The new year has begun. That is the time again. Approximately 30 million adults in the UK are expected to make a new year's resolution in 2023, according to a recent survey. Making more money, personal improvement, and losing weight are some of the resolutions that will be made in the coming year.
Will we get it done? Most of the resolutions will be abandoned by January 19 according to a survey by the app Strava.
Promises fail before the end of January due to being vague. Being healthy, happy, and earning more money are some of the qualities they focus on.
We don't have enough direction due to vague goals. It's hard to know which path to take if we don't know where we're going. It is not possible to know how far we have to travel, what obstacles we will have to overcome, and how to prepare for them.
We set ourselves unrealistic goals to challenge ourselves. Our brains love the idea of effort, but we find it uncomfortable.
If we challenge ourselves to achieve a difficult goal, we will feel better.
The other reason for this is that we are biased towards the present. It's hard to imagine how difficult it will be for our future selves to achieve these resolutions.
We don't think of the process or journey to get there when we think of the end point. It is easy to see the end point as close as possible to what we are working towards.
Mental shortcuts are created to navigate the world. Our brains find it easier to act when they have been trained to do so.
The longer we have had these habits, the deeper they are ingrained.
When we park in front of the telly at night, we may reach for the jar of biscuits without thinking. We snooze when the alarm goes off.
Our brains are lazy and want to minimize cognitive load, which means we repeat what we find pleasurable rather than consider many different and new options.
It's easy to take these short cuts that don't offer much resistance. Some people may find it more difficult to break their habits than others.
We often need to change our habits to achieve our goals. We are tempted to return to a more comfortable place. We give up our resolutions because of that.
Status quo bias is a part of this. We're more likely to stick with the status quo, rather than change our habits, because it takes a lot of time and effort.
The more we focus on the goal, the harder it will be for us to change our mindsets and create the habits we need to achieve it.
The more stressed we are the more likely we are to fall into a place of comfort.
Areas at the back of the brain are usually engaged when we engage in habitual behavior. The prefrontal cortex, which is involved in highly complex cognitive tasks, is one of the areas of the brain that we need to engage.
The study showed that our behavior involves communication between two different parts of the brain, the prefrontal cortex and the frontal eye field.
We try to avoid it because it's more difficult for our brain to process.
Being aware of the patterns of behavior that we have learned over the years and knowing how hard it is to change them is required for changing habits.
It's impossible if you can't see the new you. You need to know the real you if you want to change yourself.
Setting clear, achievable goals such as devoting an extra hour a week to your favorite hobby or banning biscuits in the evenings only will help you achieve them.
The process of achieving our goals needs to be appreciated and celebrated. The negative aspects of the experience can lead to stress and anxiety. Negative feelings demand more attention.
The more we focus on the negatives in our lives, the more we are likely to feel down and miss out on the positives.
We are more likely to change our mindsets if we focus on the positives of ourselves.
Accept yourself and understand why you are who you are. You might prefer to stick to the motto "new year, same old me" if you do that. There isn't anything wrong with that.
The Visiting Professor of Social Inequities and Injustice is a woman.
Under a Creative Commons license, this article is re-posted. The original article is worth a read.
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