Exercising tops Americans' New Year's resolutions

For the survey, YouGov polled 1,104 U.S. adults between Dec. 9 and 11, 2025, about their New Year's resolutions and how they felt about them.

Overall, 31% of respondents said they planned to make a New Year's resolution or set a goal for 2026. Younger adults were more likely than older adults to say they would make a New Year's resolution, with 43% of adults under 45 saying so compared to 21% of those older than 45.

Of the 25 resolutions included in the survey, exercising more was the most common, with 25% of respondents listing it as a resolution — a slight increase from the 22% who said the same in 2024.

Other common resolutions include being happy (23%), eating healthier (22%), saving more money (21%), improving physical health (21%), losing weight (17%), and improving mental health (16%). 

How to keep your New Year's resolutions

According to Jose Rodriguez, an industrial-organizational psychologist and associate teaching professor at Florida International University, "[m]ost New Year's resolutions fizzle out within a few weeks of the new year because most people will make either vague resolutions or unrealistic resolutions."

Instead of just saying you want to lose weight or exercise more, Rodriguez recommends creating a specific plan about what you want to do, including how much weight you want to do or how much exercise you could realistically do in a week.

Separately, Rachel Wu, an associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, noted that "[i]t's really difficult to change habits, but with enough persistence, sense of purpose, social support, and good resources (like good exercise coaches), healthy habits can stick."

To help people keep their resolutions, Elizabeth Grace Saunders, a time management coach, offers six practical tips:

1. Choose meaningful resolutions
2. Only choose one or two resolutions
3. Make your resolutions action-based
4. Make it easier to achieve your resolutions
5. Monitor your progress
6. Find a good support system

"There is always hope for positive change," Saunders writes. "This year you can seize the opportunity to repeatedly do the actions that help you become the person who you want to be — regardless of what is going on in the world around you."