Why Your New Year Resolution Will Fail

Each year millions of people set themselves a New Year resolution or two and each year by the second week in January most of these have not been kept. So why is it that seemingly positive intentions fall at the first hurdle? Or to put it more succinctly, why do we fail?

You can't put it down to one thing, it could be any one of these reasons below or a combination. Take your time to read them and find out which one you recognize and therefore which ones you need to pay more attention to.

Here are 10 reasons why your New Year resolution could fail:

1. A lack of commitment to the resolution in the first place
   Often people set a New Year resolution because they feel they ought to or should do rather than because they want to, often because of social conditioning or pressure from friends or family

2. The wrong focus
   Bad habits are often a symptom of a deeper underlying issue (e.g. overeating may be a source of comfort with someone who has low self esteem) so just attempting to tackle the symptom of overeating through a New Year’s resolution may not be as effective as tackling the issue of low self esteem.

3. Losing sight of the big picture
   Keeping to a resolution may better serve someone in the longer term but often shorter term needs are allowed to distract from the bigger picture. E.g. Short term needs of comfort gained from eating sugary food may distract someone from eating a diet that in the long run will help them to lose weight and make them feel more energized and healthy.

4. Intentions are easy, actions require taking personal responsibility and effort
   We all want change in our lives whether it is to feel healthier, be fitter, learn new things however most people fail to realize that change doesn’t just ‘happen to them’ they have to take responsibility for making it happen which involves some sort of personal change of habit and sacrifice. Anyone can easily have great intentions however you will rarely make progress without conscious effort and taking action.

5. No emphasis on the ‘how’
   People will readily decide what they want to change and even have clear goals but unless they have a clear plan on how they will change then they are unlikely to see their goals materialize.

6. People allowed to sabotage your plans
   Unfortunately not everyone around us, even close friends and family are supportive of changes we want to make. Even without thinking a carelessly spoken ‘you’ll never do that’ or a ‘here we go again’ comment can finds is way into our psyche and make us believe we cannot succeed.

7. Too much too soon
   If you set yourself too big a task too soon then you are more likely to trip up which in turn will subconsciously reinforce the difficulty of your challenge.

8. Limiting beliefs holding you back
   If you don’t really believe you will succeed then you won’t and often we let our past experiences colour what we can achieve in the future regardless of whether these past experiences are relevant.

9. Wrong time to start
   For many people the New Year may be a challenging time of the year to change habits. Starting a running regime whilst the snow is falling or changing your diet when you are out socializing with others may put perceived barriers up before you have started.

10. Give up after falling at the first hurdle
    Many people if they trip up momentarily, instead of treating it as a glitch not to repeated or to be learned from, will beat themselves up and then give up totally

See Also:-

The Best New Years Resolutions Tips
Setting Effective Goals
More Personal Development Tips
Personal Development Articles