Don't dismiss New Year's resolutions as trivial.
Folks who make them are 10 times more likely to make a desired change than those who don't, says psychologist John Norcross, a pioneering change researcher at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.
Forty percent to 45% of adults will make New Year's resolutions going into 2003, Norcross says. Standard pledges include exercising, losing weight and giving up cigarettes, goals that can bring significant benefits, he says. ''These are health-enhancing and potentially life-saving'' changes.
Many resolutions will crash and burn. But making a formal decision to modify behavior really does help, his research shows, although long-term change requires a carefully thought-out plan as well as a pledge, says Norcross, co-author of Changing for Good.
As part of his research on change, his team studied 159 ''resolvers'' and 123 who wanted to change but made no resolutions.
About 46% of the resolvers altered their behavior during six months of follow-up telephone interviews, compared with only 4% of those who also wanted to change but didn't make a pledge. His research appeared in the Journal of Clinical Psychology.
Norcross and others also say a pledge alone will not be enough to guarantee long-term success. Norcross' earlier studies indicate 81% of resolutions are broken within two years. Changing requires ''more than just the desire,'' he says. ''You need to know how to execute a plan, how to form the specific skills to keep you there.''
A plan, a commitment to change, as well as ''a clear view of the benefits, what is gained as well as what is given up,'' is needed, says William Knaus of the Center for Creative Change in Longmeadow, Mass., and co-author of Overcoming Procrastination. And ''at the beginning, you just have to grind it out. Act differently, and practice, practice'' until the new behavior ''becomes part of what you do.''
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