3 Lesser-known reasons you don’t stick to your New Years’ resolutions

Posted on December 23, 2022 by Risa Haasbroek, One of Thousands of Entrepreneurship Coaches on Noomii.

Are you part of the 90% who don’t stick to their New Year’s resolutions? Every year you’re determined to make them work. And every year you fail.
I want to share with you 3 lesser-known reasons you don’t follow through on all your good intentions.
These insights will help you to make a few tweaks so that you will become part of the successful 10 percent who do change their lives in the new year.

R E A S O N #1 YOU HAVE TOO MANY RESOLUTIONS
“This is your big year.”
“This is the year you’re going to change your life.”
“This is the year you do it.”
Those sentences have been running through your mind for the last week of December. And so, you made your long list of improvements.
You want to change your health, your relationships, your business, your job, your spiritual life.
Everything.
At once.
Immediately.
Not a good idea.
Your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do too many things at the same time your brain will spin you into overwhelm. You’ll have a much better chance to stick to your resolutions when you constrain yourself to one thing at a time.
But what if your whole life, your whole business needs an overhaul?
Think about it in this way. Learning to stick to your plans is something you can teach yourself. Learning to keep your word to yourself, because that is what a New Year’s Resolution is, is not a character trait. It is not something you’re born with. It’s a skillset.
And once you’ve mastered it, you can apply it again and again and work on the next thing and the next and the next.
Here’s a super tip. Write down all the things you want to improve in your life. Take an hour or two and get them out of your brain onto paper or your computer.
And now you just have to pick the one thing you want to improve in your life right now.
Finding it hard to decide?

Here are three questions you can use to help you make the decision.
1. Which goal would be the most fun to go for?
2. Which goal would be the easiest to achieve?
3. Which goal would have the most impact on your life?

Don’t use all three questions. Pick one that you like best, answer it, and decide what is the first goal you’re going to work on.
And just believe you know what’s best for you and will make the right decision.

R E A S O N #2 YOU’RE NOT PLANNING AHEAD OF TIME FOR THE RESISTANCE
The second reason you don’t stick to your New Year’s resolutions is when the time comes for you to do the thing you set out to do, you’re not going to feel like doing it.
That is normal. That resistance is just your brain doing its job. Your brain thinks its biggest job is to keep you alive. So, it wants to use as little energy as possible on some new idea your better self is coming up with. Therefore, it will try its best to keep you from doing it.
But when you are prepared for this normal resistance, you’ll be ready for it. The best way to be ready is to ask yourself: what am I going to tell myself when I don’t feel like doing it.
There is this saying that reason comes before result. Ask yourself ahead of time what is your compelling reason for doing this hard thing. Remind yourself of that again and again when you don’t feel like doing it.

R E A S O N #3 YOU’RE NOT TRACKING YOUR PROGRESS
All the research shows the best way to stay motivated when you have New Year’s resolutions is to track your progress.
That means you celebrate even the smallest win.
There is this idea put forward by Dan Sullivan about the gap or the gain that can be helpful.
When you focus on how far you still must go, you’re in the gap. That will discourage you.
But when you remind yourself how far you’ve already come, you’re in the gain. And that helps you to keep going.

L E T’S R E C A P
And there you have three simple strategies that’ll help you become part of the top 10% of people who keep their word to themselves. Let me repeat them for you.
Work on only one thing at a time to improve, make sure you have a plan of action when you don’t feel like doing what you said you were going to do and take the time to pay attention to the progress you’re making.
Remember setting and hitting goals is a skillset. Make sure you master it this year.