New Year, New You Trivia Quiz

Answer: Reduce overall caloric intake and increase exercise

The successful fulfillment of a resolution, to change behavior, is hard and fraught with pitfalls and challenges. In a study performed by the University of Scranton (Pennsylvania), researchers found that nearly four in ten New Year's resolutions involved people wanting to lose weight. How to best accomplish the goal is another story. Psychologists and medical practitioners agree that any plan, to lose weight, must be reasonable and based on achievable goals. Eliminating all fats and sugar is neither reasonable nor healthy by itself and is something that will likely result in a failure of the goal. At the same time, binge-purge diets are equally unhealthy and can contribute to the development of unhealthy eating disorders.

For many people creating an incentive such as buying a new pair of jeans in a smaller size can be a motivating factor to a weight loss program. But placing inordinate stress on the success of your diet by buying all new clothes in a desired size is not considered a good plan for success. Diet and medical experts suggest that a measured approach to reducing the amount of calories ingested coupled with an increase in structured physical activity will produce the best chance to sustain a goal of losing weight.

Answer: Vow to be married by the end of the year

The University of Scranton study on American New Year's resolutions found that nearly one-third of resolutions focused on improving relationships and finding or creating deeper interpersonal connections. For many people, the desire to find a special someone and either get married or start a family is a top priority. However, by making a vow to "get married" by a certain date creates an unrealistic goal that is most likely doomed to failure. You cannot "make" someone want to or in fact marry you no matter how much the status means to you. At the same time, putting the pressure on yourself to "get married or else" can also lead to making poor decisions and create more problems for you later.

Relationship experts suggest instead of setting a goal of reaching a relationship status that you put yourself in as best of a position to find and meet someone special. Focus on the things that you can do to improve your level of satisfaction and reduce the negative acts that might sabotage or doom a relationship. Simply by engaging with people in new settings and doing the things you enjoy you are more likely to find someone to share the activities then by setting unrealistic goals.

Answer: False

Joining a gym or a yoga studio or any other fitness organization is a great way to kick-start a resolution to improve your fitness. Most fitness clubs will have trainers and experienced employees to help you create a reasonable plan to improve your fitness level. Further, there is certainly an element of time commitment to exercise that is essential to a successful fitness program.

However, there are many ways to increase your level of exercise that do not require joining or attending a gym. Some great examples of simple ways to increase exercise levels include walking more and driving less, using stairs as opposed to elevators and adding light calisthenics in the morning and/or evening.

Answer: Resolving to get a new job by year end

Setting the resolution of finding a new job by itself can be counterproductive, and a setup for failure. Much like a goal to get married or win a Nobel Prize the goal of finding a new job requires action by people outside of your control. You can't demand someone hire you or provide you with a better job. You can however put yourself in the best position to advance your career. Evaluate your skills and determine if you need additional skills, certifications or education.

Then go out and get the skills you want. If you need or want a different job there is no guarantee you will be successful, but if you don't apply, meet people and network, then you absolutely won't be successful.

Answer: Set a goal to volunteer time to support a local charity

There is nothing wrong with buying a new cell phone or even moving to Las Vegas. However, neither of these goals are particularly laudable as self-improvements. While, for many people, adoption is both a personally satisfying and altruistic endeavor, it is also not to be undertaken on a whim. Adoption can be a long process that requires both time and commitment. Adoption is also, for the most part, dependent on a third party decision that you cannot control. At the same time, there is a depressing and growing trend of adopted children being "returned" to the government or private agencies because the putative parents would not continue with the relationship.

A sincere resolution to become more involved and altruistic is both a popular New Year's resolution and highly attainable. The key to making such a resolution a success is to best match your interests and skills to groups that can need your support. Shelters and nursing facilities always need people to merely talk to or mentor people. Most religious or government agencies have a need for volunteers to assist in as large or small way as they desire. When taken in pieces, slowly and with defined milestones a resolution to give more to the community can succeed and even make you feel like a better person.

Answer: cold turkey

The phrase "to go cold turkey", meaning to stop engaging in a habit such as smoking or drug use, appears to originate in the US and date from the late 1940s or early 1950s. While there is some debate, the derivation of the phrase is that eating a cold turkey requires little preparation. Thus, a decision to simply stop an activity and refrain from doing it again is as easy preparing a cold turkey.

Going "cold turkey" to give up drug addiction was popular in the 1950s and is referred to by magazines and news outlets at the time. Unfortunately, using the "cold turkey" approach to eliminating any addictive or habituating activity has a low chance of long-term success. Studies suggest that as few as three percent of smokers who try to quit by stopping smoking "cold turkey" will succeed. Most therapists suggest that a successful program to change an addicting behavior involve attention to the physiological effects of the activity and a plan to deal with the negative behavior trigger sand psychological effect of addiction.

Answer: Reduce the number of luxury purchases using debt financing

The amount of debt accumulated by global consumers is astounding. Using US data as an example, between 1980 and 2010, Americans increased their personal debt by over 500% per capita. The causes of this debt explosion are well-known, where the easy availability of credit cards, installment and revolving lines of credit and low cost mortgages all fed into a "want it now" consumerist culture. However, despite the potential for creating a heavy burden, debt as a means to finance purchases is not inherently evil and is an important part of a well-managed financial plan. For many people the purchase of a car or house requires access to credit. Thus the key is to remain in control of the debt and not be overwhelmed. For most people, including me, delaying the gratification of a new luxury purchase is a difficult but necessary area for improvement

Experts suggest that the average person should not "cut up" and discard all credit cards, but retain access to at least two credit vehicles that can be used for emergencies. A sound financial plan includes saving for both short term needs and long term issues such as retirement. Certainly increasing your income can help to reduce debt or the need for using credit, threatening to quit your job is a high risk/low chance of success strategy.

Answer: Janus

Janus, for whom January is named, is depicted with two faces pointing in opposite directions. Janus was the god of the doorway that opened the door to a new opportunity and foreclosed return by closing the door. As the god of beginning, the celebration of Janus' festival signaled the start of a new year. A Roman tradition was to make an offering to Janus at this time to be more devout or charitable in exchange for Janus providing good luck in the New Year. Ancient Babylonians also used the New Year to resolve to pay public debts and return ill-gotten objects to rightful owners.

Much of the modern calendar is derived from the Romans. In 46 B.C., Julius Caesar adopted a new calendar that standardized the names of months and fixed dates for religious and civil events. The Julian calendar included several months named for the Roman pantheon. In addition to January, March is named for the War God Mars, May for the Goddess of Spring Maia and June for the Goddess Juno. Later the seventh month was renamed July to honor Julius Caesar and the eight month to August in honor of the Emperor Augustus.

Answer: Setting a goal to reduce stress

The clinical concept of stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel in danger or unbalanced in some way. When your brain perceives a threat, the body releases a flood of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. The hormones are designed to stimulate the body to counter the potential threat. The physiological response to the stress is for the body's heart to beat faster, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, amongst other actions. These physical changes increase your strength, speed and enhance your focus as a preparation for either fight or flight from the danger. However, repeated and constant reliance on the increased hormones leaves the body exhausted and unbalanced, places added strains on muscles and the body's organs.

As such for many people the goal is to relax and reduce the stimulus to create that panic level of added hormones. Most researchers admit that a person given to worrying about stress levels is simply adding a new "stressor" to their litany. Increased sleep, exercise, and a nutritious diet are highly positive ways to reduce the chances of minor stimulation causing increased stress.

Answer: Less than 10%

There are two important but conflicting facts about the New Year's resolution. The first is that of the people who make New Year's resolutions only eight per cent of them will completely fulfill their resolutions. At the same, a person making a goal is ten times more likely to complete that goal over the person who does not make a resolution.

In the end, it shows that you can succeed in changing behavior, but that the road is hard.