It’s that time of year, when you may be emerging from several days of over-indulgence, sick of the sight of tinsel and turkey, ready to forswear excessive consumption for several months.
Typically, the first few days of your plans go well. You join a gym or exercise class, cut out sugar or start writing that novel. Invariably, though, you faulter and run out of steam despite your best intentions. Why is this? Here I outline in brief 10 reasons resolutions are made but often not followed through.
1. Setting Unrealistic Goals:
- It’s easy to be overambitious when you make plans. Goals which are too big can be overwhelming and difficult to achieve. Vague resolutions without clear, specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and deadlines mean you’re likely to drift off course.
- More importantly is knowing why you’re setting your goal. Without a ‘why’, you won’t have the necessary motivation and drive to succeed.
2. Lack of Planning
- Without a detailed plan, it’s easy to lose both direction and motivation. Failing to prepare for obstacles and challenges can lead to setbacks.
- Planning enables you to anticipate what might prevent you from achieving your goal so you can address potential obstacles.
3. Over-reliance on willpower.
- Relying solely on willpower can be exhausting, leading to burnout. Willpower alone isn’t enough to form lasting habits.
4. Absence of immediate rewards.
- Goals that don’t provide immediate satisfaction can be hard to maintain. Without regular rewards, motivation can wane. In turn, this leads to procrastination.
5. External pressure
- Pressure from others to set certain goals can lead to a lack of personal commitment. ‘Shoulds’ are less motivating than ‘wants.’ Comparing yourself to others can create unrealistic standards and impact your self-esteem.
6. Cognitive overload
- Trying to tackle multiple goals at once can be overwhelming. Too much information and advice from well-meaning friends and relatives or the internet can lead to confusion and inaction.
7. No support system
- Without someone to hold you to account, it’s easy to let resolutions slide. Failing to capture progress can make it hard to stay motivated.
8. Negative mindset
- Self-doubt can undermine your efforts to change. Fear of failure can prevent you from fully committing to your goals. Nay-sayers can undermine your confidence and lead you to abandon your goal. One small failure may discourage, leading you to abandon your goal.
9. Habitual behaviour
- Long-standing habits are hard to break and can resist change. But not replacing old habits with new, positive behaviours may lead to relapse.
10. Environmental factors
- An environment which doesn’t support new habits can hinder progress. External distractions can derail efforts to stick to your resolutions.
Plenty of reasons, then, why you may struggle to achieve your goals.
Just one thing
I’ll end this post with an activity which illustrates the complexity of achieving goals which require a change in behaviour.
Take a piece of paper. Draw two pictures; one of your life as it is now, the other as you’d like your life to look like once you’ve achieved your goal. Next, brainstorm all the benefits of the change. Notice how you feel. You may experience cognitive dissonance*, or the psychological discomfort experienced when you hold contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes at the same time; your present reality and your preferred future reality.
You can reduce the discomfort in one of three ways:
- Changing Beliefs: Adjusting one of your conflicting beliefs or attitudes. (Choosing to work towards your preferred future scenario to reduce the discomfort).
- Adding consonant beliefs: Introducing new beliefs that harmonize with existing ones. (Adapting your behaviour to fit with your goal).
- Reducing Importance: Diminishing the significance of the conflicting beliefs. (Deciding things are actually not that bad and so accepting the status quo).
This example may help to clarify:
Environmental Awareness: Someone who cares about the environment but drives a fuel-inefficient car might experience dissonance. They could resolve this by:
- changing their behaviour (buying an eco-friendly car)
- justifying their actions (driving less overall)
- minimizing their concern about environmental issues (deciding not to change their behaviour).
Understanding cognitive dissonance helps explain why people often find it challenging to change their beliefs or behaviours, even when presented with new information. It’s a powerful force that influences decision-making and attitude change. (Source: MS Copilot).
*Leon Festinger, 1957.
My next two posts
My next two posts will explore effective goal setting from a number of different perspectives. Can Personality inform how you approach New Year resolutions? What role do Strengths, Values, Positive Psychology and Habits play in helping you set meaningful goals you will achieve?