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Why New Years Resolutions Fail So Often
Plus: 4 Steps for Lasting, Positive Change Every Day
Jake Miyazaki
December 26, 2023
I really don’t like New Years Resolutions.
Don’t get me wrong—I love facilitating positive change, and it’s good that people take this time of year to evaluate and commit to personal growth.
My problem with them lies in the commercialization and social pressure that comes with labeling them as “New Years Resolutions”.
It turns what should be intrinsically driven effort to become better into actions driven by social recognition or adherence to tradition.
When Becky gets a gym membership for the new year, you get excited and get one too. Or you feel guilty about not doing something yourself, so get one anyway.
But what happens when she fails to stick to her resolution like 91% of people?
Your excitement is gone, and you fail to keep your commitment.
Not because it’s not a worthwhile goal, but because your resolution to improve your life was rooted in something external to you. Something that can easily be taken away from you.
New Years Resolutions aren’t effective because they don’t start with why.
They don’t hinge on your will to become the person you want to be.
💡 An Idea to Consider
Positive change sprouts the moment you decide you want to be better, but it’s only realized when your commitment to grow is something central to who you are.
🧑🏻🔬 What The Science Says
The “why” is everything: Resolutions are significantly more likely to stick when you focus on the underlying motivations for change.1
Environment is important: Accountability partners and support from your social circles is crucial for long term change.2
Goals should be specific & measurable: You’re much more likely to fail if you’re not specific about your goal.3
Starting small is key: Start with 10-minute walks, not daily marathons.4
Positive > negative framing: Focus on adding healthy habits, not just quitting unhealthy ones.5
🤝 Take Action: 4 steps for lasting, positive change 365 days a year
1. Start with why
If you want to make real, lasting change in your life you have to have a really damn good reason. And it turns out that social media clout or being part of a trend aren’t very good ones.
Instead of using the new years to mindlessly jump into some vague aspirations, start by asking yourself who and where you want to be one, five, and ten years from now.
What does that look like in practice?
What parts of your life don’t support this?
What sacrifices and commitments do you have to make to achieve this?
This is where real change begins and thrives.
2. Get specific
We all know someone that loves to talk about amazing goals and dreams, but never ends up achieving them.
While they’re a great roadmap, aspirations alone won’t get you anywhere—we need a vehicle to actually make progress.
You’ve almost certainly heard of SMART goals. I used to write them off as BS, but it turns out that they’re strongly rooted in science.
There’s a reason why the most successful people apply this line of thinking to so many aspects of their lives. It works.
Take an extra 5 minutes to turn your aspirations into SMART goals:
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Let’s say you have an aspiration to live a healthier lifestyle. Here’s how you might break this into goals:
Goal 1 → No more processed junk food around the house
Goal 2 → 30 minutes of zone 3-5 cardio 3x a week
Goal 3 → Limit alcohol to special occasions
That didn’t take long at all, and now you have a clear, actionable plan to make it happen. They’re reasonable, clearly get you closer to living a healthy lifestyle, and the success criteria is clearly defined.
3. Smart small & iterate often
The achievable part of SMART goals is an underemphasized part of making your game plan successful, and it’s usually where people go wrong.
If you’re only a few weeks—or days—into your goals and you’re already failing, it means you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. You need to start smaller.
Creating lasting change is an iterative process, and extreme progress doesn’t mean extreme measures.
If you want to make positive change in your life, you have to make consistency your #1 metric of success.
Constantly recalibrate the magnitude of your game plan so that you’re always flirting with the boundary between “too hard” and 98% consistent (nobody’s perfect).
4. Live in an environment suited for growth
Whether you like to admit it or not, your environment has a lot of power over you.
Depending on the people you surround yourself with, this can either be detrimental or an incredibly powerful key to your growth.
Remove positive energy “drains”
One of the most important things I’ve learned in my personal growth journey is that some people simply don’t want to get better, and you can’t control that.
When you start smashing your goals and accelerating your personal growth, it brings you a ton of joy. And, naturally, the first thing you want to do is start pulling those around you on your journey.
The problem is that intrinsic motivation is, well, intrinsic. You can’t create that for people. They either want to get better or don’t.
And let me emphasize that this is totally fine. Let them be.
Just recognize that your environment is the single most important factor you can control when it comes to making positive lasting change.
Find your cheerleaders
Instead of allowing these people to drain your positive energy, start surrounding yourself with people that either support your growth or actively contribute to it.
Spend more time engaging with communities that help facilitate your own personal development and allow you to do the same for others.
If you’re reading this, you’re already off to a great start (I’m routing for you 💪).
I’m not going to tell you not to make any new years resolutions.
In fact, I encourage you to take some time to evaluate your 2024 goals.
Just make sure you start with why.
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
P.S. If you haven’t read Start With Why, go do it. Now.
