Yep – you said guessed it. It’s that time of the year again…. New Year resolution time!
Nearly half of us are making New Year’s resolutions as we speak, but less than 10 per cent of us are actually going to be keeping them.
So how many of us are going to write down a list and keep it on the fridge door, until about – next week?
To those, like myself who think they have found some goal to achieve and pursue it as a resolution, I say don’t, honestly just don’t even bother.
I have come to realise that putting down five or so ‘wish’ goals are not exactly motivational enough for me to actually go after way after February or March!
“If you want to be a part of the few that do versus the many that talk, you need to be crystal clear – what specific result will you accomplish? What’s your WHY (reasons come first, answers come second)? How will you do it? What tools, strategies, or resources do you need to make it happen?” says American entrepreneur, philanthropist and life coach Tony Robbins.
He is right.
Research shows that 80pc of people give up on their New Year’s resolution by the second week of February! I am one of them!
“Once you have established an understanding of ‘WHY’ your resolution is important, the next step is to create a strategy and identify the tools that will help you manifest what you want,” says Robbins.
“Without a plan, your resolution will remain a pipe dream.”
A study, from Cornell University and University of Chicago, found that participants believe both enjoyment and importance are significant factors in whether they stick to their resolutions.
In fact, the researchers found that the enjoyment factor was the only thing that mattered.
Another study, published by the Journal of Nature and Science, looked into why we are so bad at sticking to health-related goals.
It points out that only a fifth of us get the recommended amount of exercise, despite the fact we are always being told how a healthier lifestyle can lengthen our lives.
According to the author Seppo Iso-Ahola, a professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Maryland, the problem lies with the internal battle between doing what you want to do, and what you should do.
If you can stop yourself overthinking how awful it will be to have a salad for dinner, or to go on a run after work, you might just have a better chance of going through with it.
And there lies our failure to sustain or go through with our resolutions – the self pity and doubt that we are doing this not because we really want to but perhaps we should?!