New Years Resolutions Failures

I don’t typically make new year’s resolutions but I do, of course, have a lot of thoughts on the concept. You can check here and here for my prior year’s posts. Those talk more about my views on the idea of making resolutions and what I, personally, tend to do instead. 

However, this time I want to talk about resolution failure. Failure is a part of any goal but it is so often overlooked when people make resolutions. Everyone is high off that feeling of getting a fresh start. What could go wrong? Make no mistake - you will fail. You will miss a workout, go over budget, or eat too much pizza in one sitting. There will be good days and bad days - maybe even bad weeks. Furthermore, many resolutions have to happen over time and it is unreasonable to expect that you will not ever slip up. How you deal with those slip ups, though, are usually the difference between achieving your goal or letting it fall by the wayside.

So before you step on that treadmill, take that first bite of salad, or save that first dollar, think about all the reasons you’ve failed to accomplish this goal in the past. If you’ve tried to do this before, what caused you to drop it? Did you get sick? Did work get too hectic? Did you lose motivation?

And if you’ve never tried, what prevented you from starting? Did it seem too big of a goal? Did you feel you didn’t have the resources? Did you feel you didn’t have any support? 

Whatever your reasons for not starting or for giving up in the past, they are still probably there. Your job is still a huge timesuck. Your friends still want to go out and spend money. And pizza will always, always taste better than salad. 

So when you’re making your resolutions this year, use some of that fresh new year motivational energy to  think about what you’ll do on those days. How will you motivate yourself to keep going even when it’s hard or when you screw up? What will keep the fire going?

I believe this motivation can be broken down into two parts - drive and reflection. They push and pull you to achieve your goals respectively. 

The drive is the spark. It’s the initial reason that pushed you to want to start this goal. Maybe you want to save enough money to go on a big trip. The big trip is your drive. You should break it apart and analyze why it means so much to you. Is it the freedom? The fun? The chance to spend quality time with family or friends? Really get to the bottom of why you want this so badly. If you figure out exactly why it is so important to you, you’ll have found a purpose. Remembering that purpose will make it much harder to push off your goal when things are a little rougher. Or, you might even find that you need to adjust it to better reflect the thing you’re actually looking for.

The reflection is the feeling you get as you progress. For the previous example, as you save your money, you’ll get a positive feeling. Maybe it’s excitement, or anticipation, or satisfaction. Whatever it is, it’ll be good. Relish that feeling each time you move forward. Save it in your mind so you can recall it at will. This is the technique I use to keep up with my workouts. I’m able to remember how good I feel after a workout, and just that memory is enough to pull me back into my routine. Let that feeling guide you forward. 

Sometimes, these techniques, as well as others, won’t be enough. And it’s important to remember that is ok. Completely ok. It really is ok to fail. It’s ok to have those bad days or weeks. But eventually, you have to get back to it. And if you can do that, if you can come back from a failure, then you can’t be stopped.

Turning to RUN AWAY from 2020 PC: Kiki Moussetis