If you’ve set some New Year’s resolutions going into 2026, you’re not alone. And if by the second Friday of January – known by many as “Quitter’s Day” – you’ve dropped those ambitions, you’ll also be in good company.
Most resolutions, whether it’s eating healthier or exercising and reading more, are quietly shelved within the first month of the year. That’s despite conventional economics suggesting most of us should be sticking it out (after all, many of these habits are good for us, especially in the long term).
While a “rational” person – which economists generally assume we all are – looking to maximise their own personal gain would diligently make a habit out of getting in more steps or reading a few extra pages every day for the significant long-term benefit, that’s often not the way we behave.
As we know, economics is a way of simplifying human behaviour, and simply put, we’re just not that simple.
For example, we tend to place greater value on things that are immediate – or at least closer to the present – than those further off into the future, even if the future pay-off is bigger.
Reaching our fitness goals or building our dream body is cool, but so is that tub of ice cream sitting in the freezer and the air-conditioned living room we could watch our favourite TV series in. While the benefits of sticking with our New Year’s resolutions tend to take a lot of time (such as months of running to become fit enough for a half-marathon), there’s an immediate “reward” for quitting – such as getting to sit back and binge that show we love.
There’s also the power of habit. Changing the way we’re used to doing things often requires more mental energy (such as learning which brands make healthier versions of the food we’re buying) and effort or time to adjust and familiarise ourselves with the activity (such as learning to navigate a new gym).
Even when we know something is good for us, it’s often easier to stick with what we’re used to. It’s why, for example, people tend to stay quite loyal to the supermarket they’re used to visiting, ending up with a bigger grocery bill than they would have if they had shopped around a bit.
We also tend to be influenced by the people around us. If a lot of our friends or family are continuing the habits we’re trying to break out of, it can be difficult to change our behaviour, because we have an inclination to conform with others.
A perfectly rational human being who knows that more exercise or reading is good for them would pursue these goals regardless of what everyone else around them is doing. But various studies have shown many of us are wired to want to fit in, even if we know something is not right or makes little sense.
So how can we make our New Year’s resolutions stick – and be more like the rational, self-interested human economists often assume we are? (And do we need to be?)
What if I told you that setting up a donation to a rival footy team, political party you hate, or cause you passionately disagree with could boost your chances of hitting your goals next year?
Well, that might be one way of doing it, according to Frontier Economics consultant Carlos López Tris.
We know that humans tend to discount future benefits and place more value on immediate rewards. So, to balance this out, we need to make it more costly for us to abandon our goals.
He points to Stickk: an app created by two economists from Yale University that offers “commitment contracts” users can enter into with themselves. Basically, users choose a goal (for example, going to the gym three times a week), a way to measure this (such as sharing their location as proof of their attendance), a referee (perhaps a friend who can verify attendance), and a financial penalty (such as $50 a week) they have to pay if they don’t hit their goals.
This payment can be sent to a person or charity – but perhaps most effectively – to an organisation that supports a view or cause that you strongly oppose. On offer are political parties, campaigns for and against hunting, marriage equality and abortion, as well as football teams.
Knowing that missing your gym session this week will lead to a $50 donation to a cause you passionately disagree with might just be enough to get you moving.
But it’s not all about “correcting” our irrational behaviour. It might also help to lean into our pitfalls – such as our tendency to want to conform – in a way that helps us achieve our goals.
For example, signing up to a book club (something I’m yet to try) or run club introduces you to people who are avid readers or runners – or who are also looking to read or run more. These clubs tend to have regular meet-ups with expectations people conform to (such as reading a particular book every month, or running every week) which might nudge you to do the same and build a habit out of it.
Conformity can also extend to digital spaces where many of us spend increasing amounts of our time. Following people and accounts that display the habits you’re trying to build can give you a bit of extra inspiration and motivation – but also, consciously or subconsciously, create a “community” you might find yourself increasingly conforming to as you gain more exposure to it.
Finally, the fact that we’re not as purely invested in personal gain as the self-interested humans in economics textbooks might be exactly what can help us to achieve our goals. For many of us, a large part of what makes us human is our ability to feel empathy and do things for the benefit of others. While we can often let ourselves down, many of us will fight tooth and nail to be there for other people.
Finding someone to do our New Year’s resolutions with (such as signing up to gym classes with a friend), or framing our goals in terms of how it helps others (being fitter so we can spend quality time outside with our children) can keep us on track with a sense of purpose that lies beyond what we gain personally.
One of the resolutions I had in 2025 (to get into running and complete a marathon) was successful despite years of giving up, largely because I did it, this time, with someone else in mind. I wanted to give my dad – who used to be a marathon runner and had to give it up because of health issues – a sense of purpose with weekly check-ins where I would ask him for advice and update him on my progress. In the end, we were helping each other.
While we don’t always act like the perfectly rational, self-interested economic human who would be hitting all their marks, we might not need to, to achieve our goals – especially if we can do it with other irrational, imperfect and caring human beings.
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Millie Muroi is the economics writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was formerly an economics correspondent based in Canberra’s Press Gallery and the banking writer based in Sydney.Connect via Twitter or email.
