New Year’s Resolutions With a Better Chance of Success

The new year is upon us and it’s a time of year when many resolve to change their lives for the better going forward. They make a list of resolutions, they excitedly plan their approach, they go all-in for the first few days, and then it often all ends within a week or two and the old habits move back in.

There’s a lot of reasons for this, as varied as the people who make the resolutions.

But there are some common issues that doom the proposed changes to failure almost before they start.

I’m really not a big fan of setting resolutions specifically for the start of a new year. The timing is problematic all by itself. Most of us are trying to get back to a more normal schedule and lifestyle after the holiday period. That’s hard enough without trying to figure out a completely new diet, exercise regimen, self-care plan, etc.. I think waiting at least a few weeks until you settle back in to “normal” post-holiday life probably has a better chance of success.

But even waiting a month or two to get back on track after the holidays doesn’t work that well if you try to make too big of a change or too many changes all at once. As one of my undergraduate chemistry professors used to say, “Everything works on paper.” But when you try to implement your plan, you may discover when you actually have to live it that it doesn’t really fit with your existing schedule and lifestyle. So, my first tip is to change something relatively small and add to it as you go. For example, if your “big thinking” resolution is to cut out all refined sugar from your diet, maybe go with cutting out sodas, or even just cut back on the number of sodas as a starting point. Once that goal is met and you no longer have to think about avoiding sodas, choose another source of sugar in your diet to eliminate. This approach allows you to make changes that aren’t as disruptive to your life and gives you “wins” to motivate you to keep going.

In addition to approaching things in a more incremental fashion, it also helps to be as specific as possible in what you want to accomplish and how you plan to get there.

All too often, people make New Year’s resolutions to do things like lose weight, or exercise regularly, or eat healthier – and that’s as defined as they make it. Then they haphazardly do things that they think will result in those broad, ill-defined goals.

It’s important to get more detailed. Rather than setting out to “exercise regularly,” first define what that means. What do you consider “exercise” and what’s “regularly?”

Probably even more important than getting detailed on the what is getting detailed on the how – and being realistic about it. Any change requires time and effort, at least until it becomes ingrained in your behavior. Time management is often a huge factor, and one that’s often overlooked in the planning of resolutions. If you’ve set a goal to do a particular type of exercise for an hour three times per week, you have to figure out where those hours are going to fit in your schedule – and not just the exercise hours, but also the time to get to and from where the exercise is to take place, and perhaps things like changing clothes before and/or after.

I suggest setting goals that are action-focused instead of outcome-focused. What I mean by that is to set goals to change you behavior, such as a goal to exercise three times per week, as opposed to a goal to lose 20 pounds. To get lasting benefits from any healthy behavior, it really needs to be a long-term lifestyle change. When you focus on a specific outcome, what happens if you reach it? In a lot of cases, there’s a tendency to quit doing what got you to the “finish line” and lose ground again until you’re back where you started.

In addition, with goals like a particular amount of weight loss within a specified period of time, there’s the risk of getting discouraged if you don’t hit your target. Despite your best efforts, you don’t really have much control over how fast your body loses weight or how quickly you get your blood pressure or blood sugar under control.

You have a lot more control over your behavior and actions, so those types of resolutions will have a greater chance of long-term success.

I hope these tips are helpful for those of you going forward with New Year’s resolutions and that you have a healthy and happy 2025!

Until next time…

George F. Best, D.C.