New Year's Resolutions: Blame NYC For Your Success Or Failure

NEW YORK, NY – New Year’s resolutions are a little like umbrellas during a hurricane — they’re easily broken. But a new analysis offers this bit of good news: Your lack of willpower may not be to blame. Apparently, where you live can be blamed or credited for the level of success in keeping them

The personal finance website WalletHub looked at 182 U.S. cities, including the 150 most-populated, and compared how success their residents are in keeping common New Year’s resolutions to get healthier, more financially fit, perform better at school or work, quit bad habits and improve personal relationships.

Here’s where New York City ranked in those areas:
Health resolutions: 15th
Financial resolutions: 162nd
School and work resolutions: 169
Bad habit resolutions: 48
Relationship resolutions: 10th

Tell Us: What’s your New Year’s resolution for 2019? Help your fellow New Yorkers succeed with some tips on how you plan to keep your word to yourself. Add your comments below.

New York as a walking city, and with amazing access to restaurants and groceries other than fast-food joints, helped in rank high in keeping health promises to ourselves.

In all, WalletHub looked at 56 metrics that also included the percentage of obese adults, the percentage of adults who exercise, household income, credit scores, unemployment, school performance in GreatSchools rankings, the percentage of adults who drink excessively or binge drink, the percentage of adult smokers, restaurants per capita and parkland per capita.

According to WalletHub, the top 10 cities for keeping New Year’s resolutions are concentrated in the western U.S., mostly in California, with a couple of exceptions:

1. San Francisco, California
2. Scottsdale, Arizona
3. San Diego, California
4. Seattle, Washington
5. Irvine, California
6. San Jose, California
7. Salt Lake City, Utah
8. Austin, Texas
9. Portland, Oregon
10. Orlando, Florida

The bottom 10 cities for keeping New Year’s resolutions, starting with the least successful, are:

1. Gulfport, Mississippi
2. Shreveport, Louisiana
3. Newark, New Jersey
4. Fort Smith, Arkansas
5. Detroit, Michigan
6. Jackson, Mississippi
7. Huntington, West Virginia
8. Augusta, Georgia
9. Charleston, West Virginia
10. Loredo, Texas

New York City came in 34th overall.

If you’re one of those people who can’t seem to keep New Year’s resolutions, don’t beat yourself up too much. You’re not alone, according to Jiuqing Cheng, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Northern Iowa.

“It is not that uncommon that people cannot keep their New Year’s resolutions, and I don’t think it is always a failure,” Cheng said in comments accompanying the WalletHub analysis.

For example, pregnancy can dramatically alter a family’s life, he said. Or, people may lose their jobs through no fault of their own.

“When things change, it is reasonable for people to adjust their expectations accordingly,” Cheng said.

But all that aside, “a big reason that people cannot meet their goals is because they tend to underestimate the complexity and difficulty of the goals,” Cheng said.

To improve the chances of success, evaluate the complexity of goals and unpack them into specific steps, Cheng advised.

Arizona State University psychology Professor Adam Cohen suggested New Year’s resolutions that focus more on others than on self.

“Changing our lifestyles is really hard,” Cohen said. “Maybe instead of trying to become slimmer, we could focus on accepting ourselves for the way we are.

“Maybe try directing that New Year’s resolution energy, instead, to helping other people — to become more charitable or forgiving in the New Year,” he said. “That might make a bigger difference in all of our lives, than trying to fit into smaller jeans.”

Photo by Renee Schiavone/Patch