Navio Kwok, PhD, is a leadership adviser, specializing in organizational psychology, at leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates.
The close of the year brings a natural pause – a moment to reflect, recharge and refocus – making January the month of action, marked by busy gyms and ambitious goals.
According to a survey by YouGov, three in 10 Americans will make a New Year’s resolution for 2026. Topping the list of goals are exercising more, being happy and eating healthier. Google Trends shows searches for exercise and weight loss spike around January 1 of each year.
Psychologists use the term fresh start effect to describe why motivation surges around ‘firsts,’ such as the start of a new year, month, week or birthday.
These moments are catalysts for change because they draw a clear line between who we were and who we are trying to become. They make it easier to put past missteps in the past – to see them as something we’ve moved through, not something holding us back. That sense of a clean break gives people permission to start again, with a bit more confidence and hope.
Yet, that surge of motivation is often short-lived. Data from fitness tracking app Strava shows there is a significant spike in activity on January 1, up by as much as 50 per cent in some age groups. However, the first dip in activity is already noticeable by the third week of January. In one psychologist’s research, 94 per cent drop their resolutions within two months of commitment.
But why do fresh starts lead to stale ends and what can we do about it?
We set them on holidays
Most of us set New Year’s resolutions during the holidays, when we’re most likely to be happy. Unlike negative emotions, which narrow our focus and make situations feel threatening, positive emotions broaden how we think and make change feel possible. Thus, we are more likely to set lofty goals when we’re happy – in ambition and volume – making them much harder to achieve.
To get around this blind spot, we should have someone review our list of resolutions after making them. And we should revisit our list at the first sign of being overwhelmed by our regular routine. Both strategies are aimed at recalibrating our optimism toward something more realistic.
We think about the full year ahead
New Year’s resolutions are usually framed as goals that span the entire year, encouraging us to think about them broadly. Far away goals invite ‘what’ thinking (for instance, experiencing a new culture if we plan on travelling), while nearby goals force ‘how’ thinking (for instance, getting travel insurance). This gap helps explain why many resolutions feel motivating in January but translate poorly into action.
To get around this blind spot, we need to set resolutions over smaller and closer time horizons. If our goal ‘to exercise more’ had a two-week deadline, our sense of urgency and specificity would look and feel markedly different from a six-month deadline.
We should also start earlier than we normally would, even if just by one day. That’s because we often coast our efforts in the moments leading up to a fresh start, pawning off the responsibility of pursuing our goals to our future selves. Sometimes, getting off on the wrong foot at the outset is all the reason we need to push our progress to the next fresh start or abandon our resolutions altogether.
Nobody holds us accountable
New Year’s resolutions are often made privately, with little connection to the routines and relationships that shape everyday behaviour. Without regular feedback or accountability from others, even well-intentioned goals are easier to abandon.
Though people do share their goals with family and friends, that feedback often carries less weight than expected. Advice from loved ones can be easy to discount, precisely because of the closeness of those relationships.
To get around this blind spot, we should share our resolutions with someone at arm’s length and, importantly, who we admire or respect. Because we care about what these individuals think of us, we are more likely to strive to live up to their expectations, adding some reputational skin in the game. During this process, we should also give them the permission to tell us the feedback we need to hear and not what we want to hear.
In the end, the motivation for a fresh start is only a catalyst – albeit a powerful one – that gets us started. Ultimately, it is discipline, not motivation, that predicts goal achievement.
This column is part of Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about the world of work. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab and guidelines for how to contribute to the column here.