Why 80% of New Year resolutions are a failure (and how to fix it)

Do you know that over 80% of the New Year resolutions end up as a failure? It is heart breaking isn’t?

Have you thought about the reasons? Or do you just cast a resolution every year and then forget about it?

With business and life, New Year resolutions play a very crucial role. They help you stay focused on your goals and make your life and business a lot meaningful.

So I guess you cannot afford to let another year go by with failed or abandoned New Year resolutions.

Let’s find out why your New Year resolutions fail (if) and find out how to fix that.

This way for the coming years, you need not face a failure with your New Year resolutions!

Let me briefly point out why over 80% of the New Year resolutions or goals end up as a failure.

Reason #1

Most of us have wrong notions about the New Year resolutions. Some consider it as a seasonal thing.

It is rather a Marathon and not a sprint, so it takes slow and steady effort with loads of self discipline to be able to succeed with your New Year resolutions.

Reason #2

Not being reasonable and realistic with your New Year goals

Most of us end up making some of the most common resolutions like lose weight, spend more quality time with your family, make a new (good) habit, travel more, quit drinking, quit smoking and the like.

Why? Because these are the most common New Year resolutions that are around.

So naturally your mind is only trained to think like that – and you start to go the conventional route.

Now, this not a big blunder. But this is where you might go unrealistic in the first place. Because the most common resolutions are not always the ones that best suit you!

So make sure you clearly analyze your life and business and then make a resolution that would absolutely improve the quality of your life/business.

Plus it should be something that is doable for you. Something that fits in your circle.

Reason #3

You take will power for granted

Now I plan to make a separate video on this whole will power thing.

But here’s a brief – will power is a very limited resource that gets depleted every time you use it.

So you use nearly all of your will power at the beginning of the New Year where the enthusiasm is so high and you are all pumped up.

As a result, your motivation and self discipline start to fade away by the end of January or beginning of February.

And before you know it, your New Year resolution is in the air!

So these three reasons are the most common reasons as to why over 80% of the New Year resolutions fail.

Now shall we fix that?

Fix #1: It doesn’t have to be a New Year resolution

See, I am not against making New Year resolutions. A New Year means a new beginning and a great way to kick start anything.

So a resolution or a goal is a great thing to keep you focused for the entire year.

However, New Year is not the only time you have to make resolutions.

You can make goals or resolutions at any time of the year and still keep up with it.

I say this for two important reasons:

Reason #1

A New year may not be the right time to start executing certain resolutions.

For instance, let’s assume your resolution is about weight loss or working out. Around New Year is the time of celebrations.

You have Christmas, New Year, and celebrations where you are probably partying, drinking, eating lots of junk, traveling and so on. 

So even though your mind wants to keep up with your resolution, the reality won’t let you do so!

Reason #2

You can achieve more than one resolutions if you spread them across the year.

The last thing you would want to do is to be hard on yourself and try to accomplish more than one resolution at the same time.

It simply won’t work. By spreading your resolutions throughout the year, you will be able to succeed with all of them.

Rather than trying to launch your course, and quit smoking and lose weight at the same time you can work on one resolution for 4 months and have all of them accomplished by the end of the year.

Fix #2: Back up your New Year resolution with a solid action plan

Well, you know that a goal without a plan is just a wish.

So if you just cast a New Year resolution on January 1st and then go lead your regular life, it isn’t gonna work. Unless you have a magic wand.

Your resolution needs a solid plan so you take those nice and strong steps to do things one by one and achieve that resolution.

For instance, if your resolution is to lose weight, you need to get precise on how much you want to lose. That’s the first step.

Then you need to devise a plan that involves you to decide how you are going to do that. 

Are you going to change your diet? Do you have plans to make any lifestyle changes? And what is your workout plan?

You need to block times in your calendar for your workout plan.

You need to plan your cooking accordingly so you minimize eating out or eating junk and cook healthy food!

Fix #3: Don’t deplete your will power

I am quite familiar with people being way too enthusiastic around New Year and hence try too hard to work on their New Year resolutions.

So for the first few weeks into the New Year, you can see them all pumped up and posting pictures of their workouts, or diets, or updates telling us how they are working on quitting smoking, or the documentation of their work on launching product and so on.

But after a few weeks, you will slowly stop getting those updates. Why? Because they have depleted their will power by being too hard on themselves.

Just because you are so excited about the New Year and your New Year resolution, it doesn’t mean you have to try and do everything at once. 

This will simply deplete your will power. And before you know it, you will have jumped off the wagon.

So are you ready to succeed with your New Year resolution this year? Don’t forget to make note of the tips I shared here!