Written by: Caleigh Heng, Reika Sim, Sarah Binte Mustaffa, Filza Alisha, Bashira Uzma Ashraf Ali
Remember those new year’s resolutions that you made last year? If you didn’t manage to make them come true, you are not alone. “New Year, New Me”: we may have repeated that in our minds like a mantra as we scribbled lists onto a fresh page as the clock struck midnight, but it is now a new year, and these resolutions have fallen by the wayside. Why do we still persist in making new year resolutions then?
Doing this helps us feel ready to take on every experience the new year has in store. Yet according to findings from a Forbes Health/One Poll survey, the average resolution lasts merely 3.74 months, covering just 31% of the entire year.
Acknowledging this stark reality highlights that there are flaws in the way we execute our resolutions. As philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “He who has a why can bear any how”. We need to ask ourselves, why do we make New Year’s resolutions in the first place?
Why we make New Year's Resolutions
Before you can accomplish a New Year’s resolution, you have to make one first. Yet, many people wait until the New Year to make their resolutions.
The New Year often symbolises a blank slate, a fresh start for most of us. This inspires a sense of hope and optimism in individuals. It also offers an opportunity for us to reflect and consider the positive changes we want to make. The ritual of making resolutions allows us to solidify these desires, and create a motivational goal of sorts. The goal may be internal, such as paying more attention to health, or personal growth. The goal may also be external, with more focus on making tangible changes to a person’s life. Making New Year’s resolutions gives us something concrete to work towards, and it also serves as motivation.
Why do they Sometimes Fail?
According to an article by Verywell Mind, The Psychology Behind Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail, we might be thinking too big when it comes to resolutions and goals. We get too ahead of ourselves and plan goals that changes up our habits and routines. When it comes to making changes in our behaviours, our bodies get uncomfortable as we are not wired to make drastic changes.
For example, if we want to make changes to our sleeping habits, it would take time to condition our body clocks into sleeping early, which might be difficult to follow through. In order to see a noticeable change, we have to force ourselves out of our comfort zones. Change is hard for some of us, and by creating unattainable goals, we tend to forget that we are just human beings that need to start small.
Usually, having resolutions for the New Year is an optional thing and are made on a whim. Some of us are not ready for change and are most likely unsure of our personal goals, which results in the failure of executing our resolution goals.
How do we Achieve our Resolutions?
With the start of a new year, some of us might have a resolution to complete at least one goal in our 2025 resolutions.
One way to achieve it is by setting small, realistic goals each day or week that lead up to our resolution being completed. As they say, “a little goes a long way”. The idea of a yearly resolution may appear daunting at first, but planning ahead and setting smaller goals might make it easier to accomplish. For example, if our overall resolution is to exercise more, we could break it down into the simpler goal of exercising for 10 minutes each day for a week. This is so that our resolutions become objectives we can accomplish despite our hectic schedules.
Additionally, we can track our progress. Doing this allows us to keep a record of our actions and achievements and identify patterns of success. Some prefer to record their actions using a journal, while others prefer apps dedicated to tracking their goals. Perhaps it may be effective to use a mix of these methods. While you can use a traditional journal for jotting down personal thoughts and reflection, there are also digital apps like Todoist for managing daily tasks and deadlines. Combining traditional and modern means of recording in this way can provide a more well-rounded and holistic perspective of our progress.
With that being said, it is also equally important to recognise that setbacks in these plans are a part of any goal, and we should learn to adapt and be flexible when overcoming these roadblocks. An extremely rigid approach to our goal trackers could lead us to feel discouraged and unmotivated to continue working towards the goal. Hence, it is important to be flexible and view the setbacks as learning points.
Our New Year resolutions are born from our innate desire for self-improvement and reflection. However, setting too ambitious of a resolution is likely to result in failure to accomplish it by the end of the year.
We can achieve our resolutions by setting small and realistic goals. We can also create a plan with actionable steps for a more practical approach. Remember to not feel discouraged by setbacks, but use them as stepping stones to achieve your overarching goal.
So, in this New Year, ask yourself: How will you achieve your New Year’s resolutions?
