It may only be a few weeks into the New Year, but many people have already given up on their resolutions.
And it isn’t necessarily that they didn’t want it as badly or that they didn’t set good, realistic goals.
There are 5 big reasons most people fail at accomplishing their New Years Resolutions less than a week into the New Year.
Those 5 Reasons People Give Up On Their New Years Resolutions are:
1. They Don’t Know Where To Start. The idea of making big lifestyle changes can be super overwhelming especially if you aren’t sure of where to start. And knowing where to start can sometimes seem super confusing and complicated.
So to help yourself get started, KEEP IT SIMPLE! Choose one thing to focus on and make one small, simple change to get your moving forward.
Want to start working out more this coming year? Start with one workout a week. Maybe even something as simple as a walk around the block.
Want to start eating cleaner? Start by cleaning out your fridge. Or making one small change each and every day like even if it is simply eating more veggies.
The point is that you need to boil your goal down to one simple action to start with otherwise the idea of starting a new healthy lifestyle may overwhelm you and cause you to never actually get started working toward your goal!
2. They Don’t Have A Plan. A goal is great but if you don’t have a plan, you really have no idea how to accomplish it – You know the end date but haven’t found the path.
A plan can mean a lot of different things, but the point is that it provides you with guidance so that when life gets in the way and the going gets rough, you can get through and continue toward your goals.
A plan makes sitting to your goals easier because you don’t have to constantly think about what you have to do. A plan simplifies things so that you don’t have to make a ton of decisions all the time and get stressed out.
A plan also helps you be PREPARED to make things easier. For instance, if you have a plan to make healthy diet changes, your plan probably includes meal prep. And meal prep makes eating well SO MUCH EASIER because you have healthy food easily available when you are stressed or short on time and don’t feel like cooking.
A plan makes you prepared and outlines HOW you are going to get from point A to point B.
You may create an eating plan that maps out your meals for each day. You may create a workout progression that tells you what your workout is going to be down the reps, sets and weights you are going to use.
And these plans, not only will guide you toward your goal, but will also help you track your progress so you can make changes along the way.
Need help planning? Check out our online training programs!
3. They Don’t Set An End Date. Even if you are looking to make a lifestyle change, you need to set end dates for specific changes/goals. We tend to have a very hard time committing to something if we don’t have a deadline.
Deadlines don’t mean that at that point you can just forget about all of the healthy habits you’ve created – you aren’t simply DONE. A deadline is merely marking the accomplishment of your short-term goal, which helps you move forward toward you long-term goal.
Having short-term goals create motivation and a sense of urgency to get started NOW. Just think about all the times you’ve accomplished your goals….It is probably when you had an end date that wasn’t too far in the future.
Set weekly goals, monthly goals, even six month and year-long goals. The short-term goals help keep you focused and allow you to see progress as you move toward your long-term goal.
And the more important you can make the deadline event, the more likely you are to stay committed. Big events motivate us…Just think about how motivated people are to make changes around big life events such as weddings and reunions.
When we have a big event, we have a deadline that can’t be changed. We HAVE to be done by that date.
Set some short-term goals and give yourself a deadline. Try to make that deadline a big event as well to help keep you dedicated and motivated.
I love month-long goals because the end date is far enough away to give you time to get great results while being close enough that you can see the finish line!
4. They Don’t Have Support And Things To Hold Them Accountable. While we can go it alone, it is always way easier to stay dedicated when the people around us support us. They can help keep us motivated and even offer us guidance. They hold us accountable
While most of the time friends and family will support us, sometimes we need to find outside support and ways to hold ourselves accountable.
Online communities, gyms, trainers, classes…all can offer support and accountability.
Get others involved in your goals and let them know what you are trying to do. You can even start a blog or join a fitness tracker and friend others.
By making your goals public, you will feel more dedicated to your goals because no one wants to fail publicly. And you can also ask others for guidance and support when life tries to interfere!
Don’t be afraid to get others involved be it online or in-person.
5. They Don’t Track Their Progress. When our results slow or our progress stalls, we tend to start to want to give up on our new healthy habits. Especially when we don’t know what is working and what is causing us to stall, we tend to just start to believe that the whole thing isn’t working.
However, if we track our progress, if we track what we are doing, we can make changes so that we can keep moving forward. We can make small adjustments to what we are already doing instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.
Write down your workouts and log the weights, reps, sets (and any other variables) that you do.
Track your food. Try logging your meals in a fitness tracker like My Fitness Pal or Spark People.
And not only will tracking help you break through a plateau, but it may also show you that you are, in fact, making progress when you may not feel like you are moving forward.
Writing things down may also keep you more dedicated and hold you accountable because there is physical evidence as to whether or not you are truly working toward your goal.
So don’t give up on your New Years Resolutions! Set yourself up for success by doing these 5 things!
