Happy 2013 ! An opportunity for a fresh start, a new era. A time when most of us (let’s admit it) have given some thought to New Year resolutions. But which resolutions? and how good are we at keeping them?

The top 10 most common resolutions* are listed at Statistic Brain and we can reveal that…at no 1 we have… ”Lose weight’ and at no 10 we have ‘Spend more time with family’. (So, not much emphasis on improving society or the environment then?). However, ’Learn something new’ is on the list  too and all the evidence is that we are more likely to succeed with education-focused self-improvement than we are to lose the pounds.

So if education looks to be the way to go and you are thinking of strengthening your stats know-how and skills, why not start by taking our stats quiz and see how you do?

Be inspired by Statistics 2013, the International Year of Statistics. This statistics awareness and engagement initiative is supported by over a thousand organisations worldwide, united in their ‘resolve‘ to strengthen statistical understanding and good use of stats.

Looking for more ideas?  Reading  ’Some Statistical Habits to add or subtract in 2013‘ and Tips for a Statistically Savvy 2013 by Carl Bialik for the Wall Street Journal, on developing statistical resolutions, should help.

And to help us further fine-tune our resolutions, please let getstats know about any statistical bugbears – in the media, in the workplace, in school, in parliament or in any other aspect of life – you would like to see eradicated in 2013.

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*Although based on (not so recent!) US research, the list’s ‘weight loss, get fit, spend less/save more’ refrain is timeless, universal and uncomfortably familiar and so ‘just for fun’, we took a closer look. The Statistics Brain listings were published in December 2012, citing University of Scranton, Journal of Clinical Psychology as the source. The underpinning research ‘Auld Lang Syne: Success Predictors, Change Processes,and Self-Reported Outcomes of New Year’s Resolvers and Nonresolvers‘ by Dr John Norcross and colleagues, was originally  published in 2002. The research is based on a study of 282 ‘resolvers’ and ‘non-resolvers’ in 1995 into 1996.

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