Why Are Your New Years Resolutions Ending In Failure and How You Can Make Them A Success
Sticking to your New Year’s resolutions calls for focus, specificity, and a heavy prescription of realism. Here’s how to initiate the habits you need to complete your goals this year.
It’s the same story every year: millions of people filter their hopes and dreams for self-improvement into a polished set of New Year’s resolutions. These targets span from getting fitter to becoming monetarily independent, and they often start out with the best of intentions. So why do so many New Year’s resolutions break every year?
It’s true. Past examines, and surveys have inferred that, by February, as many as 80% of New Year’s resolutions will have been deserted. This insinuates that we’re approaching New Year resolutions all wrong. What if, rather than setting impossible-to-achieve goals and observing them fail like clockwork each year, we tried to better recognize the psychology supporting our goals?
This piece will discuss the most frequent causes that many people experience in setting and achieving their New Year’s resolutions. We’ll also discuss ways to avoid these causes in accomplishing your resolutions—and maybe even cultivate great habits that can last a lifetime.
New Year's resolutions are a staple in our society and its easy to see why. For one, they can give us an understandable indicator of our accomplishments over time, with a precise kick-off point and a clear ending. We can follow our progression month-by-month, and our objectives feel satisfyingly tied by time restrictions (e.g., “By next year, I’ll have a six-pack of abs!”).
Furthermore, the start of a new year bids us to envision our future, “better” selves. This defense of who we’d like to be can be invigorating and influencing—at least to sustain for a limited time.
But what if this way of thinking prepares us to fail from the beginning? When you look back on broken resolutions from previous years, you may see that they endure common setbacks such as:
An uncompromising mentality
An overly ambitious mindset
A lack of meticulousness
An emphasis on attaining goals vs. constructing habits
A lack of applicability to our day-to-day reality
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An “Uncompromising” Mentality
New Year’s resolutions tend to encourage “uncompromising” thinking. Success is calculated as either a complete success or a complete defeat.
The problem with such “uncompromising” goals is that they don’t serve even the smallest downfalls. Once you fall off a journey, it’s easy to get knocked off your motivation train and give up entirely. This is a huge reason why so many people desert their resolutions after one month.
An Overly Ambitious Mindset
In the enthusiasm of the New Year, it’s easy to place exceedingly aspiring goals that don’t reflect your present reality. Choosing to become debt-free in one year may sound great, but what if that requires you to have nothing to budget for rent?
Initiating resolutions that are too distant and detached from our present reality is a catalyst for early setbacks. To stick, the transition from our current status quo to our envisioned end point needs to be moderate, habitable and supported by a system of habitual etiquette. Thinking smaller may not be inspiring in the short term. Still, it can definitely lead to more aspiring results.
A Lack of Meticulousness
Sometimes, New Year’s resolutions fail merely because they’re too vague. “Read more,” “eat clean foods,” and “save more money” are cases of goals that lack any genuine specificity. This can be difficult for three bases:
They’re not practical. It’s hard to know what exactly you need to do to attain your goal.
They’re hard to measure. It’s hard to envision mental breakthroughs of success, as there’s no clearly determined end goal.
They lack accountability. If a goal needs to be more specific, it can seem more like a dream than a logical, realistic target. With no mark to shoot for, you aren’t accountable for striking anything.
An Emphasis on Attaining Goals vs. Constructing Habits
New Year’s resolutions often fail because they drive a goal-oriented, rather than a system-oriented, touch. Where the prior adopts a specific focus to achieve a goal, the latter looks at growing a healthy set of practices to come at the plan—and maybe even surpass it.
A goal-oriented vision can motivate some, but it can be too black-and-white for others. Even if you make phenomenal progress promoting a goal, you’ve technically “failed” by not attaining 100% of it. Habits, opposingly, centered more on the process than the end result.
A Lack of Applicability To Your Lifestyle
Another cause for so many New Year’s resolutions failing? They’re linked to what we infer we want rather than who we genuinely are.
Say, for instance, you’ve settled to get a promotion at your job this year. This seems fantastic on paper, but it is not worth it if you’re unhappy in your current role! It may seem like a pay increase will make the job more manageable. Still, it may be in your best interest to aim for a new career in a role that’s more in tune with your true interests.
Your lifestyle also dramatically affects the likelihood of maintaining a New Year’s resolution.
For instance, imagine you set a goal of going to bed at 9 p.m. and waking at 6 a.m. daily. But your significant other works night shifts every other week. This goal doesn’t consider the fact that for half of the year, you’d miss spending time with your partner. This could place difficulty in your relationship and makes it less likely that you’ll stay consistent with your resolution long-term.
At Michael Freeman Coaching we really don't believe in resolutions in the first place. Instead we believe in strengthing ones mindset and developing the discipline to create and follow habits. This way when you want something new in your life it's easier to accomplish.
With that said if you would like help in this area check out some of the course we've created with helping you set goals and overcome obstacles. You can find them here 2023 Courses.
IF you would like to read more articles that could help you in creating success in your life then check out these:
How to set goals you can actually achieve
3 Biggest Reasons You Fail Your Goals This Year
Written by Reyna Delagdo and Coach Free
