80% Fail by February - New Year's Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions - 80% Fail by February Remember your New Year's resolutions? Resolutions are an attempt to make a positive change in your life, whether it's getting in shape, getting your degree, or saving your money. Change is hard and it's rare for people to keep resolutions for the whole year. According to U.S. News, approximately 80% of resolutions fail by the second week of February, so the odds are against you. Change, by its nature, entails some degree of emotional friction, which is stressful. Whether you're feeling anxious, depressed, frustrated, fatigued, weak and out of control, stress can be the fuel for failure. When it comes to handling the stress involved in change, many well-adjusted, happy, overweight, out-of-shape people share the fundamental problem of self-sabotage. You are failing because you expect to fail. You live up to your expectations. When you fail, you can pull out all your familiar excuses of being too busy, tired, or overwhelmed to tackle the challenge. If you’ve been struggling, don’t lose hope. Grab a copy of your resolutions and a pen and paper. Now is the perfect time to reflect on the changes you want or need to make and resolve to follow through on those changes. Many resolutions fail because of misunderstood willpower. Just like a muscle, willpower is a limited resource and because people misunderstand this, millions of Americans are frustrated and all but giving up on their goals right now. Everybody knows that the bicep has limitations: If we ask the muscle to hold too much, it will give out and drop everything on the floor. The implications of this muscle metaphor are vast. If willpower is limited, making lots of New Year's resolutions is exactly the wrong way to go about changing your habits. Human routines are stubborn. Creating new behavior is difficult because bad habits are hard to break – and they’re almost impossible to break if you try to break them all at once. It is silly to try to quit smoking, lose weight, exercise, spend more time with friends and get organized at the same time. When you ask yourself to do all of that at the same time you are most definitely asking for too much. Instead, you should respect that fact that willpower is limited and concentrate on the success of one resolution over the entire year. Like a fuel tank that runs out, using your willpower exhausts it. Rather than trying to accomplish every resolution on your list, try picking just one. Circle it, star it, underline it and highlight it. Start backwards and think about what would make 2020 a success for you. What would you like to be telling everyone at the Christmas this year when they ask you how was your 2020? Fill in the blank: 2020 was a great year because I ______________________________________________!