New Year, new you? Statistically speaking, probably not
Wednesday, 31 December 2025
New Year’s resolutions: many of us set them, and most of us fail - so why even bother?
Two in five Kiwis will wake up on January 1 with a resolution in place, some might even zip straight to the gym, or go for a run.
But just one in six will stick to them, The Post/ Freshwater Strategy with Infrastructure New Zealand poll results show. Younger voters more likely to commit to making resolutions than older voters (67% of 18–34-year-olds).
So we resolve to focus on improved health/fitness (27%), to save money (21%), travel (11%) spending more time with family/friends (10%), reduce stress and phone use, and try new things (6–8%).
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But we don’t get there - just 7% actually have resolutions AND stick to them. It seems like abject failure, though Umbrella Wellbeing principal psychologist Dougal Sutherland is not so keen to throw resolutions away.
Make them manageable and less daunting, he says. Focus on a specific behaviour - so rather than “lose weight” make your goal to go for a 2km walk every second day.
“Tell others about it - this gives extra accountability, plus you might find someone joins you in your goal - doing it together with others tends to make it more achievable,” he says.
Make it positive - DO something rather than stop doing something, it’s easier to start than it is to stop.
“If you want to stop scrolling on your phone, what are you going to do instead? Work that out and focus on what you’re going to do,” he says.
Tie your goal into a daily routine so it becomes automatic - as an example, get in your daily exercise by walking or biking to work.
And make it a habit. Bed it in, practice it regularly.
“There is some debate about how long it takes to form a habit but at a minimum it’s at least 30 days - some would say up to 60 days - in a row before you could consider it a habit,” he says.
“It makes you wonder how we manage to change anything.”
Method note: Freshwater Strategy interviewed n=1031 eligible voters in New Zealand, aged 18+ online, between 5-10 December 2025. Margin of Error +/- 3%. Data are weighted to be representative of New Zealand voters