Did you usher in the new year by going to the gym, eating ahealthy meal, starting a new book, or telling a loved one youappreciate their company? One week into the new year, are youstill doing these things, and how confident are you that you cankeep up these good habits?

你可曾在新年伊始主動去健身房鍛煉、吃一頓健康的飯菜、開始讀一本新書、或是感謝愛你之人的陪伴?新年第一周已經過去了，你還在堅持做這些事情嗎?你是否有信心能將這些好習慣一直堅持下去呢?

Many of us make New Year’s resolutions that we give up on all too easily. According to The WallStreet Journal, a recent survey shows more than 40 percent of those polled failed to keep up withtheir New Year’s resolutions in 2014.

許多人在制定了新年計劃后，很容易悉數放棄。《華爾街日報》最近的調查顯示，在2014年，40%的人都未能完成自己的新年計劃。

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 percentstuck with their goals for a month. By June, only 40 percent of those who had made a New Year’sresolution were still sticking with the goal.

另一項調查顯示，隨著時間的流逝，能夠繼續堅持的人數驟降。堅持一周的人數約為77%，而能夠連續一個月完成目標的人就只剩55%;等到年中(6月份)，還在堅持自己新年計劃的人就只剩下40%了。

Why is it so hard to stick with a good habit? Alexcis Spencer Lopez, a life coach and therapistbased in Arizona, US, says we are going about our New Year’s resolutions all wrong. Writing onnews website Quartz, she says we are always trying to change the symptoms — whether it islosing weight or quitting smoking – instead of addressing the heart of the problem. Lopez sayswe need to resolve to make better resolutions.

為什么堅持一個好習慣如此之難?阿勒克斯?斯賓塞?洛佩茲是美國亞利桑那州的治療師兼人生導師，她認為我們對新年計劃的看法大錯特錯。在Quartz網站上，她寫道：不論是減肥還是戒煙，我們總是致力于改變表面現象，卻并沒有解決問題的本質。她認為，我們需要一份更好的計劃表。

Look inside yourself

審視自我

We all want to overcome unhealthy habits. According to Lopez, unhealthy habits are what we doto distract from uncomfortable emotions that we don’t know how to deal with.

人人都想戰勝壞習慣。而在洛佩茲看來，我們養成壞習慣，只是為了逃避無法解決的情感不適。

Resolving to stop the distracting behavior without first finding out what’s motivating it is doomingyourself to failure, she says. Lopez says you should resolve to reconnect with your emotional selfto find out what’s driving you so that you can make a conscious decision to change yourbehavior.

她還說：如果沒有找到形成壞習慣的真正原因，只是一味想要改掉壞習慣，那我們注定失敗。因此，你應該重新審視自己的情感，了解真正令自己陷入其中(壞習慣)的原因，如此才能做出理智的決定，洗心革面。

Sounds like there will be a lot of soul-searching involved. Oh well, if you don’t want to make thingstoo complicated, simply set an attainable goal for yourself. Typically, people fail to stick to theirgoals because their resolutions are too demanding or unrealistic, like committing to losing 20 kilosor quitting playing video games.

如此說來，我們似乎需要進行大量自省。如果你覺得這樣做過于麻煩，也可以從實現眼前的目標開始。通常人們無法堅持自己的目標，大都因其過于困難或是不切實際，比如減肥20公斤，或是戒掉電腦游戲。

According to explanatory journalism website Vox.com, experts who study goal-setting all agreethat the more manageable goals are the ones people actually succeed at attaining.

解釋性新聞網站Vox.com研究目標制定的專家們就一致認為：易于掌控的目標大都是人們真正能夠完成的目標。

Another benefit of setting attainable goals is you can always up the ante. The person whocommits to losing2 kilos and succeeds can set another target to lose a bit more weight. But theperson who loses 2 kilos while committed to shedding 20 kilos is still far away from declaring avictory.

制定能夠企及的目標還有另一個好處：那就是你可以不斷設定更高的目標。對于目標是減去兩公斤的人，在完成目標之后又可以制定更高的減肥目標。但是，對于目標是20公斤的小伙伴而言，減去兩公斤離完成目標還有“十萬八千里”。