Data & Research January 7, 2009

Goal Oriented

Whether you set a New Year’s resolution – or if you didn’t – you have a lot of company.

Reported by

New research conducted by Opinion Corporation says that 45% of Americans usually set New Year’s Resolutions, 17% do so infrequently, and a full 38% absolutely never do.

Now, we all know that those New Year’s resolutions can be tough to keep. The survey said that a mere 8% of respondents were “always” successful in achieving their resolutions, though nearly one-in-five (19%) did so every other year. The reality is that nearly half (49%) have what was termed “infrequent” success, and full quarter (24%) said that they have NEVER succeeded in keeping their resolutions.

Apparently the younger you are, the more optimistic (or interested) you are in the prospects for change; 39% of those in their twenties achieve their resolutions every year or every other year, while fewer than 15% of those over 50 achieve their resolutions every year or every other year.

And it also seems that the less happy you are, the more likely you are to set New Year’s Resolutions (especially true for those who set money-related resolutions, where 41% are not happy, 34% are moderately happy, and 25% are happy). Oddly, there appears to be no correlation between happiness and resolution setting/success.

According to the research, people who achieve their resolutions every year are NO happier than those who do not set resolutions or who are unsuccessful in achieving them.

On the other hand, other research has indicated that people who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions.

By the way, those who set resolutions tend to pick commitments related to (some make more than one resolution):