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How's that resolution coming? Are you still planning to have more "me" time or lose ten pounds, or I don't know, read the entire Bible in a year? Statistically you've already given up because humans are both lazy and irrationally inclined to buy into unrealistic self-help projects based around arbitrary dates and goals, as if the coming of a New Year is a good time achieve something you couldn't pull off any other time of year. Humans. We're so stupid!

I used Google Trends, a free service that generates charts based on what people are searching for, and when, to show you how noncommittal you probably are.



"Resolution"

graph of resolutions

People only seem to care about resolutions from November to the end of January.

"Diet"

graph for 'diet'

Diets plummet in the fall and then peak again for a little while at the end of the year.


"Get Fit"

graph for get fit

Same with exercise. It stays steady during the summer and then drops with the temperature.

"Weight Loss"

graph for weight loss

And more dramatically, general weight loss.

"Get Organized"

graph for get organized

It appears that we've been slightly less enthusiastic about getting organized year after year, but there are similar New Year's Resolution-related peaks.

"Quit Smoking"

graph for quit smoking

Since 2008, we've become less interested in quitting smoking. But when we are, it's in January.

Does this mean your best intentioned resolutions probably won't make it through February, if you're still hanging onto them? Not necessarily. These are just search results, not behavioral statistics. Maybe people just don't search about losing weight as much later in the year because they've already got all the information they need.

Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.