Sticking to it

And not too late to re-commit

Behavioral New World

February 1, 2025

Sticking to it

“According to the Pew Research Center in 2024, 13 percent of people dropped their resolutions by the end of January. Experts say by the end of February, almost everyone gives up.” (source)

These statistics are discouraging to be sure, especially considering that many of our resolutions – New Year’s versions and otherwise – focus on the important topics of our mental, physical, and financial health. How can we do better? One path focuses on the age-old notion of accountability. And that is usually defined as being responsible to an agreement or promise.

There are a number of strategies that create a greater sense of accountability. When we are accountable, we are more likely to follow through, allowing us to overcome the “present bias” (link) associated with short-term discomfort.

First, public declarations can be a highly useful tool for increasing one’s accountability to a goal. These can take many forms. You could tell your friends and family about your goal(s). Or consider a broader audience, e.g., members of your church or your coworkers. There are also websites such as this one (link) where you can go public with your goals.

Important: the goal has to be credible and measurable. “I will lose weight in 2025” isn’t specific enough. “I will lose 10 pounds by March 1” is better. (Better still is “I will lose 10 pounds by March 1, 2025.”)

The idea is clearly that the more people to whom you have “promised” the achievement of your goal, the more likely you are to be accountable and actually achieve it. There is a “name and shame” aspect to this: it’s your name and your shame. In front of lots (dozens? hundreds? more?) of people. A potentially cruel tactic, but effective.

Second, Annie Duke (link), former professional poker player, offers another tool: “propositional bets,” or “prop bets.” These are popular among poker players. But you don’t have to be one to make this mental trick work for you: “I bet $100 that I’ll lose 10 pounds by March 1. Any takers?” Again, more incentive to be accountable. And a penalty to go along with noncompliance: a lighter wallet.

Third, for our financial health, the Save More Tomorrow approach (link) has us commit to future, not present, increases in savings. You commit to increase your savings from future pay raises. Research shows this to be effective. And this can be achieved in a less public way than the above approaches.

Fourth, delaying a task – in an intentional way – can increase the chance of the task being accomplished, if done in the right way. Take the topic of password security, for instance. I think it’s fair to say that for the average human, changing a password frequently – as we all should for security purposes – seems as onerous as having one’s teeth pulled. But one study (link) reports: “…adding an option to delay the task increases the share of people willing to eventually change their password considerably.” This may be effective because doing it immediately can interrupt an important task. When participants were later reminded of their commitment, they were more likely to follow through.

Finally, imagining your future self can be helpful as well. Because resolutions are about improving oneself, they are about our future self. You can use aging software (e.g., here) to see your older self. Feeling a connection to that person, and pondering how you might feel about life in later years if you haven’t achieved your goals, can be a huge motivator. So have some compassion for that (future) person!