Every year, writing or planning a new year's resolution is trending, but most often, these are not followed by many. New year's resolution could be anything. From dieting to working hard, or finishing schooling, it all involves changing some bad habits or behavior.
But changing one's behavior is most often easier said than done. It takes a lot of effort which could lead some people to lose interest or motivation in the long run if not done properly.
However, achieving one's new year's resolution is still possible to achieve by following a few simple steps to change one's behavior, according to doctorate student Erika Kirgios. Professor of operations, information, and decisions at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Katy Milkman, said that this method of successfully achieving the resolution is called "temptation bundling."
How To Stick To Your New Year's Resolution
Use Reinforcements
According to Milkman, one of her resolutions for the year 2021 is to stay off her phone and be more present with her family during dinner. If she fails to do that and responds to her phone's buzz, her husband will donate to a charity she hates. In a sense, she will be reinforced to strictly follow her new year's resolution this 2021.
Follow the WOOP Framework
The WOOP framework is a goal-setting plan which stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacles, and Plan. According to CNN, the WOOP framework begins with wishing and imagining positive outcomes that could emerge from achieving one's goals. The next step is identifying the obstacles hindering you in achieving your goals so that you can make a plan and navigate around them.
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Frame Your Resolutions Positively to Increase the Likelihood of Success
According to a study by researchers from Stockholm University and Linköping University in Sweden, published in the open-access journal PLOS One, framing your resolution positively will increase the likelihood of succeeding in fulfilling it. The researchers have noticed that those with "approach" goals were 12% more likely to achieve their goals.
Factor In Your Cheat Day
Slipups could happen so factoring them in will help in the success of achieving your goals. Rather than trying to do it every day, perhaps you can allot five days out of seven days of the week for your goal.
In that way, you could avoid what experts call the Abstinence Violation Effect. That is the phenomenon when you would say "screw it" after failing to comply or follow your goal for a day. That would then lead to sliding even more to not following your goal, which means that you could be unsuccessful in achieving your new year's resolution.
Make Tinier New Year's Resolutions This Year
According to a report in The New York Times, making tiny changes in your day to create a routine instead of following a rigid schedule might be better to achieve your new year's resolutions. Changing your habits little by little would help rather than totally replacing them.
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