Why New Year’s resolutions might feel harder this year – and what could help

January 2, 2026 – 9:12 AM

New Year’s resolution. (Image by Polina via Pexels)

How logistics industry experts plan to ‘move forward’ after COVID-19

Reasons why Filipinos love Korean culture and products

Why Batangas is the destination for budget-friendly family holidays

The start of a new year has long been considered an important moment for personal change.

Psychological research shows

fresh start effect

particularly among young people

, and in which being asked to imagine change can be daunting.

Climate anxiety

political instability

economic precarity

can all make the idea of “starting over” seem unrealistic.

Research also shows that repeated or imposed change can lead to

change fatigue

. This is a state of emotional exhaustion that reduces people’s willingness to engage with new initiatives, even when they are presented as positive. Rather than renewing hope, calls for change can provoke scepticism, withdrawal or disengagement in these people.

Our ability to imagine the future is not unlimited. Studies on

anxiety and uncertainty

consistently show that when people feel under threat or lack control, their future-oriented thinking narrows. Instead of imagining a range of possibilities, people tend to focus on risks, losses and worst-case scenarios.

So if you’re struggling to make changes, the problem is not necessarily a lack of imagination or hope. It could be that circumstances are making it difficult for hope and imagination to operate.

My own research at the

DCU Centre for Possibility Studies

focuses on what psychologists call possibility thinking. This is about how people perceive what could be different, explore alternatives and feel able to act.

A 2024 study

showed that these elements need to support each other. When people can see opportunities but feel unable to act on them, or feel motivated but unable to imagine alternatives, meaningful change is difficult.

This pattern emerged in a

December 2025 study

undermine their capacity

to engage with new possibilities.

This also helps explain why many New Year’s resolutions

don’t stick

: people often treat them as tests of pure willpower, but

research shows

that lasting change depends much more on how goals are set up, supported and built into everyday life.

Decades of research on

behavior change

show that motivation is shaped by context. Time pressure, financial stress, caring responsibilities and institutional constraints all limit what people can realistically change, regardless of their intentions.

Rather than focusing on dramatic reinvention, it may be more realistic to ask what small shifts are possible within the constraints you’re under. Possibility thinking does not mean ignoring limits or pretending everything will improve. It involves learning how to work creatively with constraints, rather than against them.

It’s also important to recognize that imagining the future doesn’t have to be an individual activity. Research on

shows that people are better at envisioning and sustaining change when responsibility is distributed across groups, whether in families, workplaces or communities. Discussing limits and possibilities together can expand what feels achievable.

Vlad Glăveanu

Dublin City University.

The Conversation

under a Creative Commons license. Read the

original article