The #1 Reason New Year’s Resolutions Fail

+ How to Create Goals You Will Actually Stick to

With the new year fast approaching, it is time to start thinking about what New Year’s Resolution you want to set for this upcoming year. Over the past few years, many people have expressed their difficulty with sticking to a resolution and have even decided just to avoid the tradition altogether to prevent disappointment and the feeling of failure.

I can’t help but feel a little sad hearing this because setting goals for ourself is SUCH a healthy practice! Not only can reaching goals give you a sense of accomplishment, but it can also build confidence and allow for growth whether it’s personal or professional.

In this post we will discuss the most common reasons for failure when it comes to New Year’s Resolutions and then we will address how to overcome these setbacks and create goals that you will actually stick to! Don’t forget to save this post for later!

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Reason #1: Creating Vague Goals

Common goals people set for the new year include:

• Lose weight or get in shape

• Eat a healthier diet

• Stress less

• Spend more time with family

• Earn more money

• Work less

While all of these goals are great things to work on and promote a better quality of life, the problem is they are all extremely vague. Like, how exactly do you lose weight? How do you eat healthier, stress less, or spend more time with family? If it was THAT simple, we wouldn’t have any problem sticking to goals like these.

Solution #1: Define Your Goals:

Let’s say you are taking a roadtrip across the country. You start with a goal of where you want to end up, but unless you have a roadmap or a GPS that tells you how to get there, it is highly unlikely that you will reach your destination without numerous wrong turns, multiple stops asking for directions, or getting lost. Not to mention, you will most likely waste SO. MUCH. TIME. simply trying to reach your destination compared to if you just punched in the address and let GPS take you straight there.

So we will just use the goal to lose weight as an example. To define your goal, you first need to decide how much weight you want to lose. Are you simply trying to lose the five pound holiday bloat, or do you have 30 pounds you want to lose? Getting specific with your goals allows you to actually measure and track once you have achieved a goal.

Reason #2: Not Focusing on Your “Why”

You have now decided you want to lose 30 pounds, that’s great! Next thing you know, you’re walking around the grocery store STARVING and all the temptation comes full force. With all the temptation around, you start thinking to yourself, “Well, I’ve already lost 3 pounds. Would eating dessert one time really set me back that much?” or "I’ve done SO well this week, I deserve one day to reward myself.” and then the worst, “This diet is so restrictive. I just can’t keep turning down all the foods I love forever.”

These are the thoughts that we usually give in to and can completely deter us from sticking to our resolutions. How much better would it be if these were the thoughts that popped in your head instead? “Honestly, I usually feel so bloated after eating ice cream and if I eat that tonight I’ll be really uncomfortable in my jeans tomorrow, so is it really worth it?” or “I’ve done really well this week and have already lost 3 pounds, so I’d rather not eat pizza so that I can be present with my family instead of worrying about all the calories I’ve consumed.”

Solution #2: Figure Out Your “WHY”

It’s so important to determine WHY you have a specific goal. Understanding why will be your ultimate motivator when things get hard. Tapping into the emotional reasons you want to reach a specific goal is the best way to stay on track because these reasons are likely the most meaningful to you.

Some reasons you may want to lose weight can include: gaining confidence in yourself so you can go shopping and buy the clothes you really want, improving your health so you can stop having digestive discomforts, or even to be able to free your mind from constantly focusing on how much weight you’ve gained so you can be present with your loved ones.

If you never acknowledge why you want to lose weight, then the next time there are tons of desserts around, you will most likely give in to the tempting thoughts. Let those bigger emotional motivators be the reason you turn down an unhealthy habit instead of just feeling like there’s someone following you around constantly pointing out what you should or shouldn’t do. That only makes you feel out of control in your life can add more stress.

Reason #3: Not Creating a Plan

Once you can define the goal you want to achieve and know exactly why you want to achieve it, you can develop a plan on how to get there! This may be the most important part of setting any goal because this is the specific roadmap or GPS instructions that will get you where you want to be.

This is where you need to take a look at the “how to” behind reaching your goal and all of the ways you can finally stick to a resolution past January and February!

Solution #3: Create a Plan

We know that eating healthier and exercising more both support weight loss. This is where you will decide HOW you will eat healthier and HOW you will exercise. First you will need to start by sitting down and writing out each of the habits that are NOT supporting your main goal of losing 30 pounds and/or habits you want to change. These can include:

• Not working out

• Eating fast food

• Drinking sodas

• Only getting 5 hours of sleep each night

Once you make your list, you can create “small” goals to set that will help you on your journey towards your larger, main goal. Think of these like “checkpoints” along the way to make sure you are staying on track.

Reason #4: Changing Too Much At One Time

Especially when it comes to weight loss, many people start out changing wayyyyy too many things at one time. Most people decide on January 1st that they will: cut out sodas, fast food, staying up late, and will start exercising every day, drinking more water, and meal prepping all on day 1.

This is the fastest way to fail at any resolution or goal you have set for yourself. Simply because it is too much to handle at one time. You start to feel super restricted and usually haven’t gotten the hang of how to fit in preparing food and exercising every day instead of picking up fast food and heading straight home.

Not to mention, the first time you don’t meet the fluid intake requirement you’ve set for yourself or you skip a workout, you start to feel like a failure. You start thinking it’s all too much anyway and impossible to maintain so you might as well quit.

Solution #4: Start Small

The best way to stay on track is to start by setting ONE small goal that supports your main goal (to lose 30 pounds) and do it for an entire month before changing anything else. This may look like for the entire month of January cutting out sodas and making that your only focus.

Ultimately, cutting out sodas supports your weight loss goal and give you one thing to focus on. An important thing to mention here is starting with a goal that feels relatively easy. If sodas are your absolute favorite part of your day and you feel like you can’t live without them, then maybe try cutting out snacking after dinner or any other habit that feels slightly challenging but totally doable.

This will give you confidence when you reach the end of January and were able to stick to your small goal. The next step would be to continue cutting out the snacking and then in February add on another small goal like exercising twice a week.

Most people avoid this approach because they think it will take way longer to reach their goals. But what you may not realize is, starting too big will cause you to give up in a month and NEVER reach your goal. Achieving one goal a month means that in a year, you are already so much closer to achieving your goal if you haven’t already. Wouldn’t you rather reach your goal in a year or even five years than spend the rest of your life feeling like a failure because you never end up where you want?

Thank you for checking out this post! If you are ready to make a life changing decision to creating a healthier version of YOU, check out my Sculpting Secrets Program! This program is designed to give you step-by-step knowledge, without leaving a single detail out, on how to create workout plans, build a nutrition guide for yourself, and even manage stress so you can achieve your goals with ultimate success.

Now is the perfect time and you an even find a $60 off coupon when you subscribe! Let me know in the comments what New Years Resolutions you are making and don’t forget to save this post for later!