If you are among those who were sworn to new and improved behavior at the stroke of the New Year, you run a high risk of failure.
Once the hangover from the past year (literally too!) is cured and the euphoria of the new one subsides, the promise of change is also likely to wane.
Now, this is not to dissuade you from turning a new leaf, only to explain why most ‘New Year resolutions’ fail and the concept itself might be nothing but a fleeting rush of dopamine.
Ironically, it is another brian-rewarding exercise that is geared to help you move away from others that have the same effect.
If that sounds confusing, let’s take a step back.
Humans, quite literally, are ‘creatures of habit.’
The brain learns and becomes comfortable with patterns of behaviour to reach rewards. It defaults to the path of least resistance to reach an end goal rather than expending extra energy in doing something differently.
For example, for many of us, the brain knows smoking as a quick ‘fix’ to a stressful situation. It triggers the desire to smoke each time you are under stress.
And when you do, the body releases dopamine, the brain’s reward hormone.
To give up smoking would entail engineering your environment to cut access to cigarettes when you need them most, improving access to other stress busters or, fighting your brain to resist the urge.
The latter has proven to be an unsustainable action to change the habit. To help the brain relearn and get accustomed to alternate paths takes time and consistency.
A change in the calendar date does little to lower the effort or quicken the process.
But, why do we still feel that the turn of the year is the best time to shed old habits or create new ones?
Why do we still think that we can sin all of December and then expiate and wipe away our faults in the new year?
The New Year offers a blank slate. We unbox 12 new months of opportunity! Psychologically, a new chance to set things right.
Additionally, this fosters self-efficacy - a belief that by aspiring to a goal and following through with it, we sense better control over our lives. The end result - a fitter self, better living - breeds anticipation and excitement.
When the energy from the resolution is still fresh and you follow through with it, the brain again gets flushed with dopamine.
Back again, the reward and pleasure hormone!
Keeping your resolution presents a reward that temporarily compensates for the habit you were trying to let go - smoking, lazing on the couch or binging your favourite show.
The reward from smoking or lazing on the couch or binging on your favourite show is temporarily compensated by that from keeping your resolution.
Once the reward levels drop, there is little incentive to follow through with the behaviour. The rush of creating a resolution again for the 1st of February pales in comparison to the one for New Year.
By the end of the first month, most people are likely to have discarded or forgotten about promises that were created with new zeal and excitement.
Like the New Year discounts and offers that end, motivation too, is transient.
Habitual change is hard. It requires practice and is more often not on the path of least resistance. This requires careful planning, structure and accountability in place.
None of this hinges on New Year motivation.
There is no rational reason why you can’t start showing up at the gym, kicking the butt or getting more sleep in December.
The answer to ending a dopamine releasing habit can’t be another, similar habit.
If you still feel a clean slate helps, then swear by a resolution by all means. But if you wish to discard or develop habits, then put in place a plan that relies little on brain rewards and more on accountability.
Unless, you wish to be an oathbreaker.