Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail

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Are you starting to think about a New Year’s resolution? I’ve been thinking about some goals that I would like to accomplish for 2010 that I’m thrilled to see come to pass for my own personal achievement. I haven’t always made a New Year’s resolution because they often get broken or unfulfilled. I believe it’s because I was focused too much on the doing and not the purpose for why I was making the New year’s resolution.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines resolution to means: a fixed purpose or determination of mind; as a resolution to reform our lives; a resolution to undertake an expedition.

If diet or exercise is our resolution for the new year, often times we’ll go out and buy the latest diet book, new work out attire, a membership to the fitness center, and we may even cut out a photo of the ideal body image and post it to our refrigerator as an aspiration to achieve our goal.

I bet a lot of memberships are purchased before the first of the new year by ambitious resolution makers who desire to achieve weight loss and better health; but, after just a few weeks many of them will empty out the fitness centers (using diet/exercise as an example).

According to one study, only 8% of all New Year’s resolutions will be kept and most are broken before the first quarter. Some won’t bother to make a resolution that they know they won’t keep, so why bother?

I believe that many of us do not fulfill New Year’s resolutions is because we’re trying to make external changes rather than making changes from the inside out. As a man thinks within, so is he. Too often we see our body and go right towards changing the outside appearance; therefore, our motivation eventually is quenched.

I’m not saying once we make a resolution or a decision to eat healthier and exercise that we’re always perfect and never have moments where we slide…but my point is for those who say, this is the year that I’m going to loose “X” amount of weight and get all excited and used the new year as an excuse to get started often are the ones that will quickly be right back to where they were. I share below why I believe New Year’s resolutions fail and how ours don’t have to fail.

Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail

1) Commitment: If there is a pattern of breaking commitments in your own life, chances are you will not be able to keep a New Year’s Resolution. Commitment is a promise and the ability to keep on keeping on, even when you want to quit at anything!

2) Doubt: Allowing doubt to filtrate your mind once you set your goals. Fear of failure causes doubt to enter in. Questioning whether or not you can meet your goals- that is called being double-minded. The Bible says in James that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Being double-minded causes instability and will not accomplish much in any area of life, let alone a New Year’s resolution.

3) Unrealistic Goals: Setting goals that are way beyond what you can attain. Set smaller goals that are reasonable. Dream big, but start small and soon you will see progress- that will motivate you to keep moving towards that end result.

4) Self-defeating prophesies: Having negative thoughts and speaking negative words over your situation will keep you from fulfilling your New Year’s resolution. Before we even start, we are pessimistic and we wonder why we have failed our resolution only two or three weeks or for many a few days into the New Year! As a man thinks in his heart, so is he Proverbs 23:7; NIV.

5) Accountability: We are not accountable to our commitment. Having an accountability partner will keep you check, where you are motivating one another, encouraging one another, and keeping each other accountable until you reach that goal together!

How Your New Year’s Resolution Won’t Fail

1) Understand why you are making a New Year’s resolution: Having knowledge of why you want to be debt free, exercise, or lose weight is key to fulfilling your new resolution.

2) Have faith: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see Hebrews 11:1; NIV. Faith allows you to see your end results. Faith says that it doesn’t matter what I see or how I look right now, I can do this. Another passage in Matthew says, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move mountains. Some mountains in our life may be debt, illness, weight, etc. A mustard seed is as tiny as a pin needle. That is how much faith it takes to start to move mountains in our life. Imagine the power that we have and what we can accomplish if we just had faith as small as a mustard seed!

Note: Remember, faith without works is dead. Yes have faith, but faith is action! You can’t say, “I have faith that I can lose twenty pounds” and continue to eat donuts, fast foods, and potato chips or I have faith that my debt is canceled but continue to charge up the credit cards and spend frivolously, and then say, “see, faith didn’t work.”

3) Be diligent: Diligence is when you are committed regardless of circumstance around you that will try to keep you from accomplishing your new year’s goals. The diligent hand will rule.

4) Think and speak optimistically: Old habits are hard to break. If we continue to meditate on all the things that we can’t do and accomplish, before long, we’ll be speaking it out of our mouth and seeing these negative things come to pass. Proverbs tells us that life and death are in the power of the tongue. Your tongue can either create for you- life or death to your situation. The tongue is a powerful weapon. Successful people understand this principal. If you are going to succeed at your New Year’s resolution you have to determine in your heart that you will only think and speak positive things.

5) Have Patience: But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing James 1:4; NIV. Change will not happen overnight. It’s line upon line, here a little, there a little. Anything that is worthwhile and will produce lifelong results takes time, therefore be patient!

I believe if we apply these principals to our New Year’s resolution or any other goals that we want to accomplish in this year and going forward, we will not fail! I’m talking to myself here!!

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us”, Ephesians 3:20; NIV. The power is within you!