New Year's resolutions are a hit during the beginning of every year, but it has acquired a bad reputation due to people giving up on their resolves. Statistics show that only 9.2% of people feel like they were actually able to achieve the resolutions they made.
Why do people give up? Some blame it on the lack of enthusiasm or passion; however, these reasons are too shallow. If enthusiasm or passion determined if we will reach our goals or not, then we wouldn't be failing in the first place.
People have a hard time accomplishing their resolutions not due to the lack of enthusiasm or passion but because of limited knowledge about behaviour change. Let's understand more about this first and later we will look at five reasons why we can't keep our New Year's Resolutions and see how we can fix it.
THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR
The Theory of Planned Behaviour by Icek Ajzen is considered to be one of the best models for behaviours affecting New Year's Resolutions. This theory explains why these resolutions fail and states that intentions or goals are built on three elements that serve as the foundation of being successful at keeping resolutions.
- Attitudes around a behaviour
- Social network's attitude towards the behaviour
- Belief in one's ability to reach success at a behaviour
When all the three elements are lined up to support your goal it will be easier to achieve success in whatever area you want.
Let's look at this example. If you prioritize good health and the people you surround yourself with don't smoke, you will feel strong enough about quitting smoking so setting yourself up towards it won't be a problem.
But if good health isn't your top priority, and you're surrounded with people who smoke and have tried quitting but only to fail, then setting yourself up towards quitting smoking won't be that easy.
Also, what we can notice from this model is that goal setting is not the last step. It's important to know that there is a gap between the intention or goal and the behaviour. This gap is the reason people fail at keeping their resolutions. There is a need to act and take on the right kind of behaviour so that your intentions will turn into a reality, because if not, then goals will never be achieved.
Once we understand this model, we'll get an idea of the five reasons New Year's Resolutions fail. Let's go through these reasons now.
FIVE REASONS WHY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS FAIL
Reason #1 - No Strong Reason Why
When you have a weak attitude toward your goals, there is a high chance that you will fail at keeping your New Year's resolutions. Make sure you are clear on why your resolution is important. Answer the reason why you need to achieve your goal and what will happen if you achieve it or if you don't.
Cultivate a strong attitude by making sure that the resolutions you make will impact your life for the better. In 2, 3, or 10 years' time what do you think life will be like if you keep your resolutions? The answer to that question will be a great motivation, an energiser, and a means for you to stay focused in order to accomplish your goals.
Find a compelling answer to WHY you need to keep your resolution.
- Why do I need to accomplish my fitness goal? So I'll do well at my child's school sports day instead of becoming an embarrassment.
- Why do you want to travel? So I can treat my parents who sacrificed their trips in order to provide first for my needs.
- Why do you want to be successful at your new business venture? So that I can provide a better life for my family, my children can go to a better school and help my parent's pay their mortgage.
Those are just some answers to questions that will keep you on track. Always remember that a good answer to WHY will motivate you when it seems like you are about to give up.
Reason #2 - Weak Support Network
The five people you spend most of the time with is who you most likely are or who you'll become. That's how important a role the people you spend time with plays in your life. So, more than thinking about surrounding yourself with cool people, it's important that you have forged close connections to people who will hold you responsible for the accomplishment of your goals.
Even the most successful person will sometimes struggle in finding the motivation and accountability to keep a New Year's Resolution that is why surrounding yourself with people who care enough about your success will help keep you focused.
Here are some examples on how you can surround yourself with the right people who will help you achieve your goals:
- Do you want to be fit? Join a gym near your area and tell your trainer to not go easy on you.
- Do you want to start your own business? Find a networking organization and join them. Commit to attend their meetings.
- Do you want to own a property? Consult and be mentored by an expert on property investment.
People who will challenge you, hold you responsible and push you to be better are what you need in life. Go out and find them if you don't have any now. Again, your close connections can either help you or break you into keeping your goals.
Reason #3 - Lack of Self Efficacy
Self-efficacy is a psychological construct first created in 1977 by Albert Bandura. This belief is related to one's ability to be successful in the accomplishment of goals.
There are actually two ways self-efficacy affects one's goals.
First, self-efficacy is linked to how a person creates challenging goals. The more confident they are of themselves, the more likely will they create goals that are more challenging and fulfilling. Second, self-efficacy determines how likely a person will take action after they are done setting their goals.
Cultivate self-efficacy daily until you reckon that you are unstoppable. This is important because achieving your goals requires that you believe in yourself. Here are 4 different ways to increase one's self-efficacy:
1. Performance Accomplishments
Goals can be broken down into smaller bits where every accomplishment is celebrated.
2. Vicarious Experience
Find someone who you consider as a role model. Observe how they act and apply what you have learned from them.
3. Verbal Persuasion
Everyone needs to be encouraged. Find someone, a life coach or a mentor perhaps, who will tell you the things you need to hear to boost your belief in yourself.
4. Emotional Arousal
Before taking any significant step toward the accomplishment of your goals, condition yourself by watching a movie or listening to music. There are actually other ways to do this, but the two I mentioned are the fastest ways to get you into a positive state.
Reason #4 - Lack of Compelling Goal(s)
A to-do list is different from a set of compelling goals. Just imagine, if both of them were the same, then people high-fiving at each other when they ticked off something from their shopping list would be a common sight to see at the supermarket.
One of the things that makes a compelling goal different is the excitement that it brings once you have achieved it. Compelling goals challenge people, they stretch out one's limits, requires the development of skills, increase of knowledge and enhancement of abilities to make the goal a reality.
For example, if you want to improve your financial situation, a great first step can be opening a savings account with a bank; however, since opening an account will just take seconds to do it just becomes an item in the to-do list, not a compelling goal. A compelling goal would be to find a side hustle that will match your monthly salary.
Another example is that of a person who wants to write and publish a book. Yes, you can setup a blog that will take only minutes to do but a compelling goal would be to finish a book after two months and start publishing 1500-2000 articles daily.
If the goal is not too compelling, not inspiring or not challenging you to go beyond, then you're going to go south with the accomplishment of your New Year's Resolutions.
Reason #5 - Lack of Action
A goal will remain to be words on paper if they are not put into action. What to do to avoid it being just mere words on paper is to ensure that your goal or resolution is crystal clear in order to turn it into a reality.
The problem with taking action though is that most people are afraid of it especially if the action required is not something one has engaged in and successfully done before. This is why an action plan is deemed important. Large goals can be broken down into smaller chunks and then you make your way into accomplishing each so progress can be made.
If you ever built a snowman before, you know that a lot of effort has to be put into it to get going. You form small snowballs first by rolling them around, this would seem to be taking forever to do and you're going nowhere with it, but in the long run, you'll notice that the ball becomes bigger and you'll be needing more snow to continue to form bigger rolls.
The same strategy is applied with our goals. You'll need to act small at first, do it consistently and you'll be building momentum. Through the actions you have taken, your knowledge and experience is widened. In time you'll see that the progress toward your goals increases as well.
Taking action should not be optional. You cannot just expect your goal to be accomplished on its own. There is no way that the law of attraction will be in effect without undertaking the necessary measures on every opportunity that is presented to you. Make sure you're doing something - whether it's big or small, do something every day. No matter how small the steps you make are, if it's going to get you closer to realizing your goals or your resolutions, then do it.
Also, be wary of engaging in the same behaviour or approach as before especially if it did not work out the first time. Go and do something unusual. Don't confine yourself in a box, get out of your comfort zone and act on the things that will make you move in the direction of the accomplishment of your goals.
That's it! Now that you understand why New Year's Resolutions fail, it's time that you incorporate the steps taught here when planning your goals. I also have a goal setting playbook you might want to check out for more help. If you already have your goals set up, just adjust it accordingly so as to include the tips we mentioned in this article.
Give your New Year's Resolutions a boost by giving it the attention it deserves. It's definitely time to say goodbye at failing at your resolutions, and hello to reaching success this year and the years to come that is beyond what you can imagine.
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