Do You Need to Make New Year's Resolutions?

“I will start going to the gym”

“I will lose weight”

“I will start eating healthy”

“I will quit smoking and drinking”

“I will have a better sleeping schedule”

“I will have a work/life balance”

“I will travel more”

Sounds familiar, don’t they? More often than not, these are the most common New Year’s resolution most of us make. How many New Year’s resolutions have you made in the past? How many of those have you actually fulfilled?

Before the ball drops, many people have held in their hearts wishes and goals for the upcoming year, things that would make them feel successful, happy and fulfilled. But according to the University Of Scranton Psychology Professor John C. Norcross, Ph.D. less than 10% of people who made their resolution actually felt successful about bringing it to completion.

Countless gurus and life coaches have given tips on how to make realistic resolutions offering all kinds of ways to stay on track with them, but it’s just not easy to fully follow through with them. Let’s explore why:

1. Our New Year’s Resolutions should be about what we think we SHOULD do.
   

It is very often that our resolutions depend on what other people expects of us, or how a magazine tells us to “get fit for the summer.” It would be very hard to fulfill a goal especially if we are not really committed to it. Therefore, it is best to ditch what other people think that we should do, and start looking at what we really actually want to pursue.

2. We bite it off in big chunks
   
   

Most people create resolutions that are very vague or are not specific. You MUST pick a smaller action in order to detail your plan towards achieving a specific goal. For example, instead of saying “eating healthier” we can state that we would “have a smoothie every morning with kale in it.” No commitment would be our enemy towards fulfilling our goals. This would be like a big rocket booster that will just initially give a boost of energy to get us going, but would not be at all sustainable.

3. Fear of Failure
   
   

Deep in our hearts, many fear to fail. Some may feel worried that if we make a change, we may figure out that we are not “good enough”, “determined enough”, and “strong enough” to see our goals’ completion.

Most of us prefer to start acting upon these resolutions on the very first day of the year, because it gives them a sense of fresh start. But have you ever asked why we need to wait for a certain date if we truly, sincerely want to change something?

According to Forbes, only 46% of all the resolutions made will make it past the 6-month mark, and even less actually stay consistent towards the end of the year. If you want to start eating healthy, why not start today? Take baby steps and don’t commit to an entire year right away. Start from one week, to one whole month, and slowly work your way towards a year.

Bottom line is, we don’t need to wait for a specific date to start these changes and goals, when we have 364 other days that are equally as important and great decision-making days available to us. Starting now instead of waiting for the New Year says to the universe that the goals we have set truly matter to us (no matter the date!) We can achieve whatever our hearts wish to fulfill. We must simply set the goal, have the vision in our mind of what it is we want to materialise and have enough positive emotion behind it to get our subconscious mind to make it happen!