Bangkok Post – New year’s resolutions more achievable when specific

DEAR DOCTORS: My husband teases me because I love making New Year’s resolutions, but I have trouble keeping them. Some on my list for 2024 — lose 5kg, start hitting the gym — have been with me since the 1990s! Any advice on how to do better?

DEAR READER: First, know that you are far from alone. Research into the annual American rite of making New Year’s resolutions finds that by the first week of January, one-fourth of participants have given up on their new behaviours. That number swells to almost half by the start of February. By the time December rolls around, only 10% to 20% of the people who made New Year’s resolutions have succeeded in keeping them.

But this doesn’t mean resolutions are futile. News stories about the practice typically stop with just the bad news. The same body of research finds that, six months in, 50% of people who made resolutions continue…