Why New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work

As 2023 counts down, it’s only normal to start planning for the new year. You sit down with a glass of vino and write your New Year's resolutions with the best intentions, right?

But the reality (for 80% of us) is that by February we completely forget about them! So, the big question is: “Do New Year’s Resolutions actually work?”

Well for most of us, they probably won’t. So we’re here to tell you to forget New Year’s resolutions and use these tips instead to shake back your life in 2024.

It’s easy to get caught up in the goals that other people are chasing instead of focusing on your own. Maybe you’ve heard someone else is cutting out coffee or going for jogs around the block every day and so you’ve said, ‘Why not?’

But do you actually want to cut out coffee or start going for jogs around the block? Probably not!

The best way to make your goals achievable is to make them personal to you. Instead of following the crowd, aim to set realistic goals that you know will benefit your well-being and future and, most importantly, goals that you think you can achieve.  

The 1st of January holds a lot of weight and pressure for many. It’s the most popular day worldwide to make a resolution or new goal. However, we recommend not worrying too much about the ‘start date’ as like any journey, it will take many twists and turns.

Day by day, step by step, you’re on your own journey. And if you have a bad day or fall off the horse, that’s absolutely fine – dust off your crown and place it firmly back on your head!

They call it a New Year’s resolution, but just like Rome wasn’t built in a day, no one single day is going to make your goals a reality. By all means, we need goals in life, but let’s get away from attaching them to New Year's resolutions and instead refer to your goals as your journey.

A common phrase is ‘Oh I've failed, I’ll start again on Monday!’ or ‘I have no motivation right now’. If you are always waiting for the perfect moment or motivation to start your goals, you’ll likely never achieve them. As Nike says, ‘Just do it!’.

Often we set ourselves huge goals that are hard to achieve or feel out of reach. ‘I want to lose 20kgs this year!’ but is this actually realistic for you? By giving yourself smaller goals or ‘checkpoints’ you will find the whole process less daunting and you’ll be way more likely to succeed.

A great way to structure your goal (especially if it’s a weight loss goal) is to give yourself ‘bite-sized’ milestones, such as ‘I will lose 5kgs in three months!’ with your end goal for the year to have lost 20kgs.

Another example might be a big goal of drinking 3L of water a day – change this to ‘I will have two glasses of water with every meal’.

Just remember small goals equals big wins over time. Come on ladies, shake back your life for the better in 2024!