How to Stick to NYE Resolutions

Title: How to Stick to NYE Resolutions [theme song]

Amina Srna: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Amina Srna, a producer for the show, filling in for Brian today. To end the show today, we now turn to New Year's resolutions. They're notoriously hard to keep. In fact, only 1 in 10 Americans reported making at least one resolution in 2024. Interestingly, younger people are more likely to participate. Nearly half of adults ages 18 to 29 made at least one resolution this year, according to Pew. Joining us now is Columbia Business School Professor, Adam Galinsky. He's got a couple of tips for staying inspired and reaching your goals in 2025. His new book comes out next month. It's titled Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others. Professor Galinsky, welcome to WNYC.

Adam Galinsky: Thanks so much, Amina. I'm so happy to be here.

Amina Srna: Thanks for joining us. Wondering if anyone out there has successfully kept a resolution for a year or maybe even longer. What was your experience like? Maybe you want to give some of your own tips and tricks to inspire others. Give us a call now at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. You can also text that number. Maybe we have some record holders out there. Did you make a New Year's resolution years ago that you're still sticking to? We can take some of your stories on that as well. 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692.

Professor, I cited that Pew study from earlier this year. Here's a bit more. Of the 70% of Americans who did not make any New Year's resolutions in 2024, a majority, that's 56%, say their main reason for not doing so is they simply do not like to make resolutions. Can you talk a bit about why you think it's important to make resolutions at the beginning of the year?

Adam Galinsky: Absolutely. There's a foundational, fundamental concept in psychology called implementation intentions. One of the best predictors of whether we reach a goal is not only whether we make it, but whether we also think about the steps that we're going to take to implement it. One of the most fundamental, important things is to build in those implementation intentions because they are like little commitments on the one hand. Here's the second big key, which is that when we make those intentions, how we're going to implement it, when opportunities arise to implement it we're more likely to do so if we've made that intention.

Intentions are unbelievably important, unbelievably foundational. They're necessary but not sufficient. A second thing that we have to do is we have to build in to our daily practice and our daily habits and ways that allow us to implement that. For example, one of the best ways to exercise, to keep a commitment towards exercise, is to take a particular time of day and do it every day at that exact same time because that builds in what's called a ritual or a way of doing it. I'll tell you, there's other devices, we call them commitment devices that help us. I did Invisalign a couple years ago. I'd started in December, and January 1st, I decided to do intermittent fasting. Now, it turns out my Invisalign was incredibly powerful for me because you're supposed to have it like 22 hours a day.

Amina Srna: You can't eat.

Adam Galinsky: After dinner, I'd put in my Visalign. I couldn't do my ice cream chip snacking at 10:00 PM because I'd have to take my Invisalign out. That was an example of how I knew what I needed to do starting January 1st. Because I started Invisalign, I knew that my intermittent fasting would be more successful.

Amina Srna: A lot of resolutions can be pretty vague though, right? It's lose weight or call Mom more often. Do you want to talk a little bit more about how you identify maybe some core values and how that can help you get specific in your goals?

Adam Galinsky: Absolutely. There's two different things I think that you just brought up there. One is your core values and the other is specificity. The research is very, very clear. There's a term called SMART goals. SMART goals are, the S is for specific and stretch. They're somewhat difficult to reach but not impossible. Being more specific, it would be, I'm going to work out three times a week. I'm going to call my mom every Saturday. Again, this idea of specificity, picking a time, picking exactly what it is. The second thing is that core values are incredibly important.

When we reflect on our values, it has this transformational effect on us. I'll tell you just very quickly a study we did with Switzerland, with a government agency, Swiss employment agency, where people have to go to get unemployment benefits, we did a simple experiment. People coming in, they've just been laid off or about to be laid off. They're coming in to register. For half the people came in, we asked them for 15 minutes to reflect on their core values, why they're important to them, and how they've demonstrated them in their life recently.

Two months later, they were twice as likely to have found a job if they'd reflect on their values. In fact, it was so powerful, we had to end the experiment and give everybody the values implementation like that old aspirin study where they had to end it and give everyone because they'd shown a positive benefit on heart attacks. We have three things that we've talked about so far. One is reflecting on our values actually helps us. Gives us this kind of hidden secret motivational juice. The second thing we want to do is be very specific, which is to think about exactly. Work out 3 times a week, lose 10 pounds.

Then the third thing we have to do is build it into a regular part of our daily life so it becomes natural. Every day, or every Tuesday, we know, at 8:00 AM we're going to work out. My wife and I work out every Monday and Thursday at 8:00 AM. Today we did at 7:00 AM so I could be on the radio show. We never fail to miss those days.

Amina Srna: That's wonderful. Thank you to you and your wife. We have a couple more tips of yours to get through, but I do want to get in some callers. Let's go to Anna in Brooklyn. Hi, Anna, you're on WNYC.

Anna: Thanks so much. Yes, I just wanted to share, I'm not a big fan of resolutions in general, but a very small thing that I tried to commit to last year and succeeded was I'm not a fan of clutter. It just makes me anxious, makes me feel a little discombobulated. The coffee table, which is one of the first things that you see when you walk into the home, used to be the place where the mail and newspapers and The New Yorkers would stack up. I just said, "I'm going to try to keep that table clean." I have succeeded in doing that for, I would say, 365 days this year, or 363, or whatever there have been so far. It's made a huge difference just walking in and out of my home. I'm greeted with some peace and order and serenity. I'm thinking about what to add on to that for 2025 that is doable and brings the same benefit.

Amina Srna: That's awesome. Thank you so much for sharing, Anna. Let's go to one more caller, Nancy in Dover, New Jersey. Hi, Nancy. You're on WNYC.

Nancy: Oh, good morning. Thank you for taking my call. This goes along with the core values that your guest was speaking about. A couple of years ago, I decided to look at New Year from a different angle and think about what are the things I would never want to change about myself, like maybe the way I love nature, and love my animals, and my odd sense of humor. Rather than trying to change that, loving it. The way I look at the world and try to see the good, I would never want to change that. It goes with the core values, I think, that your guest was speaking about. It's a little softer way, rather than trying to fix myself.

Amina Srna: That's interesting. Professor Galinsky, do you have a take on that? It's almost like a anti-resolution resolution.

Adam Galinsky: Absolutely. I say there's a word that I used before about the values, which is reflecting on your values. The word reflection is really, really important. One of the things I've shown in my research is that if you get people to reflect on times when they were inspiring towards others, it motivates them to be more inspiring in the future, and so this idea of strengthen your strengths. Here's one thing that we also know from the research is we want to feel pride in ourselves. We want to feel like we're doing a good job. We want to feel like we're moving to our goals.

Reflection also really matters. Let's go take the first caller. Day 1, there's no clutter. Reflect on that, that you accomplish that, to be proud of yourself. One of the things that research shows is that each time we do a positive action that we're working towards, if we just go about our day, it's not going to have the same impact if we reflect, "Hey, I did that and that was great. I can do that again tomorrow." Just one example, sometimes I get a little mad at my kids, and I raise my voice. I've worked really hard on trying to temper that. Each time I'm in a moment where I might have raised my voice and I don't, I reflect on that, and I feel so good about myself.

Now, that doesn't mean I'm perfect, and I may raise my voice, two days later, but we build off our positive steps by reflecting on them. It's a lot of mental activity. There's this commitment, there's this thinking about our values, there's finding those specific moments in our daily life we can implement them. Then when we accomplish that, that sequence, we want to reflect on it and really build off. That gives us confidence and makes us want to do it again the next day.

Amina Srna: We have another caller who has a couple of resolutions, has made several. Eric in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Eric.

Eric: Hello. Thanks for taking my call. Good morning to you. Your caller has got some really wonderful thoughts going on here. I'm a member of the Polar Bear Club out in Coney Island, and I jump in the water every New Year's Day. I've done this about 20 years now. What I've done in the Polar Bear Plunge is gotten into a routine of making a New Year's resolution when my head is underwater and I come back up for air.

Amina Srna: That's great, a two-in-one.

Eric: What I've realized, yes, two in one, and it's about intention. It's also about leaving the comfort zone intentionally in a safe area, but getting outside of comfort zone and making that New Year's resolution. In other words, if I make the resolution and I'm just walking down the street, it may or may not stick. If I really go out to get on the F train, take it all the way down to Stillwell, go to Coney Island, get in line, and jump in in the water, that is a resolution that is going to stick for the year.

Amina Srna: That's great. Eric, I'm just going to leave it there for time and to get a response for you. Professor Galinsky, something that Erin was speaking to you have written about, which is that there's a conception that you have to go big and be really ambitious with your goals. You write about going slow and steady to help people achieve their goals. We've got just about 30 seconds left, but can you tell us a little bit more about going slow and steady?

Adam Galinsky: Yes. I think going big is really helpful. Sometimes getting away from our daily life can give us that reflection, allow us to make the commitment. Again, the key is if you don't integrate that into your daily life, it's not going to happen. This is what we mean by going slow is picking again that specific slightly stretched but reasonable goal. You've got to integrate it into your daily life. Without doing that, you're not going to accomplish your goals. Again, that's what we mean by going small, is by working out Monday, Thursday. Committing to that. Then you know I just take no appointments any Monday or Thursday. This is my commitment.

Amina Srna: That's your time.

Adam Galinsky: It's embedded in my daily life.

Amina Srna: We will have to leave it there for today. My guest has been Columbia Business School Professor Adam Galinsky. His new book is out next month. It's titled Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others. Professor, thank you so much for joining us. Happy New Year.

Adam Galinsky: Thanks so much for having me.

Amina Srna: That's The Brian Lehrer Show for this year. The Brian Lehrer Show producers are Lisa Allison, Mary Croke, me, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Megan Ryan is the head of live radio. From all of us at the show, happy birthday, Megan. Juliana Fonda and Shayna Sengstock are at the audio controls. I'm Amina Srna. This is The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, wishing you all a happy New Year. Stay tuned for all of it.

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