The Opportunity of the New Year

By Lynn Killips, Psy.D., ReCODE 2.0 Health Coach

The new year is a time of reflection and forward thinking about what could be. Many people start the year with powerful resolutions that don’t always materialize. It’s easy to get frustrated and give up if the change process is not well thought out. Real change requires planning, tools, support, and sometimes a little discomfort as you move from your familiar comfort zone into something new.

Something important happens at the start of the new year. It turns out January 1st isn’t just a date on the calendar — it’s a scientifically validated opportunity for change known as the fresh start effect. Temporal landmarks like the new year create a psychological separation from our past selves, allowing us to approach our goals with renewed motivation and a clean slate. This mental reset can be incredibly powerful, helping you put past imperfections behind you and move forward with fresh energy.

Real Success Rates

The research on New Year’s resolutions is actually more encouraging than most people think. Studies show that 46 to 55% of people who make New Year’s resolutions are still successful at 6–12-month follow-ups, compared with only about 4% of people who want to change but don’t use the new year as a starting point. Using a temporal landmark, such as January 1^st, significantly increases the odds of success.

In fact, people who begin at the new year are up to ten times more likely to sustain change than those who say they’ll start later. With the right support, approach-oriented goals, and simple measurement systems in place, this fresh start can translate into lasting transformation.

What Predicts Success

Several factors consistently predict whether New Year’s goals stick:

1. Self-efficacy and readiness to change
   You believe you’re capable of change and feel ready to take action.
2. Intrinsic motivation
   Your goal matters to you, not just because someone else thinks it should.
3. Approach-oriented goals
   You focus on what you want to do more of, rather than what you’re trying to avoid or eliminate.
4. Support
   Change is much more sustainable when you involve others — your spouse, a friend, a group, or someone on a similar journey.
5. Awareness
   Tracking habits, food intake, or behaviors increases awareness and significantly improves follow-through.

When Automatic Habits Override Intentions

Many everyday behaviors are driven by deeply ingrained, automatic habits that happen outside of conscious awareness. You may not even notice them in the moment — sometimes they only come to mind later, almost as an afterthought. That’s the power of habit, for better or worse.

Habits strengthen through repetition, not conscious decision-making. Each time a behavior happens in response to a cue — walking into the kitchen, opening the fridge, grabbing a snack — the neural pathway becomes stronger. Over time, the behavior becomes faster, more automatic, and less connected to whether you truly want the outcome.

Environmental cues play a powerful role. The sight of a cookie jar, the sound of a bag opening, or even the time of day can trigger eating without conscious hunger. Your brain has learned, “When X happens, I do Y,” and it runs that program automatically. This isn’t a personal failing — it’s how the brain is designed to work.

The empowering part is this: bringing awareness to these behaviors begins to shift them back into conscious control.

Breaking the Cycle: Awareness Before Change

Monitoring your progress is one of the most effective tools for behavior change. Even simple tracking — like a food journal or daily checklist — raises awareness, which is the first and most essential step in interrupting automatic patterns.

There’s something uniquely powerful about physically recording information rather than just thinking about it. Writing things down or logging them in an app creates a pause — a moment of awareness — that can change behavior in real time. Sharing your tracking with a trusted person can make it even more effective.

Measuring Habit Strength

Some habits are more automatic and ingrained than others. Understanding where your habits fall on that spectrum can be very helpful. A few useful dimensions to notice include:

1. Automaticity
   On a scale of 1 to 10, how automatic does the behavior feel? Did it happen without much thought? Did you only realize afterward?
2. Frequency
   How often does the behavior occur? Daily tracking often reveals patterns you wouldn’t otherwise notice.
3. Context
   Does it happen in the same place, at the same time, or in response to the same emotions or situations?
4. Cue-response strength
   How strongly does a specific cue — time of day, location, mood — trigger the behavior?

Interestingly, identifying triggers is often more predictive of future behavior than focusing on what or how much you eat after the behavior has already started.

Tips for Effective Tracking

1. Track everything — even what seems insignificant
   Comprehensive, consistent tracking drives insight and change.
2. Physically record it
   Writing or logging is far more effective than trying to remember.
3. Notice environmental and emotional cues
   Track not just what you eat, but where you were, what you were doing, and how you felt.
4. Rate automaticity
   Ask yourself: Did I consciously decide to eat, or did it just happen? Was I hungry, or responding to a cue?
5. Share when possible
   Sharing your data with someone supportive increases accountability and follow-through.

What Gets Tracked Gets Changed

Tracking is powerful because it’s both diagnostic and therapeutic. When you pay attention to your behaviors, awareness naturally increases — and awareness alone can begin shifting control from automatic habits to intentional choices.

Research on mindful eating shows that simply noticing how you feel after eating something—whether it was satisfying or not — can reduce unwanted eating over time. Paying attention rewires the learning process.

Progress, Not Perfection

Tracking may feel like one more thing to do, but it’s time well spent. The goal isn’t perfection — it’s awareness. Every insight is useful, even the ones that reveal struggles or detours. Those moments provide valuable information that can guide future success.

Change happens through learning, not self-judgment. Be curious, not critical. The process works best when you allow yourself to observe honestly and move forward with compassion.

What are your goals for the new year?
With the right support, approach-oriented goals, and simple measurement tools, this fresh start can truly become a lasting transformation.