Hey there, it's Stephen Doberner. You are probably already thinking about the new year and inevitably, a new year's resolution. How often do resolutions actually work? And when they do, why do they? That's what we are asking in this episode. It is an update of a piece we first aired in

2021. We have updated facts and figures where necessary. Happy listening and happy New Year.

I know a lot of people were particularly excited about January 1 of this year.

I got extra emails about, oh, thank goodness, it's finally 2021.

I'm so excited.

That's Katie Milkman.

I'm a professor at the Wharton School, and I'm also the author of the book, How to Change, and I'm the co-director of the

Behavior Change for Good Initiative with Angela Duckworth. As a behavior change specialist,

Milkman sees January 1st is something of a high holy day. Every year, roughly half of all Americans

make a New Year's resolution to break some habit, fix some flaw, pick up some new activity.

At the top of these wish lists, and yes, I am calling them wish lists, you'll see why later, at the top are eating better, drinking less, exercising more.

We asked Freakonomics Radio listeners to tell us their resolutions for this year. We asked Freakonomics Radio listeners to tell us their resolutions for this year.

Some of you set the bar pretty low.

My New Year's resolution is to give myself a freaking break.

I realized I haven't been showering enough.

So I made a new year's resolution to shower every 36 hours, and so far so good.

Visiting the Tide Pools.

That's it.

That's the only New Year's resolution that I set.

And I figured it'd be really awesome if it happened and also totally okay if it didn't.

And some of you were more ambitious.

My New Year's resolution was to read

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