It's about this time that many people who make New Year's resolutions start to waver in their commitment, so what can you do to help them persevere?

Church stores looking to support church members endeavoring to make positive changes need to be aware of the sobering results of a Barna Group study that found most people intending to make changes in 2011 said they were not planning on having “accountability or a support system in place” to help them stick with those commitments.

“Churches and faith communities have a significant opportunity to help people identify what makes for transformational change and how to best achieve those objectives—especially by relying on goals and resources beyond their individualism,” said Barna President David Kinnaman.

Barna interviewers found that about two people in five planned to make personal changes this year, most of them self-oriented. Among those intending to make resolutions, the top pledges for 2011 related to weight, diet and health (30%); money, debt and finances (15%); personal improvement (13%); addiction (12%); job and career (5%); spiritual or church-related (5%); and educational (4%).

Personal improvement responses included being a better person; giving more; having more personal or leisure time; organizing their life or home; and having a better life in general.

“While people concentrate on themselves when making priorities for the New Year, it is telling that so few Americans say they want to improve relationships with others,” noted the report. “There were virtually no mentions of volunteering or serving others, only a handful of comments about marriage or parenting, almost no responses focusing on being a better friend, and only a small fraction of people mentioned improving their connection with God.”

Less than 1% mentioned that one of their objectives for the year was getting closer to God in some way. “Even in the rare instance when people mention spiritual goals, it is often about activity undertaken for God rather than a personal pursuit of God or an experience with God,” Kinnaman said.

Looking back on 2010, only one out of four Americans (23%) who had made resolutions found those commitments resulted in “significant, long-term change” to their behaviors or attitudes. More commonly, Americans described their 2010 resolutions as resulting in “minor change” (29%) or “no change” (49%).

Source: Barna Group.

To read the report in full, go to http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/465-americans-resolutions-for-2011.

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