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Odds are, you've made New Year's resolutions before.
很有可能你已经下定新年决心了。
And they probably sounded great at the time.
它们当时听起来很不错。
Hooray! I'm going to be a better me!
万岁！我要变得更好！
But how often do you stick to those resolutions, really?
但是你多久一次坚持这些决心呢，真的吗？
Maybe you're motivated to hit the gym for the first couple of weeks of the year,
也许你有动力在今年的头几个星期去健身房，
but by February you've already forgotten where you put your ID card.
但到了二月，你已经忘了身份证放哪儿了。
As frustrating as that can be,
令人沮丧的是，
psychologists do have some insights into why it's so hard for us to stick to our resolutions,
心理学家确实对我们为什么难以坚持自己的决心有一些洞见，
and some advice for how to actually accomplish them this time around.
这次还提出一些如何完成它们的建议。
The biggest problem seems to be the kinds of resolutions we make.
最大的问题似乎是我们制定的各种决心。
Researchers have been trying to pin down what makes a goal motivating for a long time.
长期以来，研究人员一直试图确定目标的激励因素。
According to the commonly-accepted goal-setting theory,
根据普遍接受的目标设定理论，
specific and challenging goals make us work the hardest and perform well,
具体而富有挑战性的目标让我们工作最努力，而且表现出色，
much better than, say, being told to "do your best".
比被告诉“尽力而为”要好得多。
The specific part makes sense, that way, your successes are measurable.
目标具体是有意义的，这样，成功就可以衡量了。
Over and over again, studies have shown that measurable goals work
一次又一次的研究表明，可测量目标是有效的，
because they allow you to see how things are coming along,
因为它们能让你看到事情的进展，
so you don't give up right away or feel like you'll never accomplish as much as you want to.
这样你就不会马上放弃，或感觉你永远都不会达到自己想要的程度。
So if you want to lose weight, for example,
比如，如果你想减肥，
your best bet would be to decide how much weight and by when,
最好的方法是决定达到多少重量和截止时间，
rather than just saying you'd like to be thinner.
而不是说你想变瘦。
Or if want to be more adventurous, you could commit to trying one new activity a month.
或者，如果你想要更冒险，可以承诺一个月尝试一项新活动。
But the idea that we're more likely to succeed with challenging goals is a little less intuitive.
但是，我们更有可能成功完成具有挑战性目标的想法不那么直观。
You'd think the easier the goal, the more likely you'd be to achieve it.
你会认为目标越简单，就越有可能实现它。
But it turns out that's not the case.
但事实并非如此。
For example, way back in 1976, researchers had 96 people take reading comprehension tests.
例如，1976年，研究人员要96人参加阅读理解测试。
Some were asked to try to answer 18 questions correctly,
一些人被要求正确回答18个问题，
some were asked to try for 5 questions, and the rest were told to just "do their best".
一些人被要求正确回答5个问题，其余人被告诉说“尽力而为”。
They were also split into a timed group and an untimed one.
他们也被分成了一个定时小组和一个不定时的小组。
Those told to try to get 18 right predicted that they'd answer more questions correctly, and then they did!
那些被告知试着得到18个正确答案的人预测，自己会回答更多正确答案，然后他们就做到了。
They also put in more effort.
他们也付出了更多努力。
Untimed participants who were given the hard goal
被给了硬性目标的不定时参与者
spent 33% more time working on the questions than those who were given the easy goal,
比那些给了简单目标的人在问题上花的时间多了33%，
and 57% more time than those who were just told do their best.
同时比那些被告知尽力而为的人花的时间多了57%。
Since then, lots of other studies have found the same thing:
从那时起，许多其他研究也发现了同样的问题：
you're more likely to be successful if you aim high,
如果你目标远大，就更有可能成功，
as long as the goal is still within your reach.
只要目标还在你的范围之内。
That's actually a pretty big caveat.
这实际是一个很大的警告。
Because generally speaking, goals are a lot harder and take longer to achieve that we think.
因为一般来说，目标比我们认为得要困难得多，花得时间更长。
That miserable depression you feel when you ultimately fail to achieve an impossible goal,
当你最终无法实现一个不可能的目标时，你感觉到的痛苦抑郁
it has a special name: false-hope syndrome.
有一个特殊的名字叫做虚假希望综合征。
Obviously, you don't make resolutions thinking you'll fail.
很明显，你下定决心，认为自己不会失败，
You pick things that you think you have control over,
你选择自己认为可以控制的事，
and because being in control feels good, making resolutions feels good, too.
因为掌控的感觉很好，下定决心的感觉也很好。
That confidence in your ability to exert control over your behaviors and actions,
你有能力控制行为和举止的信心
also known as self-efficacy, is a key factor in achieving goals.
也被称为自我效能感，是实现目标的关键因素。
But it can also make you too cocky.
但它也会让你过于自大。
Studies have found that the warm and fuzzies that come with goal-setting can fade quickly,
研究发现，目标设定的热情和模糊很快就会消失，
and when people don't meet those goals,
当人们没有达到这些目标时，
they're more likely to feel badly about themselves or consider themselves failures.
他们更有可能自我感觉不好，或者认为自己失败了。
The best solution, researchers say, is to channel Goldilocks
研究人员说，最好的解决办法是引导“金发女孩”，
and choose resolutions that aren't too easy or too hard, but juuuuust right.
选择那些不太难又不太容易，刚刚好的决心。
Unfortunately, this can be a bit of a guessing game.
不幸的是，这可能有点儿像猜谜游戏。
Tracking your progress and getting feedback on how you're doing can help you pinpoint where that sweet spot is.
跟踪你的进展并得到你所做事情的反馈，可以帮助你确定哪里是“甜蜜点”。
Research on goal-setting theory has also found some other tricks that might help you stick to your guns.
对目标设定理论的研究也发现了一些其他技巧，可以帮助你坚持自己的目标。
Making your resolution a part of your routine,
让你的决心成为日常生活的一部分，
so there's something consistent reminding you to keep it up, can increase your chance of success.
这样就会有东西一直提醒你要坚持下去，能增加成功的机会。
So can telling other people what you're up to.
告诉其他人你在做什么也可以。
We tend to not want to look inconsistent or like failures in front of other people,
我们往往不想在他人面前表现出不一致或失败的样子，
so making our goals public has been shown to increase our commitment to them.
因此，公开目标已经证明能增加我们对它们的承诺。
And don't worry too much about failure or setbacks.
不要过于担心失败或挫折。
How you frame your successes and failures is really important.
你如何定义成功和失败真得非常重要。
Hard goals aren't as motivating if you're worried about failing,
如果你担心失败，硬性目标并不能激励你，
and being able to set aside temporary failures makes a big difference in finally succeeding.
而能够抛开暂时的失败，对最终成功有很大影响。
But while you're working towards keeping that resolution,
但当你努力坚持决心的时候，
it's worth keeping in mind that goals can have negative effects, too.
要记住，目标也会产生负面影响。
When you're focusing on one thing, sometimes that comes at the expense of others.
当你专注一件事时，有时会以牺牲他人为代价。
And focusing on a short-term goal might cause you to overlook long-term consequences.
专注短期目标可能会让你忽视长期的后果。
Plus, goals can destroy intrinsic motivation,
另外，目标可能会摧毁内在动力，
meaning that you stop doing something because you want to and start doing it because you have to.
这意味着，因为你要做被迫做的事，停下你想做的事。
These pitfalls are mainly tied to reward systems,
这些陷阱主要与奖励系统有关，
which is why it might not be a good idea to try to motivate yourself with a shiny prize for keeping your resolution.
为了保持决心，你用闪亮的奖品来激励自己，这就是它可能不是一个好主意的原因，
So like, don't commit to learning French because you'll reward yourself with a trip to Paris.
比如，不要学法语，因为你会用去巴黎的一次旅行来奖励自己。
Decide you want to learn French,
你决定想学法语，
then set up a plan for how many segments of that online course you'll finish by June, or whatever.
然后为在线课程的课时制定一个计划，比如到6月完成，等等。
And if you're really stuck on what to resolve,
如果你真的坚持要解决的问题，
you could always decide to watch every single episode of SciShow!
你可以决定看每一集的科学秀。
It's specific, measurable, and you'll have tons of fascinating facts to share with your friends!
它具体、可测量，你会有很多有趣的事实和朋友分享！
In the meantime, thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych,
与此同时，感谢收看您本期的“心理科学秀”，
and if you want to learn more about how we think we control the world way more than we actually do,
我们对世界的掌控比实际的要多，如果你想了解更多，
you can check out our episode on perceived control.
你可以查看我们关于知觉控制的那期节目。
