Did you usher in the new year by going to the gym, eating a healthy meal, starting a new book, or telling a loved one you appreciate their company? One week into the new year, are you still doing these things, and how confident are you that you can keep up these good habits?
你可曾在新年伊始主动去健身房锻炼、吃一顿健康的饭菜、开始读一本新书、或是感谢爱你之人的陪伴？新年第一周已经过去了，你还在坚持做这些事情吗？你是否有信心能将这些好习惯一直坚持下去呢？
Many of us make New Year’s resolutions that we give up on all too easily. According to The Wall Street Journal, a recent survey shows more than 40 percent of those polled failed to keep up with their New Year’s resolutions in 2014.
许多人在制定了新年计划后，很容易悉数放弃。《华尔街日报》最近的调查显示，在2014年，40%的人都未能完成自己的新年计划。

Another study of New Year’s resolutions shows a steep drop off in how long they’re kept up. Seventy-seven percent of the resolvers studied made it through a full week, whereas 55 percent stuck with their goals for a month. By June, only 40 percent of those who had made a New Year’s resolution were still sticking with the goal.
另一项调查显示，随着时间的流逝，能够继续坚持的人数骤降。坚持一周的人数约为77%，而能够连续一个月完成目标的人就只剩55%；等到年中（6月份），还在坚持自己新年计划的人就只剩下40%了。
Why is it so hard to stick with a good habit? Alexcis Spencer Lopez, a life coach and therapist based in Arizona, US, says we are going about our New Year’s resolutions all wrong. Writing on news website Quartz, she says we are always trying to change the symptoms — whether it is losing weight or quitting smoking – instead of addressing the heart of the problem. Lopez says we need to resolve to make better resolutions.
为什么坚持一个好习惯如此之难？阿勒克斯•斯宾塞•洛佩兹是美国亚利桑那州的治疗师兼人生导师，她认为我们对新年计划的看法大错特错。在Quartz网站上，她写道：不论是减肥还是戒烟，我们总是致力于改变表面现象，却并没有解决问题的本质。她认为，我们需要一份更好的计划表。
Look inside yourself
审视自我
We all want to overcome unhealthy habits. According to Lopez, unhealthy habits are what we do to distract from uncomfortable emotions that we don’t know how to deal with.
人人都想战胜坏习惯。而在洛佩兹看来，我们养成坏习惯，只是为了逃避无法解决的情感不适。
Resolving to stop the distracting behavior without first finding out what’s motivating it is dooming yourself to failure, she says. Lopez says you should resolve to reconnect with your emotional self to find out what’s driving you so that you can make a conscious decision to change your behavior.
她还说：如果没有找到形成坏习惯的真正原因，只是一味想要改掉坏习惯，那我们注定失败。因此，你应该重新审视自己的情感，了解真正令自己陷入其中（坏习惯）的原因，如此才能做出理智的决定，洗心革面。
Sounds like there will be a lot of soul-searching involved. Oh well, if you don’t want to make things too complicated, simply set an attainable goal for yourself. Typically, people fail to stick to their goals because their resolutions are too demanding or unrealistic, like committing to losing 20 kilos or quitting playing video games.
如此说来，我们似乎需要进行大量自省。如果你觉得这样做过于麻烦，也可以从实现眼前的目标开始。通常人们无法坚持自己的目标，大都因其过于困难或是不切实际，比如减肥20公斤，或是戒掉电脑游戏。
According to explanatory journalism website Vox.com, experts who study goal-setting all agree that the more manageable goals are the ones people actually succeed at attaining.
解释性新闻网站Vox.com研究目标制定的专家们就一致认为：易于掌控的目标大都是人们真正能够完成的目标。
Another benefit of setting attainable goals is you can always up the ante. The person who commits to losing2 kilos and succeeds can set another target to lose a bit more weight. But the person who loses 2 kilos while committed to shedding 20 kilos is still far away from declaring a victory.
制定能够企及的目标还有另一个好处：那就是你可以不断设定更高的目标。对于目标是减去两公斤的人，在完成目标之后又可以制定更高的减肥目标。但是，对于目标是20公斤的小伙伴而言，减去两公斤离完成目标还有“十万八千里”。