Why 80 Percent of New Year's Resolutions Fail

Why is it that with such good intentions, getting fit, losing weight and improving our lives seems so elusive?
By Joseph Luciani

Ever hear of holiday remorse? It's the guilt driven-response you have to holiday excess that becomes the catalyst for those New Year's resolutions and intentions. What happens is that we go through the holidays abandoning most – if not all – restraint, while indulging our bacchanalian impulses. Bellies full, we manage to sleep well at night clinging to the rationalization that, come the new year, we're going to lose the weight and get in shape. Yes, and I can show you a holiday road to hell paved with New Year's intentions.

Come the first of January, the hoards of enthusiastic resolutions-ers account for the swelling number of gym, yoga and Pilates memberships as the diet books fly off the book store shelves. By the second week of February, some 80 percent of those resolution-ers are back home with a new kind of remorse staring back at them in the mirror – the remorse of disappointment. Why is it that with such good intentions, getting fit, losing weight and improving our lives seems so elusive?

To answer this question, it's important to recognize that outside-in solutions such as dieting, joining gyms and so on are doomed to fail if, other than your well-intentioned resolve to change, you've done nothing to enhance your capacity to either sustain motivation or handle the inevitable stress and discomfort involved in change. Saying this differently: Unless you first change your mind, don't expect your health goals to materialize. As the saying goes, it's not the horse that draws the cart, it's the oats. It's not the gym, Pilates class or diet that will change you – it's your mind.

The unfortunate truth is that change, all change, entails some degree of emotional friction, which in turn generates a "heated state" we call stress. Whether you're feeling anxious, depressed, frustrated, fatigued, weak and out of control, or simply bored, emotional friction (stress) becomes the high-octane fuel of 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.

What exactly is the resistance that sabotages our lives and our intentions? As complex and multifaceted as the answer to this query may be, one way or another it all boils down to self-discipline. Essentially, you build self-discipline by willfully enduring the transient discomfort of changing who and what you are. You're not born with self-discipline; you acquire it. Like a muscle, you need to develop your self-discipline muscle, one challenge at a time. Starting today, instead of reflexively feeling a need to minimize or escape the friction involved in change, recognize instead the need to endure it. Bottom line: Don't bail!

So before you focus on your biceps or belly fat, focus on training your brain with these five tips – and next year, you won't have to make a resolution:

1. Think small. Begin with small successes. Take a look at the habits that are holding you back in life. Find one that's simple, like, "When I finish this meal, I'm going to wash my dish." Make a contract with yourself that that dish must be washed. No ifs, ands or buts! Throughout the day, find simple challenges that you make happen. 

2. Build self-trust. Once you get used to making small things happen, begin to recognize and embrace the truth: What I say to myself is what I do. Remember, to cultivate a capacity for self-trust, you must succeed. In order to guarantee success, don't challenge yourself with a pledge that you're not sure you can handle. If, for example, you're not sure you'll stick with going to the gym five times a week, then don't promise yourself. Better to do the best you can than to fall short and wind up jeopardizing your growing capacity for believing in yourself. When it comes to building trust, it's better to lose the battle than the war. 

3. Invent challenges. Invent various challenges throughout the day to strengthen your ability to believe and to do. Don't allow yourself to procrastinate; make yourself finish your paperwork before turning on the TV; decide not to spend too much at the mall. These are all trust-muscle builders, and you should view them as you would an actual muscle. Just as you would do repetitions at the gym to develop a muscle, so too must you get your reps in each day. Like a muscle, the more you workout, the more your capacity for personal success will grow.

4. Cultivate optimism. No one's life is without negatives. The key is to train yourself to focus on the positives. Don't let insecurity suggest there are no positives. Positives may be eclipsed by a habit of pessimistic negativity, but keep looking: They're there. If you're a whiner or a complainer, make a determination to stop whining and complaining (to yourself and others). Pessimists are so used to being negative that they don't realize it's a habit. And they don't realize it's a choice.

5. Develop critical awareness. Living without self-awareness is like driving your car at night with the headlights off – technically, you can still drive, but you will eventually have a collision. With awareness, you shed light on your destructive, reflexive habits and thinking and on any self-sabotaging mind games at play. When it comes to self-sabotage, mindless capitulation to destructive impulses is your number one enemy.


Reprinted from US News & Health ReportA clinical psychologist in private practice for almost four decades, Joseph J. Luciani, Ph.D., is also the author of the international best-selling Self-Coaching series, which has been translated into 10 different languages. An in-demand speaker and expert, Dr. Joe is featured frequently in major media, including MSNBC, CNBC, Hallmark Channel, Discovery Channel, NPR, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Fitness, Health, Shape, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Dr. Joe resides in New Jersey with his wife of 44 years and, in his spare time, is an amateur paleontologist, astronomer, marathon runner, and practices yoga and meditation. Thin From Within will be released on January 1, 2016, and available in both paperback ($16.95) and e-book ($12.95) formats via Amazon. Learn more about Dr. Joe at Self-coaching.net and connect with him onFacebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.