The High Caliber Guide to Starting Traditions That Don’t Suck

Let’s just say it: most New Year’s resolutions suck. They start with a burst of guilt, followed by an overly ambitious promise, and crash-land somewhere around mid-January when your planner gets buried under three loads of laundry and one identity crisis.

And yet, every year, we do it again. We pledge to be healthier, calmer, more organized, less addicted to caffeine, and suddenly fluent in Italian — as if willpower alone is enough to overhaul a personality. Spoiler: it’s not.

So how do you actually stick to a resolution? You make it fun. Really fun.

A study from the University of Chicago found that people are way more likely to repeat a behavior if they genuinely enjoy it. Which kind of makes sense, right? Fun things are easier to keep doing than, say, waking up at 5 AM to jog in 17-degree weather while reevaluating your life choices.

Here’s what that looks like in real life:

1. Make it social

Accountability sounds great until it feels like pressure. So instead of shaming yourself into progress, try making it about connection. Go roller skating with a friend. Join a chaotic pub trivia team. Start a monthly game night. It’s easier to keep a resolution when you actually look forward to it.

2. Make it weird (in a good way)

No one said your resolution had to be normal. “Work on hand-eye coordination” could mean throwing foam darts at your roommate. “Get stronger” might look like swinging an axe at a stress wall. Let your goals be as unhinged as they are effective.

3. Make it flexible

Perfection is a fast track to giving up. So ditch the all-or-nothing mindset. Doing something once a week, once a month, or whenever-you-remember-it’s-January still counts. Call it your Chaos Schedule. Let it be messy and let it work.

4. Make it yours

The fastest way to kill motivation is copying someone else’s routine. You don’t need to run a marathon if you hate running. If your version of “better” is mastering the claw machine or learning how to build a fort like an adult, that’s valid. Set goals that feel like you.

5. Make it feel like a reward, not a punishment

Your resolution shouldn’t feel like a punishment for who you were last year. Let it be a gift to the future you — the one who still needs to blow off steam, laugh at dumb stuff, and have something exciting to look forward to.

The truth is, if you want to stick to a resolution, you have to make it worth repeating. Habits form when they’re enjoyable, not when they feel like penance.

Need more ideas that don’t suck the life out of your January? We wrote a whole thing on why side quests are the best kind of goals, worth a read if you’re still figuring out how to have fun again.