If you’re looking toward 2017 in hopes that it will be a happier, healthier, more financially secure year than the one coming to a close, you’re certainly not alone. Every year, almost half of the population (45 percent) makes some form of New Year’s resolution, but only 8 percent of that group ultimately achieves what they set out to change. The rest of us are left to languish in our unhealthy, unhappy habits until Jan. 1 rolls around yet again and we muster our courage to give it another go.
If New Year’s resolutions are so often unsuccessful, why do we make them at all? It turns out that we consider events like New Year’s Day, our birthdays, and the start of a new school year to be “temporal landmarks.” That is, they symbolize the passage of time and allow us to feel that the days and months ahead are a blank slate we can fill with better versions of ourselves and our habits.
