How to achieve your New Year’s Resolution

As the New Year begins, most individuals have a surge of motivation.

They pledge: to limit their time on social media, to reduce plastic waste, to learn a new skill and so on.

Getting healthy remains a popular resolution in the UK, with the fitness industry enjoying increased membership sales in January, boosting profits by as much as 20%!

It would seem many of us are swept up with the desire for change that the New Year heralds. We are open to and excited about the possibility for personal renewal and growth.

But how can we best harness the motivation and excitement that the New Year brings to actually deliver the goals set?

It’s an open secret that New Year resolutions often fail.

Any of us who are members of a club, such as a gym, will notice the increased numbers of individuals in training in January. Typically by the end of the month, numbers will have halved and by the end of February numbers will have returned to what they were prior to the January influx. Most, if not all, of the new faces will have disappeared.

The example is anecdotal, but research stands behind this experience.

In one survey, 80% of individuals’ questioned did not keep their New Year’s resolutions beyond January. In a second study on New Years’ resolutions, 12 January, was identified as the date on which most people are likely to quit: quitters day. That is to say, some individuals surveyed gave up on their resolution within two weeks of setting them.

The fact is, the feelings of excitement, motivation and renewed hope we experience in the New Year has very little to do with the principles required to succeed in the goal set. This is the first lesson to draw: motivation is an unfaithful partner.

After the fireworks and champagne, when the inevitable complexity of life, work and family kick back in, you will find enthusiasm, motivation etc., quickly vacate just as justifications for abdicating come in thick and fast. After all, you’re not really so overweight, are you? You wouldn’t want the extra work that comes with the promotion anyway, would you? Now is not the time to start the new course, is it?

In the spaces between these questions, enthusiasm and motivation are nowhere to be found. What do we do then?

To get the results that we really want this year, we need to change our behaviour, and more specifically our habits.

The missing ingredient to achieving your resolution will be found in what you do alongside your resolution to change your habits.

Habit formation does not need to be complex, boring and hard. Establishing the habit of keeping your goal at the forefront of your mind is easy and very effective. Simply, write out your goal on a goal card. On the reverse, write out the motivation for setting this goal. Really focus on, and identify why the goal is important to you.

Read this justification when you wake up every morning, and before you go to sleep at night. This one simple exercise will keep the goal at the forefront of your mind, as the days and week progress, which in turn, will increase the likelihood of success.

Alongside daily review of your goal and motivation for setting it, there are many simple and effective exercises described in the transformational programme, Thinking into Character. Each exercise is designed to supplement your motivation and enthusiasm with the habit change required to achieve your resolution this year. Learn more.

If you are relying on motivation only, without developing the habits required to attain your goals, what you are likely to experience is a spike in activity, followed by an opt-out that will be justified in multiple credible ways.

The answer to achieving your resolution this year in cultivating not your enthusiasm, but in acting even when you do not ‘feel’ motivated. We do this by cultivating the habits for successful goal attainment.

This year, I wish you every success with your goals, and as we head towards the dreaded 12 January ‘quitters day’, I hope all of you will work and push beyond motivation to achieve the worthy goals that you have set yourself.