As the calendar turned to 2026, the traditional urge for personal renewal may have felt more burdensome than hopeful for many. Psychological experts explain that a confluence of global pressures and emotional exhaustion is making the annual ritual of setting New Year's resolutions significantly more challenging.
The 'Fresh Start Effect' Meets Modern Realities
For years, psychological research has supported the idea of the 'fresh start effect'. Landmark dates like New Year's Day, birthdays, or even Mondays act as mental reset points, prompting reflection and new goals. However, Professor Vlad Glăveanu from Dublin City University Business School notes a shift in public sentiment.
Many now approach the new year with diminished enthusiasm. Deteriorating mental wellness, particularly among younger demographics, forms a difficult backdrop. The pervasive sense of climate anxiety, political instability, and economic precarity can render the concept of 'starting over' feel not just difficult, but unrealistic.
Compounding this is the phenomenon of change fatigue. This state of emotional exhaustion, born from repeated or imposed change, reduces people's willingness to engage with new initiatives—even positive ones. The result is often scepticism or disengagement instead of renewed hope.
When Anxiety Narrows Future Thinking
Our capacity to imagine a better future is not infinite. Studies consistently show that feelings of threat or a lack of control narrow future-oriented thinking. Instead of envisioning a range of possibilities, the mind fixates on risks and worst-case scenarios.
Professor Glăveanu, who leads the DCU Centre for Possibility Studies, emphasises that struggling to make changes is rarely a simple lack of willpower or imagination. 'It could be that circumstances are making it difficult for hope and imagination to operate,' he states.
His research into 'possibility thinking'—how people perceive alternatives and feel able to act—reveals a crucial insight. For meaningful change to occur, the ability to see opportunities, feel motivated, and believe one can act must align. If one element is missing, progress stalls.
Evidence from the Frontline: Teacher Fatigue
A telling example emerged from a December 2025 study co-authored by Glăveanu. Teachers in a professional development programme, who learned their school was to be demolished, reported emotional fatigue at the prospect of 'starting over'. The dominant response was not excitement, but depletion. This illustrates how change perceived as unfair, poorly supported, or harmful undermines engagement with new possibilities.
A New Blueprint for Sustainable Change
This psychological landscape explains why resolutions based on sheer willpower often fail. Decades of behaviour change research confirm that motivation is shaped by context. Time pressure, financial stress, and caring responsibilities all limit what is realistically achievable.
The alternative is not to abandon goals, but to reframe them. Professor Glăveanu suggests focusing on 'small shifts possible within the constraints you're under'. Possibility thinking involves working creatively with limits, not ignoring them.
For instance, a realistic resolution might be: 'I will add a 10-minute walk into my daily routine and adjust it each week based on what is actually workable.'
Critically, imagining the future need not be a solitary task. Research on collective agency shows people are better at sustaining change when responsibility is shared. A family resolving to eat more home-cooked meals could divide tasks—one plans menus, another cooks on set nights, children help with prep—distributing the effort.
Ultimately, in a world marked by uncertainty, renewal is less likely to spring from pressured individual 'reinvention'. It may instead come from imagining differently: with others, within acknowledged limits, and in ways that make positive, incremental change feel genuinely possible as we navigate 2026.
