The New Year's Resolutions Most Likely to Fail, and What to Do Instead
New Year’s is a great opportunity to reflect on how far we’ve come and where we hope to go next. The trouble is, most of us then proceed to set entirely unrealistic resolutions that we ultimately fail. Here are the most common failed resolutions, and how to approach them instead.
This post was originally published on December 30, 2013.
New Year’s resolutions are tricky. In theory, they’re a great idea, but most of us make too many at once, make them too vague, or just aren’t motivated. This year, do better: find a good resolution , find what steps it takes to get there , and make it easy to achieve.
According to both Statista and Statistic Brain , the single most common New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. It also violates two of the top rules for creating effective resolutions. For starters, “losing weight” isn’t very specific. It can be five pounds or fifty. It’s also an admirable goal that actually encompasses a lot of little goals, which can be overwhelming. So, if you want to make it more feasible, try aiming for those instead. For example:
Of course, there are hundreds of small changes you can make that affect your weight. The key is to choose one or two that easy to manage. Once you get the hang of that, you can skip ahead to the last section.
If there’s one resolution that’s ripe for big promises and crushing failure, it’s the vague intent to do “better” with your finances. Whether it’s to “spend less money” or a promise to “save more”, here are some more specific goals you should try:
The best part about financial resolutions is that they’re easy to quantify. If you want to improve your finances in the new year, start by picking a number. Whether it’s for the year, the month, or the day, giving yourself a specific amount of money you want to save can help narrow down your resolution to something that’s specific enough to pull off.
At this point, you might be beginning to detect a pattern. Despite being vague and directionless, resolutions like “enjoy life” and “worry less” maintain top-of-the-chart status. Fortunately, they’re not impractical. They just need a bit of direction.
Despite being the third most common resolution last year according to Statista , it’s terribly unspecific. Resolutions in general are aimed at improving yourself, so saying you resolve to “be a better person” is a bit like saying you “resolve to resolve something.” As we established earlier, specific goals are better. For example, that might include:
If you get right down to it, the cynical truth is that there’s nothing special about New Year’s. We all collectively agree to take a look back at the past and get excited about writing the wrong year on all of our paperwork for the next month. While this is a great excuse to self-assess, the truth is that changing your ways is a year-long process and if you fail your resolution by February, you can try again in March. If you’re going to set some resolutions, come prepared to track your progress.
Title photo by dolphfyn ( Shutterstock ). Photos by Bruce , Chris Potter , Wapster , Howard Lake , Lori Ann.
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