Here are the most common New Year's resolutions in the U.S. What goals will you set for 2022?

Setting realistic goals and expectations and being emotionally ready to change are essential to keeping New Year’s resolutions.
Setting realistic goals and expectations and being emotionally ready to change are essential to keeping New Year’s resolutions.

As the new year approaches, it is time to start thinking about goals for 2022. From losing weight to saving money, Americans make a wide variety of resolutions each year, some of which they stick to and some of which they don't.

To help you drum up ideas for your 2022 resolutions, we rounded up the most common New Year's resolutions made in 2021.

According to a Statista study of 1,500 Americans, the top three resolutions for 2021 were exercising more, losing weight and saving more money. Fifty percent of respondents said they were focused on exercising more, 48% said they wanted to lose weight and 44% said they wanted to save more money.

"While some might say that they do not need New Year’s Eve to finally turn their life around, making resolutions on December 31 is a common, well-liked tradition, especially in the Western world. They are usually meant to contain some kind of improvement or betterment of one’s conduct or life choices," the Statista study said.

Other popular resolutions included:

  • Improving diet: 39% of respondents

  • Pursuing a career ambition: 21% of respondents

  • Spending more time with family: 18% of respondents

  • Taking up a new hobby: 14% of respondents

  • Spending less time on social media: 13% of respondents

  • Quitting smoking: 10% of respondents

  • Decorating or renovating a home: 10% of respondents

  • Volunteering more or doing charity work: 10% of respondents

  • Raising money for a charity: 5% of respondents

  • Cutting down on drinking: 4% of respondents

  • Quitting drinking entirely: 2% of respondents

  • Something else: 14% of respondents

"These resolutions are not compulsive; only a small share of people who make them actually keep them. …They are more like a signal for a new start than an actual catalyst for change," the study read.

According to another Statista study in 2018, only 4% of survey respondents stuck to all of their new year's resolutions and only 8% stuck to most of their goals. Thirteen percent of people didn't stick to any of their resolutions.

What will your resolutions be heading into 2022 and will you stick to them?

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lizabeth Pattman is the trending topics reporter for the Times-News in Burlington, covering business, COVID-19 and all things trending. Contact Elizabeth (she/her) at epattman@gannett.com. I'm also available on social media @EPattmanTN on Twitter or @burlingtontimesnews on Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Times-News: Study: Most common New Year's Resolutions in the U.S.