As the new year gets underway, millions will make resolutions. The author explains why resolving to live in accordance with the way humans have evolved could go a long way to increasing happiness.
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation and Dilpreet Kaur, The Conversation
What research says about how to stick to your New Year’s resolutions
The Conversation, CC BY82.9 MB(download)
Today, experts will be sharing with us insights into how to make a change in your life -- big or small -- using evidence from the world of academic research.
We often set generic goals, such as to exercise more. Because these don’t necessarily tap into our personal motivations, we may not follow through. Goals that are meaningful to you are more effective.
Are your new diet, exercise, meditation and self-care resolutions for 2020 really a personal choice? Or are you a model western “biocitizen,” living a life of unfreedom?
Could your resolution resilience use a little science to back it up? A new study suggests practice can help your self-control – but don’t push it too far.
Reinforcement of the idea that exercise will lead to weight loss acts as a disincentive for those who stick to their exercise goals to only find the scales haven’t turned in their favour.
Every year, millions of people around the world make New Year’s resolutions. And every year, the great majority of us break and abandon those resolutions. Psychology research can help.
Recent psychological research highlights several reasons why New Year’s resolutions might actually work - as well as simple ways to set yourself up for success.
In setting out our resolutions, we should first step back and take stock of what it is that we really want, what we consider the good life to be, and then think about how best we might achieve it.