New Year, Gentler Change: A Psychologist’s Guide to Resolutions
- Dr. Natasha Poulopoulos
- 14 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Natasha L. Poulopoulos, PhD (Dr. Tash)
“I’m going to workout five days a week. I’m cutting out all sugar and sweets. No more texting them back after they ghost me. New year, new me.”
Fresh Start Effect
Every January, many of us set New Year’s resolutions because the start of a new year feels like a psychological reset—a moment when we can close one chapter and begin another with fresh hope. Research calls this the Fresh Start Effect, where temporal milestones like birthdays, Mondays, or January 1st boost our motivation and sense of possibility.
Resolutions offer an appealing chance to reshape our identity: to imagine ourselves as healthier, calmer, more organized, or more connected. Culturally, we’re surrounded by messages about self-improvement at the start of the year, creating a sense of collective momentum that nudges us toward goal-setting. Many of us also crave a sense of agency—especially after a difficult year—and resolutions provide structure and control.
While some resolutions are driven by genuine reflection, others emerge from societal pressure and the belief that we should strive for more. Ultimately, New Year’s resolutions are less about willpower and more about our deep human desire for hope, reinvention, and a meaningful new beginning.
While I hate to be the bearer of bad news, roughly 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by February. As a licensed clinical psychologist, I’m here to tell you that this isn’t a personal failure; it’s human behavior and there are evidence-based ways to actually reach your goals.
Values Guide Goals
Sustainable change is built on evidence-based strategies, not willpower. Start by grounding your goals in values—a core principle of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). When we connect habits to what deeply matters to us (health, calm, connection, growth), our motivation becomes more durable.
Values are our internal compass that guide sustainable action.
So, ask yourself:
Why does this goal matter to me?
What personal value does it honor for me?
Does this goal align with the person I aspire to be?
When your resolution aligns with your deeper “why,” motivation becomes steadier and less fragile.
Embarrassingly Small Steps
We love big goals—“run a marathon,” “completely eliminate sugar,” “meditate for 30 minutes daily.” But our brains love achievable goals.
I’ll be real with you, shrink your goals dramatically. Research on habit formation shows that tiny, repeatable behaviors create the strongest neural pathways. Think five-minute movement breaks or one minute of breathing, not sweeping overhauls. Use behavioral activation strategies by scheduling the behavior and pairing it with existing routines, increasing the likelihood you’ll follow through.
Here’s what this can look like. If your goal is to “work out more,” don’t start with an hour gym routine you’ll dread by week two. Instead, commit to 5-10 minutes of movement right after you brush your teeth in the morning—a quick walk around the block, a stretch, or a few squats while the coffee brews. By anchoring the habit to something you already do every day, you’re using behavioral activation and routine pairing to make follow-through almost automatic. Over time, those small, consistent reps build the neural pathways that make the habit stick—far more effectively than any ambitious overhaul.
Take a Look Around
One of the most powerful—and most overlooked—drivers of behavior change is our environment. We tend to assume that achieving our goals is all about motivation or willpower, but research in behavioral science and habit formation shows the opposite: our surroundings predict our behavior far more reliably than our intentions do.
One of the most effective, evidence-based ways to create sustainable behavior change is to shift the environment—not just the mindset. Research from behavioral economics, including work by Richard Thaler and Katy Milkman, consistently shows that when a behavior is made easier, more visible, or more convenient, people are far more likely to follow through. This is why small environmental tweaks have such an outsized impact. Placing vitamins next to your coffee mug creates a built-in cue that triggers the behavior automatically, without relying on memory or motivation.
As a health psychologist, I see this principle play out daily with patients working to improve their medication adherence. We don’t just talk about why the medication matters—we talk about where it lives in their home and when it fits into their existing routine. Something as simple as moving medications to the kitchen counter or bedside table can dramatically increase consistency.
Here are a few more examples. Keeping your yoga mat unrolled removes friction—the tiny barrier of having to set it up—which neuroscience research shows is often enough to derail a new habit. Putting your phone “to bed” in another room uses stimulus control, a well-established CBT strategy, to prevent mindless scrolling at night. Keeping healthier snacks at eye level leverages the psychology of choice architecture, a technique proven to increase healthier decisions simply by adjusting what’s easiest to reach. And prepping kids’ routines the night before reduces decision fatigue, which makes it easier for both adults and children to follow consistent patterns in the morning.
When we design environments that support the behaviors—and identities—we’re trying to build, we reduce friction and make healthy choices the default rather than the exception.
