4 Reasons New Year's Resolutions Fail ⋆ Celebrate Life in the Middle

The start of the new year always brings expectations for life to be new and better, especially after this past year. We have been faced with the reality that having certain existing medical issues can make us more likely to have complications from Covid. Many people I have talked to feel the urgency to get healthier, including me. And with that expectation comes the pressure to make grand and specific resolutions such as “losing 20lbs” or “getting fit” or “decluttering the house”. Often these resolutions seem daunting because we know what we want, but we just don’t have a clear plan to get us to that goal. There are reports that over half of New Year’s Resolutions fail within 2 months(1,2), and these are 4 reasons why New Year’s Resolutions can fail:

Making grand resolutions that are difficult to attain.
Not evaluating the changes we want to make.
Failing to create a detailed plan to keep us accountable.
Giving up when we slip up or don’t achieve perfection.

If you want to be successful, keep these reasons your New Year’s Resolutions fail in mind when you’re making them.

Making achievable resolutions

The first way to keep you on track with your resolutions is not making them too grand or difficult to keep. Start slow and keep adding to your plan as you meet each goal you make. Instead of stating “I’m going to lose 50 lbs by June and I’m going to do it by going on the Keto diet, exercise 45 min every day, and drink 10 glasses of water each day”, I would suggest starting slower. Doing all of that at once places huge stress on you to ensure you do it all, and if you fail it sometimes seems easier to give up than to regroup and continue. I know- I’ve been there. Change is uncomfortable at times, and starting slowly will help with your motivation to continue. And the small successes that you can achieve will give you the encouragement to keep going.
If you want to lose weight, start with one easy change you can make to meet your goal. Once that becomes a habit (however long that takes for you), then start adding another change that you can make. It’s not a sprint to the finish line, it’s a marathon. You didn’t get to the point you’re at right now overnight, so you can’t expect to change completely overnight either.

Evaluate the changes you want to make

Knowledge is power. How can you know what you should change if you don’t know where you’re starting from? An important part of having success with your resolutions involves evaluating your life, the changes you want to make, the obstacles you might encounter, and what you need to help you have success. This evaluation should include the who, what, where, when, why and how:

Who are you doing this for? Who can help you achieve your goal(s)? Who can keep you accountable?
What are your goals? What changes do you want to make? What will these changes look like in your life? What challenges and obstacles will you have? What else must you change in order to succeed?
Where do you need to go for help in achieving your goals? Where can you find resources to help you achieve your goals?
When do you want to start? When do you want to be finished your goals?
Why do you want to do this? Why do you want to do this now? If you failed at achieving this resolution before, why did you not succeed?
How will you make the changes to obtain your goals? How will you define success?

Sitting down and thoughtfully reflecting on these questions will help you to make a plan to help you meet your goals. I’ve created a printable that can help you evaluate your life and identify the changes you want to make. It is good to keep this sheet easily accessible to refer back to when you need encouragement to reach your goals. And it can remind you all the reasons for your goals and reminds you how to achieve them.

A goal without a plan is just a wish quote

Create a detailed plan

A goal without a plan is just a wish!
Goal planning is the way that I use to identify my goals and plan to make them happen. I find writing everything down on paper helps me to prioritize my goals and the steps needed to achieve those goals. Then, tracking my goals and habits daily helps keep me accountable to them.
I’ve also got a printable that you can use to track your changes/habits daily to keep you on track. We all have busy lives and sometimes it’s difficult to remember if you actually did stick to your resolution plan that day. It’s also hugely satisfying to check off the boxes every day as you work towards your goals. You can even go back to your childhood and use little gold stars for the check boxes if you want!
Believe in Yourself

Don’t give up- Believe in yourself

My mom always told me when I was growing up that I could do anything I set my mind to. I truly believe in this and I’ve kept that mantra in the back of my head throughout my life. It’s been very challenging at times being the perfectionist that I am to keep going with an idea or with something that I wanted to do that doesn’t end how I planned it. Luckily, I am also quite stubborn. I’ve learned that sometimes there are little “speed bumps” as I call them that slow me down or send me off in another direction, but eventually if I’m persistent, I will reach that goal.
There is a lot of talk about changing habits and how it takes time to make new behaviors habitual. A lot of people reference Dr. Maltz’s statement in his book Psycho Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life, that it takes at least 21 days to make something a habit. I personally don’t believe that you can make a mass generalization for all as each person is different and has their own challenges when making changes in their lives. Despite that (and the fact that it was written 60 years ago), it is an excellent read. There is a great review of the book written by Dean Bokhari at meaningfulhq.com if you’re interested.
If you keep in mind these 4 reasons why New Year’s Resolutions fail when you set your goals and plan, you can achieve success! It may take you a week or it may take you several months to have your changes become habitual. Don’t give up! Believe in yourself! YOU can do anything you set your mind to!
Even though I’ve made a lot of changes in my life over the past few years towards health and wellness, and I have a lot more changes I want to make. This year my resolution is to continue on my journey towards wellness- physically, mentally and spiritually. I plan to make little changes each month to get towards my goals. I’d love it if you joined me on this “Year of Wellness” and will be blogging about it each month and will share my challenges and successes with you. If you’re interested in receiving my newsletter for updates from the blog and all of the printables to help you with your journey to wellness, please sign up below. Your first email that you will receive from me will give you the password for the resource library. After that, I will send out an email every month.
Take care,