Every New Year’s Day, millions of people see it as an opportunity to start fresh and make changes. Even you may set off on January 1 with new motivations and goals. Typically, people are very motivated to start in January, only for their willpower and motivation to break before the end of February. Unfortunately, about 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail, even though they are self-improvement changes like losing weight, getting more organized, saving money, or exercising more.
Most changes in your control do not come by chance. Change requires being clear and intentional. Therefore, your plan must include a clear path and what to do to reach your goal. Far too many people embark on their New Year’s resolutions only to fail because they have only a notion and no plan.
3 Reasons New Year’s Resolutions Fail
Your New Year’s Resolutions are Too Vague
Whether it is to exercise more, lose weight, or get organized, you’re likely to fail because these goals lack a plan. Without a clear picture of what you want, you will not know what success looks like. Without knowing what success looks like, you can lose focus and motivation, become distracted, and be disappointed. At that point, you’re likely to succumb to frustration and give up.
You Underestimate the Time and Effort
Most New Year’s resolutions are life-altering, where you’re breaking bad habits or establishing new ones. It takes time and effort to change entrenched behaviors. Also, it won’t go smoothly, and there will be periods of progress, stagnation, and setbacks.
Unfortunately, people expect quick results with little effort on their part. Moreover, you have only a finite amount of motivation and willpower. Therefore, you can easily give up if you don’t feel like you’re making steady progress.
Too much Friction
Something about your everyday life could be holding you back. For example, if you want to eat less candy, don’t keep buying it or leave it on the counter where you can easily grab it. If your New Year’s resolution requires a gym membership or a place you have to go, then it is likely that you’ll fail as well since you’ll have to perform additional steps (going to the gym) before you can work toward your goal (actually exercising). It will be much harder to succeed without optimizing your environment to set you up for success.
How to Succeed With Your New Year’s Resolutions
Mentally Prepare
Before diving into your New Year’s resolution, take a step back and prepare yourself for the upcoming change. Unfortunately, changing a habit is no easy task since you typically do it automatically with little to no thought.
You may be at the start of a long journey. Therefore, if you are in the right frame of mind, you can prepare for the upcoming trials and tribulations. You may stumble along the way. However, it’s normal to have good and bad days. Regardless, you need to stay positive, not try to change too much at once, and celebrate every victory, no matter how small.
Be Specific
New Year’s resolutions tend to be big, ambitious goals that can put a lot of pressure on you. Instead of listening to your inner critic, you should be specific about what success looks like. What does success look like to you for your New Year’s resolution? If it’s to lose weight, then how much weight loss is considered success? If it’s to eat less, does that mean you will follow a diet? Will you reduce your daily calories by a certain amount, or is it something else?
Asking yourself questions can help you narrow down your goals. Once you have more specifics, then it’s time to set goals and put your plan in motion.
Set Achievable Goals
Specific goals are a good start but aren’t good if you can’t achieve them. For example, if you want to exercise for 45 minutes most days, is this an achievable goal if you don’t exercise at all? Instead, you should set an achievable goal, such as walking 10,000 steps daily. Once you achieve that, you can reassess whether you can achieve your original goal.
New Year’s resolutions are the result of completing many smaller goals that are built upon each other. Therefore, you will more likely succeed by breaking up bigger goals into smaller achievable goals and then determining the order in which you will complete those smaller goals.
Track Your Progress
New Year’s resolutions take time. There is no way you’ll remember all the victories and setbacks. A journal can help you focus by paying attention to your actions and thoughts. Also, you can spend more time thinking about your progress instead of trying to remember all the details. Moreover, you can identify what is working and what may need adjustments.
A journal can be motivating and show you how far you’ve come. There are many ways you can keep a journal. You can use a notebook or app. However, using whatever works for you would be best.
Share Your Goals and Progress With Others
If you want to increase your success rate, create some accountability. Important changes and goals don’t happen all by themselves. They require frequent actions (and some actions you’re not used to doing) to move forward despite the potential challenges and setbacks.
Your social connections can be helpful to provide support when times get tough or to celebrate your victories. The right people believe in you, and they want you to succeed. Therefore, they can be valuable to keep you motivated and follow you along your self-improvement journey.
Don’t Make New Year’s Resolutions
Why must you wait until January 1 to make real, impactful changes in your life? Perhaps it’s procrastination, or it seems like January 1 is when you’re supposed to start a significant change. Regardless, making a fundamental change in your life doesn’t have to wait until the new year. Instead, you can start today with the proper frame of mind and a specific achievable plan.
The Takeaway
Whether it’s a New Year’s resolution or other significant changes in your life, it’s critical to clearly define what success looks like and how you will achieve it. Furthermore, celebrating every victory with your friends can motivate you as you progress towards your goal. Also, tracking your progress can be inspiring and valuable when reviewing how far you’ve come. It will take time, so be patient with yourself and work on your goals every day, even if it is just a little bit.
FitTrend’s mission is to help you along your self-improvement journey, promote an active lifestyle, and help you achieve your goals. Our journal can help you track your workouts, weight, mood, calories, and more. Also, FitTrend allows you to connect supported gadgets to your account to make it easier for you to update your journal automatically. Create your account today and start using FitTrend for free!
Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
