
26. Say yes to every social invitation for 30 days:

27. Take a vow of silence. A challenge for the extroverts — it changed my life!
28. Spend more time with your family.
29. Spread positivity, not gossip. No toxic positivity though.
30. Volunteer. Your community will appreciate it.
31. Do a random act of kindness once a week.

Financial

32. Spend less. Cut back on unnecessary spending.
33. Invest more. Stocks, bonds, real estate — put your savings to work.
34. Make coffee at home. Save hundreds of dollars a year.

Personal Growth

35. Read a book a month.
36. Watch a new documentary every week. Start with: 17 Best Documentaries on YouTube.
37. Step out of your comfort zone. Scared of heights? Book that bungee jump.
38. Be more assertive. Make an effort to speak up.
39. Be more agreeable. Take our Big 5 Quiz to check your agreeableness.

Daily Habits

40. Do your dishes as soon as you’re done eating.
41. Clean your room once a week. Your sanctuary should look like one.
42. Cook more. Healthier, cheaper, and an essential life skill.
43. Go on walks. Walking through nature improves mental health and cognition.
44. Spend less time on social media.
45. Wake up at the same time every day. Stabilize your circadian rhythm.
46. Bike to work. Great cardio and better for the planet.
47. Donate to charity.
48. Declutter and go minimalist. Great for well-being.
49. Floss more often. Not the dance move!

50. Believe in yourself. Statistics don’t define you. If you truly want to change, you can find the motivation and willpower to do so.

Frequently Asked Questions

New Year’s Resolutions Takeaway

1. Start micro — shrink your goal to a 2-minute version for the first week
2. Make it SMART — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound
3. Write three if-then plans that automate the behavior
4. Reframe as approach, not avoidance — add something positive instead of removing something negative
5. Bundle temptations — pair what you want to do with what you should do
6. Write it down and track weekly — Sunday reviews keep you honest
7. Find an accountability partner — a weekly check-in raises success rates to 95%

Now head on over to: 5 Science-Backed Steps to Setting and Achieving Your Goals.

You’ve got this!