Most people make their resolutions at the cusp of the year, as we leave the old behind and step into the new. It’s often at a party, with friends, when emotions are high and positive, and you feel like the world is your oyster. According to YouGov, a quarter of resolution makers abandon their goals. So why is it so many resolutions fall by the wayside as early as mid-January?
In January 2019 the fitness app Strava collated data on their members’ activities and found the second Friday in the month to be the day when people gave up on their professed resolutions. They created the title of Quitters Day; this year it fell on 9th January.
It seems pertinent to ask: What makes resolutions fail and what can you do about it?
What could cause you to be a quitter?
- Timing is crucial. If you make them outside of your usual routine, they may lack reality, and therefore the steps to take and tasks to undertake to achieve them, may well not fit with the demands on you, the time available to you, or your lifestyle.
- They are huge and daunting, and you don’t know where to begin.
- They may not be specific enough, so they provide insufficient motivation and you won’t know when you’ve achieved them. Amongst the most common resolutions are those about health. However, if you state your goals as “I want to get fitter”, what precisely does that mean and how can you measure when you’ve attained your goal?
- There’s a lack of clear planning to achieve them. In such cases, the goals can get lost in the sheer busyness of life.
- There’s no start and end date, nor dates for doing the work to get there!
What can you do be a winner?
- Make a realistic list once you are back in the routine of your lifestyle. So, after Quitters Day, right now, is a good time for this.
- Set yourself goals that excite and challenge yet are also realistic and manageable.
- Be specific: “I want to lose 7lbs by March 31 starting tomorrow” gives more clarity than “I want to lose weight” and offers a start and end date.
- List what you need to do and when. With a weight goal it may include researching & purchasing particular recipes/ingredients and deciding on lifestyle changes.
- Mark tasks in your calendar, the dates you’ll action them, so you keep the space clear and ideally create routines that won’t be interrupted by the day to day of life.
Support and accountability
It can be helpful to have support and encouragement, and someone to be accountable to in order to set and achieve your goals. If you feel Life Coaching would enable you to stay on track, and want to know more, you are welcome to arrange a free initial call for 20 minutes without obligation. Life Coaching is adapted to meet your own unique needs and circumstances.