New Year's resolutions and plans: How are they doing nowadays?

Are you still thriving in achieving your New Year’s resolutions and plans? Or were two weeks enough, and now you are back to the „good old“ version of yourself? Many people get frustrated when they aren’t able to fulfill the resolutions and goals they set for themselves. We understand that. That’s why we prepared the article about how to not give up on your New Year’s resolutions, goals, and plans.

Who do you want to be?

Anytime you want to develop a good habit or set a goal and achieve it, you are closer to the person who you aspire to be. Knowing how to get past obstacles to fulfill your goals is key to a successful life.

Why do New Year’s resolutions and plans fail

A study found that if people have a challenging goal to work towards, they feel better about themselves. If they fail, the ones who had experienced previous failures in life tend to become disheartened. However, no one should be too hard on themselves. Another research has shown that ¼ of people give up their resolutions already after one week, and only 10% will maintain their goal by the end of the year.

It may only be a matter of time when people give up on their New Year’s resolutions and plans. However, there is one critical date that is literally knocking on the door in the upcoming days. The most critical day is on the 17th of January. This is the day when most of the people give up on their New Year’s resolutions and go back to their old habits. A tracking app for bikers and runners looked at the 108 million entries of their users and found out Thursday is when most users tend to give up on their fitness resolutions. Only about 40% are successful at the 6-month mark. 

The obstacles to overcome to fulfill your resolutions, plans, and goals

In general, there are two types of obstacles you have to face when fulfilling your goal: mental and real ones. The real ones are e.g. not having enough money. Mental obstacles are fears. You can’t believe you can achieve your goals. This is influenced by past experiences. In this case, you have to identify what holds you back. It can be one of these things:

 

  • setting up too big or too complicated goals
  • no immediate reward, so it’s hard for you to stay motivated
  • not having any „partner in crime“ to do the resolution with

What should you do to make your resolutions survive the next week, so you become the 10%?

How to keep New Year’s resolutions and other plans

In general, different methods work on different people, though the methods work on similar principles. The key is to keep your resolutions and goals reasonable and attainable, and always reward yourself for success. Popular is also the SMART goal-setting theory. For goals to be achieved, they must be:

 

  • Specific – the goal has to be clear in what purpose it serves, most preferably important to the person
  • Measurable – receiving feedback allows to access progress and manage expectation
  • Attainable – the goal must be both realistic and challenging
  • Relevant – when setting a goal it is important to test whether the goal is relevant to you, your ability, and your time
  • Time – you should have a deadline for the goal

Note, it can take about 66-90 days before fully developing a new habit. So if you don’t succeed immediately, don’t give up.

The “if-when” plan

Research on testing ‘brain hack’ designed to help turn goals into action showed success in helping people improve habits through “if-then” plans. It works like this: For example, if someone offers you a beer at the party, you can program your mind to this: If offered a beer at a party, then I’ll order a soda instead.

Lifehack: Employ technology

If you still fail to keep your goals and plans, and you want to take your life seriously, try to monitor and track your goal progress with a handy app. Here is a list of useful apps you can use to help you to keep your New Year’s resolutions and plans. Do you want to become nicer? Try one of the apps that will help you to become a nicer person. Don’t forget that even when using the app, you still have to put in the effort to keep your resolutions and goals. You can let us know in the Facebook comment section if it’s easy for you to do so.

 

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