Instead of keeping you waiting on the cold truth behind resolutions, I’ll get right to it...they don’t work. Sorry to burst your ‘new year, new me’ bubble, friends, but the elaborate plans to change everything about yourself because the calendar turned over ain’t cutting it. And it’s not because people have bad intentions in setting resolutions but almost entirely because resolutions are doomed to fail from the start.
Resolutions are fundamentally flawed in three major areas:
- If you’re waiting for a specific time of year to change what you know needs to be changed...you’re probably not really ready for it to change.
- Resolutions feast off of motivation and motivation burns fast and is fleeting -- it will die out on you.
- Resolutions are almost always completely over estimated in terms of inputs and outputs -- too lofty of a goal and too little of an effort. I’m just calling a spade a spade, but there is a better way...
So, if resolutions are typically doomed from the jump it begs the question -- what actually works?
The answer is (unfortunately) boringly and un-satisfyingly simple. Let’s look at three quick scenarios. “I’m gonna start changing my diet on Jan 1.” Nah. You have to actually be ready to make the changes in your life not just making changes because the calendar turns over.
“I’m going full steam ahead starting in January.” Also...Nah. You also need something more powerful than a burst of motivation to create long-term change. You need discipline and consistency...the less sexy but way more powerful long-term engines of change and success.
“I'm not going to eat sweets, drink, or have pizza for a year.” Ok really the biggest Nah yet! You need to be real with yourself and not set a ton of crazy goals. Trying to make massive, sweeping changes all at once is a recipe for failure. If you’re eating completely out of control...making that kind of turnaround is insanely hard. If you’re not even going to the gym 2x a week...going every single day just isn’t going to happen.
You gotta be real with yourself and set real goals. Let’s talk about how we can save ourselves from the cold curse of resolutions.