The stats are in. Most people plan to prioritise their fitness for the new year.
A recent Forbes Health article titled “New Year Resolutions Statistics 2024”, shows that most respondents plan to prioritise fitness for the new year.
According to Forbes Health: “The most commonly-selected new year’s resolution for 2024 among respondents was fitness, which contrasts with findings from the previous year. The previous Forbes Health/OnePoll survey in 2022, showed that many people were prioritising their mental health, rather than their physical health, in their resolutions for 2023.”
Forbes Health also listed the top five 2024 resolutions from surveyed respondents as improved fitness (48%), improved finances (38%), improved mental health (36%), to lose weight (34%), and improved diet (32%). Less popular resolutions included travelling more (6%), meditating regularly (5%), drinking less alcohol (3%) and performing better at work (3%).
The article also stated that the shelf-life of a New Year’s Resolution is approximately 3.74 months.
Now if you find yourself falling into this latter group statistic each year and struggling to maintain resolutions, a separate Forbes article provided tips and strategies for yearly maintenance. These are:
Reduce stress when making resolutions
Talk to yourself (i.e. nurture your inner voice to promote positive self-talk)
Exercise
Partner up (research shows that self-control is ‘contagious’ and people should be selective with whom they spend their time)
Express empathy (expressing empathy for others’ situations was shown to refine personal self-control and goal-setting over time).
Seeing fitness become the top priority for 2024, among most of the people polled in 2023 comes as no surprise to me. I can attest to the positive effect fitness has on my own life year round as well as on the lives of many others. I wish you readers a fit, Happy and Healthy New Year.
