In 2023, I want to…
He is not into New Year’s Resolutions himself. If he wants to change something, he does it right away and does not wait for a certain moment. Yet, for us he dived into the why and how of good resolutions at the beginning of each year: Thomas Gültzow, assistant professor of social psychology (FPN). And even better, he gives tips to increase our chances of success with good resolutions.
Thomas Gültzow mainly focuses on behaviour change, decision-making and autonomy in the field of health promotion. That perfectly matches with the phenomenon of good resolutions at the turn of the year. It’s a worldwide and very old habit, making good resolutions on New Year’s Eve. “To my surprise,” says Gültzow, “Much less research has been conducted into this habit than you would expect. It is an intercultural custom that perfectly fits research into setting goals. What often happens is that people start thinking about things because there is attention for it. Around New Year’s Eve, there is much talk about good resolutions in social circles and the media. That makes people think more about their plans. Shortly before the turn of the year, people look back on what went well and could have gone better. It is a natural moment to decide on changes. You don’t only see this happen on New Year’s Eve, but also on birthdays or big events. The special thing about New Year is that it offers new opportunities to us all at the same time.”
[Interview continues below the block about New Year's Resolutions]
Thomas Gültzow
Assistant professor of social psychology (FPN)
New Year's Resolutions
"My New Year's resolution is to keep creating opportunities for myself and take on life's challenges with full conviction!"
"The idea behind this is that this year I have noticed that creating your own opportunities takes you to places you didn't even know existed. I believe that life offers you many chances and challenges, and seizing them with both hands actually makes life more valuable and fun. This can be daunting at times, but in hindsight, I am immensely proud and happy that I persevered. This is what I want to continue doing in 2023!"
Noah Sijben
Second-year bachelor student European Studies
"Train less, enjoy more."
"I am a member of an athletics club and have been running half and full marathons for some time with the aim of achieving optimal performance. In my age category, I want to perform as well as I can in this region and for that, I train four times a week. In 2016, I finished fifth in my category at the Dutch marathon running championships. I also ran several marathons in under three hours, the sacred goal for many marathon runners. But now the inevitable has struck: for about five years, my running performance has been deteriorating rapidly, and this is mainly due to age. All this time, I have been going through a performance-mourning process, and I tell everyone that I completely resign to it. But that's not really the case.
Because of that lack of acceptance, this is (already or only?) the fifth anniversary of the above resolution. My head (and my wife) says, ‘Carry out your resolution!' My gut says: 'Come on, go for it again.' In 2023, I want to reduce running to three times a week and focus on mentoring other runners, which I really enjoy too."
Erik Haakma
Project manager Facility Services
"Being more aware of my contribution to a better environment."
"It is an obvious resolution, but that certainly does not make it less important. As a student, without realizing I already do quite a few things that reduce my carbon footprint. For example separating waste so I don't have to buy as many residual waste bags, using public transport or a bicycle instead of driving a car that runs on expensive petrol and eating vegetarian so I don't have to buy an expensive steak. Yet, I do these things primarily to save money for myself. That is why I want to become more aware of the impact these actions have on the environment. Often, creating awareness already helps enormously with improving behaviour. I hope that by taking the small step of being more environmentally conscious, I can make my carbon footprint smaller within my means. That way, it remains an easy and realistic resolution that will still have a very positive outcome."
Lieve van Woerden
Third-year bachelor student Health Sciences
By UM students and staff...
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Fabienne Dingena-Geuskens"I resolve to stop changing myself for others and just live my life. That makes life so much easier."
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Noah Sijben"My New Year's resolution is to keep creating opportunities for myself and take on life's challenges with full conviction!"
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Erik Haakma"Train less, enjoy more."
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Lieve van Woerden"Being more aware of my contribution to a better environment."
Changed resolutions
We are thinking more deeply about our good intentions, and they are different from a decade ago. Who decided many years ago to use the mobile phone less in order to pay more attention to their children? Gültzow: "And then, of course, there are the big movements like Dry January, Veganuary and Stoptober. You wouldn't have easily come across these themes a decade ago either. It often happens that people start thinking about something because there is attention for it. And when they think about it, they decide to make plans to change things. During my PhD research, I developed and tested a nationwide stop-smoking programme and in October, during Stoptober, we suddenly had more sign-ups. Stoptober is clearly smoking-related, Dry January naturally focuses on less alcohol consumption and Veganuary wants people to eat less animal products. New Year's resolutions are much broader, they vary widely."
Increase success
Unfortunately, often nothing comes of those good intentions after the first few weeks in the new year. Why is this and can we do something about it? "We know that people are not always good at setting and formulating goals. We know from research how goals can be better realised. For example, we know that it helps if you set more difficult goals, as they provide more motivation. It is also important to set specific goals and not to be too vague. For example, if you say: ‘In 2023, I want to move more', that is difficult to evaluate. What exactly is a bit more exercise? Goals have to be difficult enough, a lot of people don't know that. At the same time, you have to get the balance right. What you aspire to is allowed to be tough, but not so tough that you think 'I'm never going to achieve this'. Of course, this is very individual. For someone who never runs, running once a week is probably a much more difficult goal than for someone who runs marathons. Another piece of advice is: tell people about your goals, that really helps. And very importantly, formulate your goal as something you want to do and not as something you do NOT want to do. So say 'I'm going for a walk once a week' instead of 'I want to spend one less night a week on the couch'. There is research on this too. When people more often set positive goals, they feel better. What also works well is to set goals together with someone else, for example arrange with your partner or good friend to do sports once a week."
Another piece of advice is: tell people about your goals, that really helps. And very importantly, formulate your goal as something you want to do and not as something you do NOT want to do.
Thomas Gültzow
No throwing in the towel
"Quitting smoking is a very interesting example of a good resolution because it is something that people often do more than once. And it is very difficult. On average, we often see people having to make several attempts to quit. For all those people, it's good to know that it doesn't have to succeed the very first time. If you fail to quit once or twice, the third time can still be quite successful. And you learn from every attempt. During my research, I talked to many people who wanted to quit and hardly anyone among them had never tried quitting before. All those people were very good at saying what didn't work for them individually. For example, if you find that quitting smoking is difficult when alcohol is consumed, you know that the next time you try, you have to figure out how to cope with parties. I personally find this a very nice thought, that people know they are not failing. It didn't work out now, but I'm not the only one and a lot of people manage to succeed in the end. So next time it will be my turn."
By Margot Krijnen
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