Falling back on New Year’s resolutions

Here we are in the last half of January, but the majority of people who made New Year’s resolutions have already given up.

Research shows that only a fraction of people will stay on course and make the changes they have laid out, but even a setback isn’t a reason to call it quits.

Despite good intentions, after just two weeks, the vast majority of us will fall short of our New Year’s goals. Many involve giving up a well-honed habit: overeating, smoking, drinking, shopping– even working too much or scrolling too much.

“Odds are, over 90% of people slip up when they try to break a bad habit,” said Dr. Adi Jaffe, psychologist and author of “Unhooked.”

In January, WINK News reporter Amy Oshier reached out to Jaffe, who wrote a book on how to unhook yourself from habits you want to break.

He told us that too many people view a setback as game over.

“They think that they have failed because they’ve slipped back. It’s that belief and failure that actually causes more people to try to stop trying,” Jaffe said.

As the old saying goes, “Perfect is the enemy of good.”

Jaffe said that we should recognize that shifting behaviors takes practice and a plan because we foster our habits for a reason.

“If you just take them out of the equation, you’re left without a coping mechanism, and you’re not going to be successful because you’re going to need something to cope with them. Again, research has shown us it is much better to replace a bad behavior with a good one,” he said.

Creating new routines helps disconnect from old patterns. If it’s not going well, hit reset.

“It’s like doing anything new. You’re going to keep getting better at it, and what you’ll see is, over time, your old habits will go down, and your new habits will go up,” Jaffe said.

Measure how many times you get it right, not wrong. A positive mindset goes a long way.

This might give you some encouragement: Studies show it takes at least three months to really begin to shift in behavior. The biggest holdup is giving up too soon.