Why resolutions don’t last?
DR INDRA YOHANES KILING
Every January, millions of people promise themselves change. Less sugar, more exercise, better balance. Yet by February, most of those resolutions have quietly disappeared.
The pattern is familiar, and it is not new. In the 2001 Bridget Jones’s Diary movie, Bridget decides to turn her life around with resolutions to stop smoking, drink less, lose weight, sort out her love life, and become a better person. Over the years, viewers watch her stumble repeatedly. She backslides, enters messy relationships, overdrinks, overeats, and yet slowly grows nonetheless.  Her story has become a familiar example of New Year’s resolutions that do not last.
Contrary to popular belief, most resolutions do not fall apart because people are lazy or lack discipline. They struggle because they are planted in environments engineered for convenience, distraction, and instant gratification. When phones buzz constantly, food arrives in minutes, and work messages never stop, goals such as “quit smoking” or “exercise more” are competing against a powerful attention economy designed to keep people engaged, consuming, and sedentary.
Behavioural science helps explain this mismatch. Humans are naturally drawn to immediate rewards over long-term benefits, a tendency often described as present bias.[1] This is why scrolling on a phone often wins over stretching the body, and why ice cream so easily beats the salad in the fridge. Compounding this is choice architecture, the way options are structured around us, quietly shaping behaviour without conscious awareness.[2]
It is therefore unsurprising that only a small minority of people sustain their New Year’s resolutions beyond the first few months.[3] Many intentions fade well before the year is over. This is not a moral failing. It is shaped by the environments we live and work in.
Evidence from community and family research shows that lasting change is more likely when environments support it.[4] Programmes are most effective when they reduce everyday barriers, strengthen social support, and align routines with shared values, rather than relying on individuals to “try harder” in isolation. When contexts change, healthier behaviours become easier and more sustainable.
The implications extend far beyond families. Workplaces, for example, can become more behaviour-friendly by making healthy choices the default. Shorter meetings with built-in breaks, protected focus hours with reduced digital interruptions, and placing water and nutritious snacks in visible locations while making sugary options less prominent are subtle nudges that respect human limits on attention and energy.
At home, small design choices can also have outsized effects. Placing fruit at eye level instead of snacks, creating a phone-free corner for quiet time, or keeping walking shoes and umbrellas by the door can make movement and rest the easy default rather than an act of willpower.
Studies on indigenous parenting practices show how values such as love, honesty, and role-modelling are woven into daily rituals – storytelling, shared meals, and communal work – so that “good behaviour” is supported by routines, not lectures.[5]
Communities play a role as well. Safe walking paths, group exercise sessions, cooking clubs, and savings circles make change collective rather than isolating. Celebrating small wins through local networks reinforces progress far more effectively than focusing only on major milestones.
If resolutions are to last beyond the second week of January, the questions must shift from “What is wrong with my willpower?” to “What in my environment makes unhealthy choices so easy?” When workplaces, families, and communities take this question seriously, healthy habits stop being heroic acts and become the new normal.
[1] https://insidebe.com/articles/present-bias/
[2] https://thedecisionlab.com/reference-guide/psychology/choice-architecture
[3] https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/new-year-resolutions-survey-2024/
[4] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450128.2024.2446343
[5] https://expert.taylors.edu.my/file/rems/publication/113054_16474_1.pdf
Dr Indra Yohanes Kiling is an Associate Professor at the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences and Leisure Management, Taylor’s University.