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For many people, the start of a new year means it’s time for a new you — a phenomenon known as the “fresh start effect.” 

First, the bad news: We don’t exactly have a great track record sticking to New Year’s resolutions. Most of us abandon them before the month is even up. 

There is some hope, however. Vox senior reporter Allie Volpe has written about how the process you take in reaching the goal may be where the real change actually happens.

“The issue is not the resolutions themselves, it’s the way we approach them,” Katy Milkman, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who studies the fresh start effect, told her. “And that’s where science can help.”

With the new year around the corner, Today, Explained is sharing some of Allie's insights into what works — and what doesn’t — when you’re trying to effect significant change in your life. 

Oh, and we're taking one final day off on New Year's Day, but we'll be back at it on January 2. As always, thanks for reading, and have a great holiday.

—Lavanya Ramanathan, editor, Today, Explained

Aiming to spend less money is an impressive goal, but there are plenty of opportunities to consume (and targeted ads urging you to do so).

Charissa Chamorro, a supervising psychologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, recommends thinking about your values and considering how your goal of spending less ties into them. What matters to you most in life? In what ways can your attempts at self-improvement help serve those values? 

“Maybe your values are to be more ecologically aware and not consume so much,” she says. “Then that can be a motivator in terms of sticking to your habits.”

The problem with resolutions is that they can be too abstract, says Milkman, who is also the host of the podcast Choiceology and author of How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. 

Vowing to be more patient, volunteer more, or save money are all admirable goals, but they don’t offer a guide on how to achieve those resolutions. After you set your benchmark goal, plan how you’ll do it. Ask yourself questions like “When will I volunteer?” “Where will I volunteer?” “How will I get there?” “How many hours a week will I dedicate to volunteering?” Research suggests that when people are intentional with how to implement a change, they’re more likely to achieve their goals.

Context is crucial. If you’re mapping out how to achieve a resolution, like getting more fit, think about how the goal fits into your preexisting routines. Maybe you throw on workout clothes right after making your bed and before brushing your teeth and then you go for a 10-minute walk. Perhaps you want to cut down on alcohol in the new year. Make your surroundings more amenable to that goal and remove any adult beverages from your house and swap your wind-down glass of wine with a mocktail.

For people with limited time, adding more items to your to-do list can be a deterrent. Milkman suggests focusing on one manageable goal at a time. Instead of vowing to be a more present parent, child, and friend, dedicate 30 minutes a week to a phone call with your parents.

New Year’s resolutions tend to be behavioral goals, says Denise Rousseau, the Heinz University professor of organizational behavior and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Jumping into a massive life change isn’t sustainable for most people, because it can feel overwhelming and difficult.

Breaking down your resolutions into bite-sized targets helps people stick to these goals, Milkman says.

If you’re resolving to eat healthier, a first mini-goal would be to buy more fruits and vegetables. Second, try not to let these foods go bad. Next, prepare and consume those fruits and veggies three days a week, and build up from there. “The secret sauce of goal setting is breaking it down into task strategies and sub-goals,” Rousseau says. 

A recent paper co-authored by Milkman, for example, showed that when faced with a big commitment of agreeing to volunteer for 200 hours a year, people not only stuck to their goal but actually dedicated more hours to volunteering when the goal was broken down into four hours per week as opposed to hours per year. 

Sometimes reaching our goals feels uncomfortable and unpleasant, like those first few times at the gym or when your new hobby gets a little boring. That can make people unlikely to persist with the change, Milkman says.

Making these tasks more enjoyable and rewarding helps. If you’re vowing to read more, treat yourself to a latte when you’re about to pick up a book. Or save your favorite podcast to savor while you’re on your self-imposed daily walk.

Or incorporate a social component or accountability partner to help both of you achieve your goals. Especially if your goal is to drink less, enlisting an errand friend is a means of catching up, checking off a few items on your to-do list, and socializing without the pressures of alcohol. 

“By combining a temptation with a chore,” Milkman says, “that chore becomes something that’s actually associated with pleasure and you start looking forward to it instead of dreading it.”

Inevitably, there will come a day when you break your knitting streak or need to spend money on an unexpected expense and miss your financial goal. Everyone slips up, but those who see mistakes as an opportunity for growth as opposed to failure are better positioned to move forward, Milkman says. Missing a few days of a new behavior doesn’t impact the habit-forming process, according to one study. 

Embrace the rest days, the treats, the catering to temptations — and remember the key to goal achievement is persistence, not perfection, Rousseau says. In these moments of fallibility, reengage with your goal. Why did you make this resolution? Where do you want to be a year from now? “The idea is to reaffirm your commitment to the goal by reflecting on what is the outcome you want, what is the self you want to be, and where you are now,” she says. 

Aiming for self-improvement is never a bad idea, Rousseau says, and despite the cliché of New Year’s resolutions, you shouldn’t feel deterred from wanting to better yourself. Just be clear with your intentions, set a road map with smaller benchmarks along the way, and don’t let setbacks derail your progress.

David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

What Jimmy Carter will be remembered for: Former President Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at the age of 100, making him the longest-lived president in American history. More than his time in office, his legacy of charity work after leaving the White House has changed how we expect leaders to approach post-presidency.

Tough-on-crime laws are back. Here’s what next year could look like: Progressive criminal justice advocates' breakthroughs in recent years are being met with a growing backlash, a phenomenon that’s likely to continue when former President Donald Trump returns to office. But some interest in the criminal justice reform movement has remained, which could allow attempts to pass more forgiving sentencing laws to succeed in the future.

Will sanctuary cities stand up to Trump again? During his first term, President-elect Donald Trump clashed with Democratic cities and states that adopted “sanctuary” policies for undocumented immigrants. Some blue areas refused to allow local law enforcement to share information with federal immigration agents or hand over immigrants in their custody. Now, in anticipation of Trump’s second term, some Democratic leaders are preparing to challenge Trump’s immigration policies in court.

2024 in just 4 minutes: 2024 saw over 60 elections worldwide and divisiveness in places like Ukraine, Syria, South Korea, here in the United States, and more. Despite the tumultuous, never-ending wave of current events, people still found unity in cultural fixtures like the Olympics, Brat summer, and a rambunctious pygmy hippo. Here’s a video on everything that mattered this year.

There were fewer gun deaths this year: Murder this year likely fell at the fastest rate ever recorded. Because the large majority of homicides in the United States are firearm-related, it’s safe to attribute the decline to a reduction in gun deaths. Experts say that the return to work and school following the pandemic and a renewed effort at gun violence reduction supported by federal funding almost certainly helped.

Trinidad and Tobago declares a state of emergency: The office of the prime minister has given the police and the army authority to detain individuals without charge and search properties without warrants as a response to the more than 600 killings in the Caribbean island nation this year. Many instances are linked to organized crime and gang activity. [Guardian]

Northern lights for New Year’s Eve: Solar storms could make auroras visible in the sky in many parts of the upper United States come Tuesday night, such as Washington, Montana, Michigan, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and more. Parts of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Iowa ,and New York may get a chance to see the lights. [Associated Press]

 Michael Seamans/Getty Images

That’s the number of kids who died before their 5th birthday in 1990, primarily from infectious diseases or complications during birth. By 2022, that number had fallen by more than 50 percent, thanks to medical and public health advancements.

But around 5 million children younger than 5 still die prematurely each year, with a majority occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. Periodically distributing antibiotics could reduce child mortality rates — but it could increase instances of drug-resistant infections, too. You can read more about this paradox here.

Drew Shannon for Vox

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Today’s edition was produced and edited by senior editor Lavanya Ramanathan, with contributions from staff editor Melinda Fakuade. We'll see you Thursday!

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