Typically, people start a new year resolved to achieve more than the previous year.
How, though? Some people make what I have always thought is a frankly strange commitment to “say yes to everything”. Others do the opposite, resolving to say no more frequently. In reality, either of those extremes could lead to bad outcomes.
Take the commitment to be busy, busy, busy all the time. Workaholism beckons for those who cannot turn down requests. Being absorbed in the task can mitigate workaholism’s worst effects, according to an Academy of Management Discoveries study published last year, but still anxiety about the job or obsessive ambition paves a pathway to health problems.