Neurocove Behavioral Health, LLC

 Specialists in psychological assessment, therapy, and counseling for 

anxiety, depression, and trauma throughout Florida. 

new years resolutions fail success

Why New Years Resolutions Fail

Why New Years Resolutions Fail (And the Science behind Success).

 

It’s that time of year again. Christmas is around the corner, and with each new year come a fresh set of resolutions that 46% of us will fail within a week. That’s right. Almost half of us will keep our resolutions for less than 7 days. Nearly half of the US Population participate in the age-old tradition of formulating new years resolutions. Whether it’s saving more money, taking more vacation time, exercising, or losing weight, a common denominator is often present: Rapid, Significant change, often with little to no planning. Even as far back as 1988, only 25% of participants were able to quit smoking as a part of the Great American Smokeout, which begs the question:

Why do New Years Resolutions fail so frequently?

A lot of goals for New Year’s have to do with developing new patterns or modifying old ones. We are often talking about improving current habits or making new habits whether your resolutions are about things such as eating healthy, exercising more, drinking less, avoiding smoking, texting less, spending more time “unplugged” or any variety of other “automatic behaviors. Habits are automatic reactions or “conditioned” behaviors. Most of the time, we don’t even realize we’re doing them. The good news is that habits can be changed, and you can set yourself up for success by using a little science.

When developing New Years Resolutions, start small and be specific.

“Walk more” is not particularly helpful. It’s too nebulous and easily side-stepped or “fudged”. If I take 10,000 steps in a day, and my goal is to “walk more”, 10,001 steps are “walking more” but don’t represent a meaningful increase by any metric. Mathematically, it represents a 0.0001% increase. But hey, we met our goal and “walked more”, right? Instead, a goal such as “Increase walking by 10% each day” gives us both a meaningful increase and a deadline for the behavior. This helps with accountability.

Bootstrap your New Years Resolution to another habit

Using our improved goal of walking 10% each day, we can then tie it to an existing habit as a behavioral response. For example, if I walk to the mailbox each day, I can tie my new goal in as a follow-up to that initial behavior. So each time we reach the mailbox, we might then take a short walk in addition to checking the mail. This helps expand your existing habit towards your new target behavior of walking more.

Set yourself up for success

Behavioral change is significantly more likely to succeed when we set achievable goals. While our goal might be 10% (or more), it may not be realistic to do each day. As such, starting with smaller steps can be beneficial as a defeat early on can be detrimental to our success moving forward. Ideally, we want our initial behavior to change to be easy to accomplish several times each week, preferably three or more times.

Now go get em’!

By setting small, specific goals that are easily achieved and tying them to existing goals, we can dramatically improve our chances of success! Looking for some support to reach your goals in 2021? We can help.

 

References

Gritz, E. R., Carr, C. R., & Marcus, A. C. (1989). Unaided smoking cessation: great American smokeout and new year’s day quitters. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology6(3-4), 217-234.

Norcross, J. C., Mrykalo, M. S., & Blagys, M. D. (2002). Auld lang Syne: Success predictors, change processes, and self‐reported outcomes of New Year’s resolvers and nonresolvers. Journal of clinical psychology58(4), 397-405.

 

 

Dr. Benson Munyan is a Clinical Psychologist licensed in both Florida and Arizona. He is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Central Florida's College of Medicine and the Director of Neurocove Behavioral Health, LLC. He specializes in the assessment and treatment of anxiety, depression, and trauma-related disorders. Dr. Munyan earned his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Central Florida. He currently holds clinical privileges at both Neurocove Behavioral Health and the Orlando Veteran’s Affairs Healthcare System. He has also previously published clinical research and articles in peer-reviewed journals including PLoS One and Clinical Case Studies.
Benson Munyan, Ph.D.
Nicholas James Psychologist Orlando Florida

Nicholas James, Ph.D.

LICENSED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST

ABOUT ME

My name is Nicholas James, Ph.D. I have experience working with individuals facing anxiety, depression, stress, trauma, insomnia, and caregiver strain. I focus on matching evidence-based therapies to the needs of my clients to meet their personal goals of recovery and growth.

OUR FIRST SESSION

I believe that change occurs through personal reflection, cultivating strengths and resources, and incorporating growth into everyday life. It is my goal that each session is collaborative and integrates needs, beliefs, and your background into a person-centered treatment plan.

MY APPROACH

I try to bring a genuine, humanistic atmosphere to every session. My therapeutic approach is centered in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and incorporates additional evidence-based practices to address unique needs that arise during therapy.

INTERVENTIONS

Trauma Focused

Exposure Response Prevention

Acceptance & Commitment (ACT)

Behavior Modification 

Humanistic

Motivational Interviewing Mindfulness-Based (MBCT)

Cognitive Processing (CPT)

Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)

Benson Munyan Psychologist Orlando Florida

Benson Munyan, Ph.D.

LICENSED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST

ABOUT ME

My name is Dr. Benson Munyan. I specialize in working with those experiencing symptoms of anxiety, depression, and trauma. If you are reading this, there’s a good chance you’re looking for something. Whatever the origin of your story, you are here. There is no time like the present to change our tomorrow.

OUR FIRST SESSION

From our very first session, skills are introduced, demonstrated, and assigned as practice assignments between meetings. I collaboratively set each session agenda with my clients, ensuring we have time for following up since the last session, troubleshooting any problems with skills or homework, and working on new problems or material.

MY APPROACH

Let’s be honest. Sometimes, life is hard. And sometimes, it downright sucks. There, I said it. I believe we should be able to use everyday language in therapy, and that participating in therapy as our most genuine selves empowers us to better understand the challenges we’re facing as well as potential solutions.

INTERVENTIONS

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Processing Therapy

Trauma-Focused Therapy

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Skip to content