It’s the second week of 2026. Have you kept your New Year’s resolution?
For many, the answer is probably no. Perhaps you are reading this sentence while, filled with self-loathing, you eat something you vowed to forgo in 2026. Or maybe, despite resolving to quit putting things off, you’re reading this article to procrastinate from the task you ought to be tackling. Contrary to what you might have been told—or the thoughts that may be circulating in your head—this is not evidence that you are a pathetic loser. Rather, you just made a lousy New Year’s resolution: one that is doomed to fail.
And you’re not alone. Of about half of all Americans who make New Year’s resolutions on January 1, 22 percent have failed at the end of week one; 50 percent at three months; and 81 percent after two years. Knowing this, you might conclude that New Year’s resolutions are stupid. That would be a mistake. Resolutions are very good, in fact: They are a sign that you want to improve your life in tangible ways, which is healthy and positive. People need something in their lives that’s worth striving for. You just have to be smart about how to make your resolutions.
I would know. When I was in my mid-twenties, I told a friend that I really wanted to quit smoking. I’d picked up a penchant for tobacco at 13. People ask me today why I did so, and all I can say is, “Because it was wonderful.” Well, until it wasn’t. I used to wake up each night around 3 a.m. and light up a coffin nail right there in the bed. (Hey, don’t judge me, smoking for me was a relationship.) But one night at age 26, when I was engaged to be married, I fell back asleep with a lit cigarette, and woke up later with 10 holes burned in the sheets. It occurred to me that it was one thing for the cigs to kill me, but quite another for them to kill the future Mrs. Brooks.
