A year ago I wrote out the new habits I wanted to develop for 2009. Today I can say that I only accomplished 4 of the 12, but I don’t mind since the rest were lousy anyway. And I’m not disappointed because, as I’ve just learned, attempting multiple resolutions at once is the wrong approach.

It’s become much more common to hear people announce their disapproval of New Year’s resolutions, but now we have the science to back it up. A WSJ article, entitled “The Science Behind Failed Resolutions,” has this to say:

“Given [our brain's] limitations, New Year’s resolutions are exactly the wrong way to change our behavior. It makes no sense to try to quit smoking and lose weight at the same time, or to clean the apartment and give up wine in the same month. Instead, we should respect the feebleness of self-control, and spread our resolutions out over the entire year. … Bad habits are hard to break—and they’re impossible to break if we try to break them all at once.”

The article is chock-full of insights about how our brain works:

• The prefrontal cortex (the brain area largely responsible for willpower) can only exert itself for so long before it gives out, like a muscle when we ask it to hold too much. But our prefrontal cortex is surprisingly weak; all it takes is a few extra bits of information to overwhelm it.
• However, just like a muscle, it can be strengthened with exercise. Practicing mental discipline in one area (like improving your posture) makes it easier to have self-control in other areas.
• Research has found that people who are better at delaying gratification don’t necessarily have more restraint. Instead, they seem to be better at finding ways to get tempting thoughts out of their minds.

Bottom line: Don’t attempt multiple resolutions at once; spread them out over an entire year (e.g. one per month). And next time temptation starts coming on, gritting your teeth isn’t the best approach, as even the strongest mental muscles quickly get tired. Instead, distract yourself: find a way to look at something else.