As the theme of this blogging challenge focuses around things related to New Year’s resolutions I though it might be nice to share some facts and trivia about the phenomenon. To start of with the amount of people sticking to their resolutions is actually really low – about 8%.

There’s always a group of people that declares that their New Year’s resolution is to have no resolutions.

Here’s the top 10 resolutions and other  from this year (there’s other stats too there):

  1. Lose Weight – no wonder the diet & fitness niche is thriving
  2. Getting Organized – probably after realizing we haven’t achieved our goals from the previous year
  3. Spend Less, Save More – Christmas shopping, and credit card bills arriving, likely the credit crunch is taking its toll too
  4. Enjoy Life to the Fullest – nice goal, as long as we don’t hurt other while doing it, it gets my vote
  5. Staying Fit and Healthy – obviously we’d prefer the pounds to drop off on their own, but if hard work is required, some people are committing to it…
  6. Learn Something Exciting – new skills are always handy whether they help you at work or you just learn for fun
  7. Quit Smoking – must be cold smoking outside during winter
  8. Help Others in Their Dreams – it’s refreshing to see this so high up that it made the top 10, always nice to earn some good karma points
  9. Fall in Love – awww, Valentine’s Day is coming, so stay hopeful
  10. Spend More Time with Family – good to know your priorities in life (and part of the reason for this short post on a weekend…)

I’m guilty of both 1 & 2 and instead of 3 I’ve decided to concentrate on earning more.

Interestingly if you’ve succeeded in keeping your New Year;s resolutions in one year, the next year you are even more likely to follow through. If you like the long term game, you could use that to your advantage. Considering people actually have a limited amount of willpower you could set less goals one year, and make them achievable, before talking something bigger that you know will cause more resistance from your old habits.

You are also more likely to succeed with specific and measurable goals.
“I want to lose weight” could change to “I will lose avoid sugar for 3 months” or “I will lose X pounds/kg by July”
“I want to get fit” could change to “I will be able to run Xkm in Ytime” or “I won’t be out of breath after claiming the staircase in 2 months”.

It’s also good to add deadlines other than “this year”.

And finally I’ll leave you with this quote:

“There is no correlation between happiness and resolution setting/success. People who achieve their resolutions every year are NO happier than those who do not set resolutions or who are unsuccessful in achieving them.”

Over to you, any interesting stories related to New Year’s resolutions?