This One Simple Trick Can Make Your New Year’s Resolution More Likely to Stick

Want to replace your television habit with exercise? “I want to start running” could work better than “I want to quit watching TV so much.”

How we phrase our New Year’s resolution could give us a slight edge as to whether or not we’ll stick to the new habit, according to a study published Wednesday in the open-access journal PLOS One.

Frame your resolution in the positive, as something you’re committing to doing may work better than framing your goal around quitting a bad habit or avoiding a particular greasy food.

Researchers at Stockholm University and Linköping University in Sweden analyzed resolutions made by 1,066 people. The team divided participants into three groups — people who got no support, limited support and extended support — and checked in each month throughout the year to see how well the subjects were staying true to their resolutions.

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