It’s that time of year again, we are coming out of 2020 and about to step into 2021. Have you set your goals for 2021?
2020 has been one hot mess after another and another. Maybe… your finances went down the drain. Maybe… your business had to close or suffer a major financial blow. Maybe… you realized you need to change you environment. It’s not to late to turn your life around, remember it is YOUR life. Take control.
We hope you’re not one of those “New Year, New Me” haters. At The Dark Phx, we encourage the reinvention of self. The process could be repeated every year or even everyday, but for now, let’s just think about from this year to next year.
Look at the year, 2020, as a test of personal strength and of the ability to use your resources. Leave 2020 with an understanding of the mistakes that were made and the lesson(s) presented from those mistakes. Go into 2021 with a new set of eyes and keep an open mind to opportunities as they come.
According to a study mentioned in a Times Tribune article, only 8% of Americans, who make resolutions, keep them year round. Eight Percent! That’s the same as 8 out of 100 people. That’s extremely low, considering the amount of people unsatisfied with their current life situation. The purpose of this article is to inform you of 5 reasons New Year’s resolutions fail.
Reason #1 You don’t believe in yourself or the resolution.
The first big reason New Year’s resolutions fail is the lack of faith in self or the goal being set. When you start setting goals, it’s important to make them realistic and to stand behind them. Don’t wait until you start putting in the effort towards your plan, that you worked hard to created, and realize the journey to completing your goal is going to be a lot tougher than you imagined.
Maybe this is the first time you are actually putting a self thought plan into action. All types of thought and feelings could overwhelm you; “Can I do this?” and “Will it work?”. If you allow negativity to overcome you, you run the risk of quitting the plan and always wondering what if. When you believe in yourself and believer in the plan you are following, the chance of you completing the plan and achieving the desired goal are increased.
Reason #2 Your New Year’s resolutions are not specific enough.
The next reason people are not meeting their New Year’s resolutions is their goals are not specific enough. Let’s stop just making vague goals like; “get rich” and “loss weight”. They provide no method of measurement as to when the goal(s) can be considered met. If you want to lose weight, for example, how much is weight do you want to lose? How do you expect to lose it? Why do you want to lose it? The answer to these questions can help create a more specific goal like the following:
“I will lose 15lbs, eating right and working out regularly, by May to fit in my wedding dress.”
Measurable goals allow the opportunity to keep up with the goal completion status. Creating measurable goals also introduce personal limitations and strengths. Having the knowledge to determine if you have met a goal allows you to progress in challenging yourself to go farther.
Reason #3 Your New Year’s resolution(s) don’t align with who you are.
Another reason why resolutions don’t continue successfully is the lack of alignment with your true self. When your goals don’t align with who you are as a person, you can kiss them goodbye. This is a great way to set yourself up for failure, if that’s the type of thing you are looking for. Your goals should align with your personal beliefs and values. They should be processes that are leading up to your future and ideal self. If you create a goal that goes against, who you are, it makes it all the more challenging to stay consistent in tough times.
You may be asking, how does it look to creat goals that don’t align with myself? Or maybe, the question looks more like.. “who would do that?” Lol. For me, for example, one of my resolutions was to go vegan for 2020 and I had great reasons. But.. this didn’t align with, who I am because, with all things considered, I like real meat. Yes, I want to save the animals and increase my health with more plant consumption, but I, also, believe in the circle of life, without death there can be no life. So a more realistic goal in this case would be one putting emphasis on increasing my plant based consumption.
Reason #4 You frame your New Year’s resolution in a negative manner.
The next big reason people are failing their New Year’s resolutions is they frame the goal in a negative manner. When you create ‘all or nothing’ type scenarios in your goals this is what it means to frame it negatively. An example that could be my goal from reason #3, go vegan. As soon as a challenge presents itself or a non-plant based item is tempted or consumed, it just make staying consistent harder. You allow your self the opportunity to continually put it off, “I’ll start again Tomorrow”.
Instead, what you want to do is positively frame your goals by being more flexible than firm with the literalness of the goals you set. Give yourself the opportunity to change your goals, as necessary, assuring they adapt to you and your situation. This would allow you a greater chance of succeeding in meeting your goals.
Reason #5 You’re surrounded by negative people.
The final reason, that we’re going to discuss, New Year’s resolutions are not being met is the environment you allow yourself to be in. Have you ever heard of the saying, “birds of a feather flop together”? You will become the same as the people you surround yourself with.
If you are surrounded by fearful people, more than likely nothing will get done due to being consumed with the shared worries of others. If you are surrounding by negative Nancys, who don’t believe in you, you start to doubt yourself to. If you surround yourself with positive and supportive people, you’ll find it so much easier to meet challenging goals.
Conclusion
The New Year is days away, we don’t want another year to go by with failed goals. To avoid it, we discussed 5 big reasons that New Year’s Resolutions fail.
– Lack of belief in self
– Lack of specifics and detail
– not aligned with the true self
– negative framing
– negative environment
If you find yourself struggling to maintain consistency with your goals, be sure you’ve double checked this list to make sure this is not true of your situation.
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