5 Reasons Why Your New Year's Resolutions FLOPPED

“New year, new me”.

It’s that time of the year where we’ll see that notorious quote make its rounds on social media. Promises of making and sticking to new year’s resolutions are made, but are they kept to?

The Most Common New Year’s Resolutions

Broadly speaking, our new year’s resolutions aren’t that unique. According to a poll conducted by YouGov, here are five of the most common new year’s resolutions for 2021:

Doing more exercise or improving your fitness
Losing weight
Saving more money
Improving your diet
Pursuing a career ambition

Even though the survey was conducted on Americans, we’re pretty sure that many of you reading this can totally relate to those resolutions.

So Why Do We Still Suck at Keeping To Our Resolutions?

Sad but true—only 19% of individuals keep to their resolutions. The rest will abandon their resolutions by mid-January.

Here’s 5 reasons why our new year’s resolutions flop, according to Maike Neuhaus, Ph.D., and Self-Leadership Psychologist and Behaviour Change Expert:

1) We don’t bother setting and celebrating milestones

Your resolutions should be broken down into smaller, clearly defined milestones so that you know you’re making progress. And give yourself credit where credit’s due! It’s well deserved.

2) We’re too ambitious

Resolutions like “exercising more” or “losing weight” are big, lofty goals. While there’s nothing wrong with those goals, you need to be realistic about them. How often do you want to exercise? How much weight do you want to lose? How much money do you want to save? Is your goal realistic or do you have to go to extremes to achieve them?

3) Relying too much on willpower

Your willpower is like a battery—great when it’s fully charged but totally useless once it runs out. But just like how batteries are rechargeable, you can recharge your willpower too. So remember to be kind to yourself and take breaks.

4) Doing it solo

You might be embarrassed to share your new year’s resolutions with your loved ones for fear you’ll embarrass yourself if you don’t achieve them. That’s exactly the kind of negativity that’s stopping you from achieving your resolutions! Share your resolutions with only the people you trust and seek their help in supporting you.

5) Throwing in the towel too soon

The moment we relapse into our old behaviour, we immediately give up because of our guilt and shame. Don’t be too hard on yourself! We all have moments where we slip up, but forgive yourself and move on.

Read this article to find out about the other 5 reasons why your new year’s resolutions fail.

Are New Year's Resolutions Still Worth the Effort?

Absolutely! For many of us, the idea of a fresh start is the kick we need to make changes to our lives. So let’s not criticize those who hop on the “new year, new me” bandwagon.