How to Make Your New Year’s Resolution Stick

Your local gym is one way you can tell a new year has just begun. At the start of each year, fitness centers fill up with New Year’s resolutioners who are convinced that 2023 . . . er, 2024 . . . er, 2025 will be when they finally get in shape. By one estimate, 12 percent of gym memberships begin in January.

Exercise isn’t the only way people try to better themselves when a new calendar sets in. A 2023 survey found that one-third of U.S. adults had committed to a New Year’s resolution for last year. They professed a variety of goals: reading more, saving money, traveling, eating better. But I have some bad news about resolutions: Most people quit them. Another survey found that nearly a third had done so by the end of January (a significant portion doesn’t even make it past the second Friday of the month). Almost an additional two-thirds don’t endure February. Only a handful make it to year’s end.

About the Author

Jack Butler

Jack Butler is a former submissions editor at National Review.

Featured Tags

Your local gym is one way you can tell a new year has just begun. At the start of each year, fitness centers fill up with New Year’s resolutioners who are convinced that 2023 . . . er, 2024 . . . er, 2025 will be when they finally get in shape. By one estimate, 12 percent of gym memberships begin in January.

Exercise isn’t the only way people try to better themselves when a new calendar sets in. A 2023 survey found that one-third of U.S. adults had committed to a New Year’s resolution for last year. They professed a variety of goals: reading more, saving money, traveling, eating better. But I have some bad news about resolutions: Most people quit them. Another survey found that nearly a third had done so by the end of January (a significant portion doesn’t even make it past the second Friday of the month). Almost an additional two-thirds don’t endure February. Only a handful make it to year’s end.