Why New Year's Resolutions Fail

Be honest with yourself - how often do you set New Year's Resolutions only to give up after a few short weeks, or maybe even days? Well, you aren't alone! Statistics show that over 90% of New Year's Resolutions are abandoned within a few months. NINETY PERCENT!! There are many reasons why so many of us fail when it comes to New Year's Resolutions & I am here to explore just 2 of them. I have also included some tips to setting better goals below.

~ A recent Forbes Health/OnePoll survey from October 2023 showed that 62% of responders felt pressure to create at least one resolution. When we feel pressure from others to do something, humans tend to panic, worrying about the outcome & what others will think about us. We also don't feel fully committed because we are just doing it to appease someone else. We all know that life can be tough at times, so adding on resolutions that you are not fully committed to will unlikely result in a successful outcome.

~ So many New Year's Resolutions are created too quickly without a lot of deep thought. And most resolutions are too big & too general for a realistic & achievable goal. "I want to lose weight" or "I want to pay off debt" are not good resolutions, especially if you haven't thought about you "WHY." This is often overlooked. Sometimes it just seems obvious that we should try to be healthier or save more money, but are those things really important to you? You need to be able to answer WHY those things are important to you, and have true life-changing reasons, or the goal is simply just not the right one for you, which explains why so many of us don't succeed in reaching our New Year's Resolutions.

TIPS ON CREATING BETTER GOALS

1. Stop using the word "resolution" & use the word "goal" instead; a simple word change can positively change your mindset!

2. Don't start with the goal - first think about an aspect of your life that you are unhappy with & create a goal around that.

3. Journal about the goal you are considering - write our your "why" - if you don't have one, move on to something else!

4. Create a couple of short term, achievable goals to start

5. Think about long term habit changes; no need to add pressure & expect these habit changes to happen overnight, but once you achieve some short term goals, creating long term habit changes is key