Each new year, as January arrives, millions of people worldwide decide to make some positive changes to their lives and set New Year resolutions. For many people this revolves around fitness: eating more healthily, exercising more, perhaps even entering a marathon or other endurance event.
Yet, most fail, very often setting them back to the place they were before even thinking about making changes. Why do New Year resolutions fail so much?
Some Statistics
There are many different surveys providing a wide variety of results on the longevity of New Year resolutions. Success rates range from 30% to a dismal 8%.
Nevertheless, regardless of the data you read, the chances of maintaining your planned changes are very slim indeed.
A 2020 survey published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, found that approximately 80% of resolutions fail by February. The health and fitness network, Strava (with over 120 million users globally), tells us that 23% of people abandon their resolutions after just one week and by the end of January 43% have quit. After examining the data taken from millions of training sessions, Strava coined the term Quitters Day. This is the day when most people give up; it’s January 19th.
What are some of the common reasons New Year resolutions fail?
Expecting too much
Your goal might be very admirable, but how realistic is it. Can you really maintain a 3-times-weekly run, when this time window simply did not exist?
Goals not specific
Getting fit, or losing weight are not specific. Goals like this are very hard to measure progress. Add some numbers, for example: I want to lose 10 kilos before the beginning of April. We can now measure and keep track of progress. We can also break this down into the mini-goals that provide the necessary motivation along the way.
Poor Planning
How realistic is your goal? What needs to be in place to help you achieve it? Do you need help from others? Do you need to obtain some kit or clothing? Do some research and learn more about your aims. If it’s nutrition-based then ensure you have the healthy options to hand and stock up. Do you need to arrange any childcare (perhaps for those morning runs)?
Relying on will-power
Will power alone will not get you there, relying on will power will not help you make the life changes necessary to achieve your aim. Will power is a very overrated assistant. Try telling yourself not to eat that cake when it’s there, on the worktop screaming ‘eat me!’ Far better not to buy the cake. If you have a run planned and it’s freezing cold and wet outside, will power won’t get you out the door, but having a friend waiting for you outside will.
Lack of support
If your resolution affects others (which most do), then it’s going to be far easier if they are on your side and know and understand what you are trying to do.
Psychology
An understanding of some basic psychology might help with formulating and sticking to a New Year resolution. Generally, we are resistant to change, we are largely, creatures of habit. The subconscious need to maintain habits can makes change hard, harder than anticipated.
The good news is that we can use this to our advantage. Just as bad habits are hard to break, good habits can make our preferred behaviours automatic. But it takes effort, and it takes more than a little creativity to put all the blocks in place to ensure we stick to what we want.
How to succeed with New Year resolutions
All this talk of failure might sound rather demoralising and get you wondering if it’s worth all the hard work. That of course is your decision. However, with fitness goals the pay-back can be huge, life-changing and even life-saving.
Here are some tips to help you make the changes to a fitter and more healthy life.
1 – Make goals SMART
Smart goals are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Timed
Here’s an example: I’m going to run a half-marathon on March 23rd. In February, I will complete a 10k. Towards the end of the month, I will run a 10-mile training run. I can do this because I can already complete a 5k Parkrun.
You can add some further mini-goals or actions that seem quite separate, but will help with motivation and support. For instance, tell your partner and/or friends what you are doing and why it’s important. Ask for their support. Join a running group and tell them why you joined and what you are aiming to do. Download a training plan.
Setting a goal like this will almost guarantee success if all the building blocks are in place.
2 – Be Flexible in your approach
Sometimes life gets in the way. Occasionally the weather can affect our plans. Similarly, other unexpected events can prevent us from training on a particular day. Perhaps we go out for a celebratory meal, knocking our healthy eating regime. Expect the unexpected and be prepared to make adjustments or just accept that we cannot always follow our plans to the letter.
3 – Share your plans
Tell people what you are doing and why: family, friends, others in your network or community. Keep them updated (they will probably ask anyway). Doing so makes you accountable, it’s like having a coach, someone who you’ll have to explain why you missed your training session, someone who you can tell about your recent great running success.
4 – Make your new behaviour habitual
Habits need no motivation or effort to maintain. They might take a bit of effort to form, so use your new-found motivation to add some regular, consistent actions. These actions will then become your default behaviour.
5 – Keep track
This is the measurable part of your goal. You can use apps, spreadsheets or keep a diary to log your actions and results. That 10 kilo weight loss goal, becomes just under 1 kilo a week, which is much easier to measure. Those little benchmarks can be very motivating as you move towards the bigger goal.
6 – Start at a realistic level
Want to run that half marathon in March? Look at where you are now and increase your training gradually. This is particularly important for exercise goals, when doing too much too soon can lead to injury.
7 – Using technology to help
Tech has moved on significantly in recent years. Watches and phone apps allow you to log and measure your progress and can even shape your training according to your goal. You can connect with others via fitness networks such as Strava.com, and Facebook groups. Connecting with others and being part of a community, either online or in-person, is a great way to keep on track. If your goal does not involve exercise and is more nutrition based then again, use apps to log your food changes and even plan your meals.
Use technology to keep a diary. Record your progress and enter your mini-goals along the way.
Conclusion
There are many reasons why people fail with their New Year health and fitness resolutions. Don’t be one of them. Plan, prepare, get support and probably most importantly, think hard about your goal: how will your life be different and better than it is now? What will it mean to you?
Consider your New Year resolution to be life-changing and accept nothing less.
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