British psychologist Richard Wiseman has done several surveys on willpower - in 2007 he tracked the success of 3,000 people’s New Year’s resolutions, only to find that a mere 12 percent of them managed to achieve what they had set out to do. He looked into what the successful people were doing differently, and, based on their experience, devised a list of tips for others who want to stop failing miserably.
英 国心理学家理查德?怀斯曼做过很多关于意志力的调查。2007年，他对3000人进行了追踪调查，统计他们新年目标的实现情况，结果仅有12%的人完成了 自己之前制定的目标。他又对成功实现目标的人做了进一步调查，发现了一些与众不同的方法，最后他通过实验得出了几条建议，来帮助那些一度无法实现目标的人。

What should you be doing instead? As Wiseman explained on his blog back in 2013, your goals should be small and manageable, you should document your success, tell others about your intentions, and, importantly, not beat yourself up for failing. Here’s the complete list of Wiseman’s advice:
那么，你应该怎么做呢？早在2013年怀斯曼就在博客上给出了答案：目标不必太大，要在能力范围内，而且应该记录下目标实现的过程，告诉别人你要做什么，最重要的是，不要被失败击倒。下面是怀斯曼给出的十大建议：

1) If possible, make only one resolution - changing a lot of things at once is more difficult.
尽可能只制定一个目标。一次性做太多改变是相当困难的。

2) Think about your resolutions in advance, and spend some time to reflect on them.
提前想好目标，然后花点时间好好地反复考虑。

3) Don’t re-visit past failures, but focus on new resolutions instead.
不要执着于之前的失败，而要专注于当下的目标。

4) Focus on what you really want - don’t just go with what’s trendy.
认准真正想要的，不要随波逐流。

5) Break your goal into manageable, concrete steps with specific deadlines.
将目标细化成一个个可达到的小目标，在规定时间内完成相应任务。

6) Go public - tell your friends, family, social networks about your goals, which will increase your fear of failure and also garner support.
开诚布公，把目标告诉朋友，家人以及社交圈，这样会增加对失败的惧怕，同时得到他们的支持。

7) Create a checklist focusing on how much better your life will be once you’ve achieved your goals.
一旦达成目标，列一张清单，展现现在的生活中好的改变。

8) Whenever you make progress on the steps towards your goal, give yourself a small reward.
只要取得了离目标更近的进步，哪怕一点点，都应给自己一点奖励。

9) Document your journey - charts, spreadsheets, journals and other means of tracking your progress will keep it concrete.
记录目标实现的过程：用图表，电子表格，日记等等记录下这段经历可以将目标具体化。

10) Don’t beat yourself up and quit if you sometimes revert to old habits - treat it as a temporary setback.
即使时常会犯老毛病，不要气馁，将它看成是暂时的挫折。