Quit smoking, exercise more, eat healthier: Every January 1, we plan to do great things over the next year — only to fail every time. Here's how to make sure your New Year's resolutions work out.
Can you stick to your resolutions this year? DW is here to help.Image: Colourbox/E. Wodicka
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There is certainly no lack of good ideas for 2022: slimming down, drinking less alcohol, meditating more often, and so on and so forth. Wait a minute! Aren't the resolutions you had this past year, and the year before that (and before that, and before that) amazingly similar to the new ones? Indeed! Perhaps they're even exactly the same.
No surprise! The enthusiasm with which we start each new year is a bit like the fireworks on New Year's Eve: After a loud bang and bright flash, everything soon fizzles out. Eventually, the inner culprit takes control again. And so the misery repeats itself year after year. But it doesn't have to be that way. If you take a few things to heart, 2022 could be a good year for you.
1. One after another
"The biggest mistake you can make is to do too many things at once," psychologist Mario Schuster said. If you not only want to stop smoking, but also ban sweets from your diet and finally start jogging, you're bound to overtax yourself.
"To break old habits, we need willpower," Schuster said. But nobody has that in abundance. Pursuing several goals at the same time also means that our willpower has to be multitrack — and thus is is quickly used up. In the end, we don't get anywhere.
"There's nothing to be said against changing several habits," Schuster said. "The important thing is to take things one step at a time."
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2. It must be fun
So now we have to pick a resolution to focus on. But which? They're all reasonable and sensible, after all. The answer sounds simple: "It must be fun. We need a positive approach to the change we want to make," Schuster said.
"I have to stop smoking" and "I want to stop smoking" may differ only marginally in terms of language. From a psychological point of view, however, it is crucial for the long-term success of a project whether we have to, or want to, do something.
3. Remain realistic
People who spent most of their free time lying on the couch in 2021 and have now made a plan to go jogging for an hour four times a week in 2022 are setting the bar extremely high. Most likely too high.
A proven couch potato should be satisfied if they manage to get up twice a week. Even if it's only for half an hour. "Regularity is more important than duration and intensity," Schuster said. After all, the point is to establish sport as a new habit. Those who don't immediately overtax themselves to the point of exhaustion also have a better chance of retaining the fun (see point 3), and thus also their good intentions.
4. Be accountable
The resolution has been selected and has taken shape. "Now it may be helpful to tell a few people about it," says the psychologist. Because it strengthens the commitment and provides accountability. A promise that we make alone in a quiet little room is broken more quickly than one we make out loud.
5. Do not despair
Even if we manage to stick to our best intentions entering 2022, our motivation may eventually suffer — or we may experience cravings for, say, a cigarette. On top of that, the gravitational force of the couch has never been greater! So we give in, lie down and have a smoke. What now?
"Under no circumstances should you condemn yourself for it," Schuster said. That could derail the entire project. Setbacks are always possible and perhaps even probable. And they are OK!
The focus should be on success es— no matter how small they may seem. This strengthens our self-efficacy, explains Schuster. "Self-efficacy means the conviction of a person to be able to create something by his or her own efforts." Those who maintain this belief in themselves do not throw in the towel so quickly.
6. Better no resolution at all than a bad resolution
Even good resolutions can be bad — when they're difficult to integrate into our lives, or when the driving force is an "I must" and not an "I want."
When we fail spectacularly, and self-condemnation has completely killed our self-efficacy, we must realize that even the best resolution is not automatically good. In some cases, we are better off starting the year without any good resolutions.
This article has been updated. The article has been translated from German.
2021's biggest climate moments
Another year of extreme weather, including unprecedented wildfires and floods, has sparked anger about the climate crisis. But landmark court rulings to cut emissions also gave hope.
Image: Carlo Allegri/REUTERS
January: New year starts without a bang
Many countries around the world banned the usual New Year's fireworks to relieve pressure on hospitals swamped with COVID-19 cases. For Germany, that meant an estimated 3,500 tons of plastic waste saved. In Amsterdam, the taboo on home pyrotechnics looks set to endure, with the city organizing public displays instead.
Image: Christophe Gateau/dpa/picture alliance
February: Arctic chill in Europe
Europe and North America saw plunging temperatures, with many regions blanketed in deep snow. Arctic warming caused dips in the polar vortex and a weaker jet stream, conspiring to send chilly Arctic air south. Disruption of the jet stream can also have the reverse effect, sending warm air up from the tropics. We're yet to see which trend will dominate as the planet continues to heat up.
Image: Thomas F. Starke/Getty Images
March: Australian deluge
Thousands of people had to leave their homes after heavy rain flooded towns in eastern Australia. Gladys Berejiklian, then the premier of New South Wales, a state that was particularly affected, called the inundation a "one-in-100-year event." Some commentators argued that this kind of flooding is in fact becoming the new normal.
Image: Alex McNaught/REUTERS
April: German court rules for future
Europe's biggest economy was given a reality check by its Constitutional Court, which declared the German Climate Protection Act unconstitutional for failing to include climate targets beyond 2030. The court said this would place too great a burden on future generations. The Bundestag toughened up the legislation with a commitment to go climate-neutral by 2045.
Image: Uli Deck/dpa/picture alliance
May: Oil giant held to account
In another landmark ruling, a district court in The Hague, Netherlands, ordered Shell to cut its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030, in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change. It was the first time a private company has been legally forced to comply with the global agreement. "This applies to the entire world, so also to Shell," the judge said.
Image: Robin Utrecht/picture alliance
June: Infernal temperatures
More than 230 people died during a heat wave in Canada, with record temperatures of nearly 50 degrees Celsius (122 F) recorded in Lytton, British Columbia. The following day, forest fires reduced much of the village to ash. This was also a summer of devastating blazes for California, Mediterranean countries such as Greece and Turkey, and Siberia and the Amazon.
In Central Europe, catastrophic heavy rain turned streams into raging rivers that inundated towns and villages as they burst their banks. In Germany's Rhineland, more than 180 people lost their lives. Parts of Belgium, the Netherlands and the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg also suffered extreme floods. Property damage in Germany alone was estimated at several billion euros.
Image: Wolfgang Rattay/REUTERS
August: No room left for denial
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report with an unequivocal message: The climate crisis is worse than we thought and humans are definitely to blame. The IPCC's assessment reports are the most detailed and comprehensive on the topic, in this case drawing on more than 14,000 peer-reviewed studies.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
September: China reins in coal abroad
At the UN General Assembly, Premier Xi Jinping announced that China would no longer build coal-fired power plants abroad — putting an end to a construction spree that has already seen hundreds of Chinese-backed coal power projects go up as part of its Belt and Road Initiative through Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. But Beijing continues to build new coal power plants at home.
Image: Mary Altaffer/REUTERS
October: Recording greenhouse gas figures
Concentrations of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere reached a new record in 2020. According to the report by the World Meteorological Organization, the year-on-year increase was higher than the average increase over the past decade, despite the economic fallout of the pandemic. The WMO announced the figures with the warning that "we are way off track" for the Paris Agreement targets.
Image: Oleg Novitsk/ITAR-TASS/imago images
November: COP26 minces its words on coal
After a pandemic hiatus, the UN Climate Change Conference was back in 2021, but it struggled to decide the details of the Glasgow Climate Pact. With India and China resisting a commitment to phase out coal, the final text agreed only to a "phasedown." For many, this was hugely disappointing, though not necessarily surprising. Greta Thunberg had already declared COP26 "a global greenwash festival."
Image: Jane Barlow/empics/picture alliance
December: Deadly tornadoes in the US
With the year drawing to a close, the US was hit by more extreme weather as 36 tornadoes swept through six states and left devastation in their wake. Homes and businesses were demolished, while dozens of people were killed. President Biden announced an investigation into global heating's impact on the tornadoes. Soonafter, nearly 400 people died in the Philippines after Typhoon Rai hit.
