There’s a good chance that you already know what your New Year’s resolutions are going to be for 2020. Why? Because they’re probably going to be the same ones you made for 2019. And the same ones you made for 2018.
Why would someone make the same New Year’s resolutions year after year?
Because most people never meet their resolutions.
Ever.
About 80% of people who make New Year’s resolutions fail to keep them for longer than 4 weeks, and a mere 9% of people feel like they actually kept their resolutions long-term.
Those aren’t very good statistics. In fact, they’re pretty rough.
Why is there such a big drop off? Well, there are a few reasons.
First, New Year’s resolutions tend to be emotional decisions. The year coming to a close reminds us of how quickly it has passed, and how we are often no closer to our goals than we were the year before. Maybe we’re even further away. So, we make our resolutions out of frustration and desperation for the next year to be different than the last.
This is not necessarily a great place to start from.
Second, people rarely have support, accountability, or an actual plan built in to their resolutions. Again, because of the whole feeling desperate thing, they just kinda wing it and hope they stumble into a better result than they had last year. Vague resolutions like “lose twenty pounds”, or “get in shape” don’t really give you much to go on as far as a plan goes.
Again, not a great way to get things going.
Third, and lastly, we give a ton of power to January 1st. We treat it like it’s a holy day where we’ll be blessed with greater self-discipline and will power than we had the day before.
Spoiler alert: it’s not.
In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that the assumption that things are going to go better at the start of the new year, actually works against us.
We go into our New Years resolutions thinking things are going to be different simply because it’s the new year. Which means we’re not as prepared for the road ahead as we should be.
Things aren’t going to be any different. At all.
Losing weight will take just as much discipline and hard work on Jan 1st as it will on Nov. 5th.
Getting stronger and healthier wont be a simpler process in two months than it will be tomorrow.
The only thing you’re going to gain from waiting is two more months of reinforcing your current habits and behaviors.
Don’t. Wait.
I promise, the you that’s waiting in 2020 will thank you.
Need help getting started? Let’s chat.
