The tradition of setting New Year's resolutions is facing a significant challenge, with many people, particularly the young, finding it harder to muster enthusiasm for personal change as 2026 begins. Psychological research indicates that calendar landmarks like the new year can act as mental reset points, a phenomenon known as the 'fresh start effect'. However, a backdrop of global uncertainty is making the act of 'starting over' feel increasingly unrealistic for many.
The Weight of the World on Resolutions
Experts point to a confluence of pressures that are narrowing our capacity for future-oriented thinking. Climate anxiety, political instability, and economic precarity are creating a pervasive sense of threat and reduced control. When people feel this way, studies show their focus shifts towards risks and worst-case scenarios, rather than a range of positive possibilities. This isn't a failure of imagination or hope, but rather a sign that current circumstances are stifling those very faculties.
Compounding this is the concept of change fatigue. This state of emotional exhaustion, identified by researchers, reduces people's willingness to engage with new initiatives, even positive ones. In a world of constant, often imposed change—from workplace upheavals to global crises—calls for personal renewal can provoke scepticism or withdrawal instead of motivation.
Possibility Thinking Within Limits
Professor Vlad Glăveanu, a psychology expert at Dublin City University Business School, researches 'possibility thinking'—how people perceive and act on alternatives. His work, including a December 2025 study co-authored with teachers, reveals a crucial insight. When change feels unfair, unsupported, or potentially harmful, people are less likely to engage and more likely to push back.
This pattern was evident when teachers, already part of a development programme, learned their school was to be demolished. The prospect of another major 'fresh start' led to emotional fatigue and depleted motivation, not excitement. This example underscores why grand resolutions often fail: they are treated as tests of willpower, ignoring the powerful role of context and support.
A New Approach to Change
Decades of behaviour science confirm that motivation is shaped by real-world constraints like time pressure, financial stress, and caring duties. Therefore, a more effective strategy involves working creatively with limits, not against them. This means setting gentle, realistic goals that fit within existing life structures.
For instance, instead of a vague resolution to 'get fit', a more sustainable goal could be: 'I will add a 10-minute walk into my daily routine and adjust it weekly based on what is actually workable.'
Critically, imagining the future doesn't have to be a solitary struggle. Research on shared or collective agency shows people are better at sustaining change when responsibility is distributed. A family, for example, might resolve to eat more home-cooked meals by dividing menu planning, cooking nights, and prep tasks among all members.
In a climate marked by uncertainty and fatigue, meaningful renewal is unlikely to spring from pressured individual reinvention. It may instead come from learning to imagine differently: with others, within acknowledged limits, and through small, supported shifts that make positive change feel genuinely possible again.
