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5 science-based strategies for nailing your New Year’s resolutions

五个实现新年决心的科学方法

It’s that time of year again. Champagne bottles have been popped, balls have dropped, and now your friends, family and colleagues are starting to ask, “What’s your New Year’s resolution?”

又到了一年中的那个时候。香槟酒打开了，水晶球落下了（译注：纽约时代广场每年新年的水晶球倒计时活动），现在你的朋友、家人和同事开始问：“你的新年决心是什么？”

Some people love the tradition of setting a goal each January 1. Others argue it’s a waste of time since most resolutions fail by mid-March. But there is actually a logic to jumping on the New Year’s resolution bandwagon despite the grim numbers.

有些人喜欢每年1月1日设定目标的传统。其他人则认为这是浪费时间，因为大多数决心在3月中旬之前都会告败。但事实上，尽管数据不好看，但加入新年决心的潮流是有道理的。

My collaborators and I have shown that on new beginnings - dates like New Year’s, your birthday and even Mondays - you’re extra motivated to tackle your goals because you feel like you can turn the page on past failures. Maybe you meant to quit smoking, get fit or start going to bed at a reasonable hour last year and didn’t. A fresh start like New Year’s lets you relegate those missteps to a past chapter and tell yourself “that was the old me, but the new me will be different.”

我和我的合作者已经表明，在新的开始——比如新年、生日甚至周一——你会更有动力实现自己的目标，因为你觉得自己可以翻页过去的失败。也许去年你打算戒烟、健身或在合理的时间上床睡觉，但你没有做到。像新年这样的新开始让你把这些失策归为过去的章节，并告诉自己“那是以往的我，但现在的我会有所不同。”

It might sound delusional, but it’s quite handy to be able to let go of failures and try again. After all, you can’t accomplish anything if you don’t attempt it, and a lot of goals worth achieving can be tricky to nail the first time around.

这可能听起来像妄想，但能够放下失败并再试一次还是不难的。毕竟，如果你不尝试，你什么都做不了，而且很多值得实现的目标第一次是很难实现的。

If you want to boost your chances of sticking to your 2022 New Year’s resolution, behavioral scientists have discovered a host of techniques that can help. These tactics are most useful if you’ve chosen a goal that’s concrete and bite-size. That means you’ll want to avoid vague goals like “I’ll exercise more” and instead set specific goals like “I’ll work out four times a week.”

如果你想增加坚持2022年新年决心的机会，行为科学家发现了一系列有帮助的技巧。如果你选择了一个具体的目标，这些战术是最有用的。这意味着你会想避免像“我会多锻炼”这样模糊的目标，而是设定具体的目标，比如“我每周锻炼四次”。

Here are my five favorite science-based tips for sticking to your resolutions.

以下是我最喜欢的五条坚持决心的科学建议。

1. Make a cue-based plan (制定基于提示的计划)

Just as cues tell Broadway stars when to step onto the stage, research has shown that adding a cue to your plan helps you remember when to act. Be sure to detail when and where you’ll follow through.

正如提示告诉百老汇明星何时上台一样，研究表明，在你的计划中添加提示可以帮助你记住何时行动。一定要详细说明你将在何时何地完成。

If your New Year’s resolution is to meditate five days each week, a plan like “I’ll meditate on weekdays” would be too vague. But a cue-based plan like “I’ll meditate at the office on weekdays during my lunch break” would fit the bill.

如果你的新年决心是每周冥想五天，那么像“我会在工作日冥想”这样的计划就太模糊了。但像“我会在工作日午休时在办公室冥想”这样基于提示的计划是符合要求的。

Plotting when and where you’ll execute on your New Year’s resolution jogs your memory when it’s opportune and generates guilt if you flake out. (Putting your plan on the calendar and setting a digital reminder wouldn’t hurt either.) Detailed planning can also help you anticipate and dodge obstacles – so if you plan to meditate during lunch, you’ll be sure to decline a proffered lunch meeting.

计划好你将在何时何地执行新年决心，会在合适的时候唤起你的记忆，如果你情绪失控，会产生内疚感。（把你的计划写在日历上并设置数字提醒也不会有什么坏处。）详细的计划也可以帮助你预测和避开障碍——所以如果你计划在午餐期间冥想，你一定会拒绝临时的午餐会议。

2. Consider a penalty clause (考虑一个处罚条款)

This may sound sinister, but ensuring you’ll face some penalty if you don’t achieve your New Year’s resolution can work wonders.

这听起来可能很不好，但确保如果你没有实现新年决心会面临一些惩罚的做法会产生奇迹。

One easy way to do this is by telling a few people about your goal so you’ll feel ashamed if they check back later and find out you haven’t followed through. (Telling all your social media followers would up the ante further).

一个简单的方法是告诉几个人你的目标，这样如果他们稍后回来发现你没有完成，你会感到羞愧。（告诉你所有的社交媒体粉丝会进一步提高赌注）。

A steeper penalty than shame, however, is putting cold hard cash on the table, and there is excellent evidence that self-imposed cash penalties motivate success. You can make a bet with a friend that you’ll stick to your New Year’s resolution or pay. Alternatively, technology can help. Websites like StickK.com and Beeminder.com invite you to put money on the line that you’ll have to forfeit to a charity if you don’t achieve a stated goal. You just have to name a referee and set the stakes.

然而，比羞耻更严厉的惩罚是把冰冷的现金摆上桌面，有充分的证据表明，自我施加的现金惩罚会激励成功。你可以和朋友打赌，你会坚持你的新年决心，或者付钱。或者，技术也会有所帮助。StickK.com和Beeminder.com等网站邀请你把钱放在线上，如果你没有实现既定目标，你将不得不把钱捐给慈善机构。你只需要指定一名裁判并设定赌注。

The logic for why this works is simple. Incentives change our decisions, and penalties are even more motivating than rewards. We’re used to being fined for our missteps by outsiders (governments, health plans, neighborhood associations) but this time you’re fining yourself for misbehavior.

为什么这样做的道理很简单。激励会改变我们的决定，惩罚甚至比奖励更能激励我们。我们习惯于因为我们的失误而被外界（政府、健康计划、社区协会）罚款，但这一次你却因为自己的不当行为而罚自己款。

3. Make it fun (让它变得有趣)

Most of us strive for efficiency when it comes to achieving our goals. If you want to get fit, you figure a punishing workout will be just the thing to produce rapid progress. If you want to ace a, you assume long, distraction-free study sessions are key. But research has shown that focusing on efficiency can leave you high and dry because you’ll neglect an even more important part of the equation: whether you enjoy the act of goal pursuit.

在实现目标时，我们大多数人都在努力提高效率。如果你想健身，你会认为惩罚性的锻炼正是产生快速进步的方法。如果你想在课堂上名列前茅，你会认为长时间、不分心的学习是关键。但研究表明，专注于效率会让你无所适从，因为你会忽略等式中更重要的一部分：你是否喜欢追求目标的行为。

If it’s not fun to exercise or study, you’re unlikely to keep at it. But if you get pleasure from your workouts or study sessions, research has found you’ll persist longer. And in the end, that’s what often matters most to achieving a New Year’s resolution.

如果锻炼或学习不有趣，你就不太可能坚持下去。但研究发现，如果你从锻炼或学习中获得乐趣，你会坚持更长时间。最终，这往往是实现新年决心最重要的事情。

One way to make pursuing a goal that normally feels like a chore more fun is to combine it with a guilty pleasure. I call this “temptation bundling.” Consider only letting yourself watch your favorite TV show at the gym so you’ll start looking forward to workouts. Or only letting yourself drink a mocha latte during study sessions so there is a hook to get you to the library. My own research shows that temptation bundling can come in handy when you might otherwise abandon your New Year’s resolution.

让追求一个通常感觉像家务活的目标变得更有趣的一种方法是将其与内疚的快乐结合起来。我称之为“诱惑捆绑”。考虑一下只让自己在健身房看你最喜欢的电视节目，这样你就会开始期待锻炼了。或者在学习期间只让自己喝一杯摩卡拿铁，这样就有了去图书馆的钩子。我自己的研究表明，当你可能放弃新年决心时，诱惑捆绑会派上用场。

4. Allow for emergencies (考虑到紧急情况)

If you deviate at all from your New Year’s resolution, your instinct may be to declare yourself a failure and throw in the towel. Researchers call this the “what the hell effect.” Here’s what it looks like: You planned to get to bed early every night but couldn’t resist staying up late one Friday to watch an extra episode of “Succession.” After that, your early-to-bed plans went out the window because “what the hell,” you’d already failed.

如果你完全偏离了新年的决心，你的本能可能是宣布自己失败并认输。研究人员称之为“去他的效应”。它看起来是这样的：你计划每天晚上早点睡觉，但在一个星期五忍不住熬夜多看了一集《继承之战》。之后，你的早睡计划就泡汤了，因为“去他的”，你已经失败了。

Happily, there is a way to dodge this fate. By setting tough goals (like a 10 p.m. bedtime every night) but giving yourself one or two get-out-of-jail-free cards each week, you can get better results than by setting either tough or easy goals without wiggle room, research has revealed. Your stretch goal keeps you motivated, and the ability to declare an “emergency” (rather than saying “what the hell”) keeps you pushing forward after a misstep.

令人高兴的是，有一种方法可以避开这种命运。研究表明，通过设定艰难的目标（比如每晚10点就寝），但每周给自己一到两张豁免卡，你可以比在没有回旋余地的情况下设定艰难或简单的目标取得更好的结果。你的拉伸目标让你保持动力，而宣布“紧急情况”（而不是说“去他的”）的能力让你在失策后继续前进。

5. Get a little help from your friends (从朋友那里得到一点帮助)

Last but certainly not least, get a little help from your friends!

最后但同样重要的一点是，从你的朋友那里得到一点帮助！

Spending time around high achievers can boost your own performance. If your New Year’s resolution is to run a marathon or write a book, you’d be wise to start hanging around friends who’ve made it to the finish line and can show you how it’s done. You’ll pick up a bit just by spending time together because you’ll be inclined to conform to their patterns of behavior. But my research and studies done by others show that if you explicitly ask successful friends how they achieved a shared goal and try out those tactics yourself, you’ll gain even more ground.

花时间与高成就者相处可以提高你自己的表现。如果你的新年决心是跑一场马拉松或写一本书，那么明智的做法是开始和那些已经到达终点并能向你展示如何完成的朋友们在一起。只要花时间在一起，你就会有所收获，因为你会倾向于遵守他们的行为模式。但我的研究和其他人的研究表明，如果你明确询问成功的朋友他们是如何实现共同目标的，并亲自尝试这些策略，你会获得更多的进展。

Strangely enough, there is evidence that coaching friends with shared goals can improve your success rate, too. When you’re on the hook to give someone else tips on how to achieve, it boosts your self-confidence (why would they listen to you if you didn’t have something to offer?). It also forces you to be introspective about what works in ways you might not otherwise. And of course, you’ll feel hypocritical if you don’t follow your own words of wisdom.

奇怪的是，有证据表明，指导有共同目标的朋友也可以提高你的成功率。当你主动向别人提供如何实现目标的建议时，这会增强你的自信心（如果你没有什么可以提供的，他们为什么会听你的？）。它也迫使你反思什么是有效的，否则你可能不会。当然，如果你不遵循自己的智慧之言，你会觉得自己很虚伪。

【Source】www.edition.cnn.com

【Translated by】Spark Liao (廖怀宝)

【Illustration】From Bing