Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail

Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail

12/31/14 James Winston

With the New Year around the corner, many start thinking about those New Year’s Resolutions – about 45% of Americans in fact. Those top resolutions include losing weight, getting more organized, saving more money, enjoying life, or being healthier. All great intentions, right!

Starting the New Year with a clean slate to focus on what you didn’t accomplish the year before or to realize new goals makes a lot of sense. But unfortunately, we also know that many New Year’s Resolutions aren’t maintained. After one month, only 64% of individuals have kept their resolution. After six months, that percentage dips to 46%, and this number continues to decline.

So why do resolutions fail? Some suggest that although people are trying to motivate themselves by setting resolutions, they are not quite ready to change their habits, particularly bad habits. Another reason for not maintaining resolutions is setting unrealistic goals which likely set people up to fail.

Making New Year’s resolutions should be a well-thought out process. Be specific. Be realistic. Have a plan. People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions. And so start the year off right with resolutions that you can attain and become part of the statistic of people that succeed in their resolutions.