Dark Brightness

I normally do not make resolutions or goals. My non resolution resolution may not be smart. Full article is worth reading.

But those discouraging statistics mask an important truth: The simple act of making a New Year’s resolution sharply improves your chances of accomplishing a positive change—by a factor of 10. Among those people who make resolutions in a typical year, 46% keep them for at least six months. That compares with only 4% of a comparable group of people who wanted to make specific changes and thought about doing so, but stopped short of making an actual resolution, says a 2002 study of 282 people, led by Dr. Norcross and published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

via How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions – WSJ.com.

This piqued my curiosity. Let’s look at the abstract: which does fairly accurately summarise the survey.

Auld lang Syne: Success predictors, change processes, and self-reported outcomes of New Year’s resolvers and nonresolvers

John C. Norcross, Marci S. Mrykalo, Matthew D. Blagys

University of Scranton

Abstract

New Year’s resolvers (n = 159) and comparable nonresolvers interested in changing a problem later (n = 123) were followed for six months via telephone interviews to determine their self-reported outcomes, predictors of success, and change processes. The two groups did not differ in terms of demographic characteristics, problem histories, or behavioral goals (weight loss, exercise program, and smoking cessation being the most prevalent). Resolvers reported higher rates of success than nonresolvers; at six months, 46% of the resolvers were continuously successful compared to 4% of the nonresolvers. Self-efficacy, skills to change, and readiness to change assessed before January 1 all predicted positive outcome for resolvers. Once into the new year, successful resolvers employed more cognitive-behavioral processes but fewer awareness-generating and emotion-enhancing processes than nonsuccessful resolvers. Discussion centers on the research and intervention opportunities afforded by the annual tradition of resolutions. ©  J Clin Psychol 2002 58: 397-405, 2002

I needed to login to the uni to read the paper. It is not publically available. Like all papers, it has weaknesses:

• Telephone survey: many people say no. No evidence of response rate. It is very, very hard to publish nowadays without this piece of data — and it is very hard to get an acceptable response rate in areas close to academic centres because people are “surveyed out”.
• Mainly white, Pennsylvianians. They may make more New Year’s resolutions than surly New Zealanders.
• Completely self report and self assessment of success. This is less of a problem than one would think as most people are fairly consistent in the level of distortion of their habits they accept.

However… to make a change.

• Set a goal.
• Small achievable changes.
• Accept setbacks and get on program. Falling off the wagon is a chance to learn what mistake you made, not a sign you are unable to do this.
• Emotions are less important than a plan….

I better, therefore, set some goals