Many of us have already decided that things will be different this year. We'll eat better, get more exercise, save more money or finally get around to decluttering those closets.
But by the time February rolls around, most of us — perhaps as many as 80 percent of the Americans who make New Year's resolutions — will have already given up.
Why does our self-control falter, so often leaving us to revert to our old ways? The answer to this question has consequences beyond our waistlines and bank balances.
Psychologists and economists have traditionally fallen into two seemingly contradictory camps about how self-control works. But recent research conducted by my colleagues and me suggests the two sides of self-control might both be at play in each of us.