Illustration by Annette and Carmen. 

Photo by Estée Janssens.

New Year’s resolutions are not negative things. They’re just a fancier way of planning new goals, with 365 days to achieve them. But when our resolutions are not born from our own desire to better ourselves—that’s when things can go awry. For example, influencers, YouTubers and other content creators tend to share their own resolutions in a new video, making their followers want to pursue the same goals.

Secondly, pressure from friends, family members or as previously mentioned, social media influencers can cause you to make unnecessary resolutions. Perhaps no one is truly forcing you to plan new goals, yet there is a nagging feeling that you need to, that it must be done, because everyone else is doing it.

The third reason: persistence. Despite (probably) failing, we’re driven to think of each year as a new opportunity to achieve our goals. Certainly not a negative nor delusional belief, especially when it comes to resolutions that will truly improve your lifestyle, like quitting smoking or learning a new skill. But take a look below to see why this ‘persistence’ can easily burn out.

Typically, we continue to plan resolutions because we (probably) failed them last year. No shame in it at all. Marla Tabaka, an entrepreneurship advisor stated that 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail, which is expected since they are notorious for being neglected (but then again, who is really tracking them?). Tabaka wrote that the term ‘resolution’ itself holds an immense demand for change. There is also the struggle of breaking habits, which is something everyone can relate to. Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert has found 3 main reasons why start-of-year resolutions fail.

Firstly, our goals are not specific enough. One of the most common resolutions is to ‘get healthier’, but rarely do we think about exactly what methods we should use, how long it will take, what kind of diet best suits our lifestyle and health needs, or if we even need to start dieting. “Start exercising,” you may say, but what kind of exercise? When? How often? Perhaps it’s these aspects that put people off from proceeding with the resolution.

Alpert also claimed that the framing of your New Year’s resolution can actually affect your attitude towards it. ‘Stop eating junk food’ certainly has a different tone to ‘eat more greens’. Notice that the former sounds more forceful than the latter. Because most resolutions are written in a forceful manner, it can be rather off-putting for one to try and achieve it.

Last but not least, Alpert said that we don’t seem to make our resolutions personal enough. Cliché start-of-year goals may benefit us, yet they are ridiculously generic and, according to Alpert, merely “following the trends”. Of course, there is no harm in trying to be healthier, fitter or more economical, but we should strive to develop goals that apply to us, personally, and not to the general public.

It was my goal to enter university and study the course I am currently taking, and I did. Yet, like many others, I could never achieve my past New Year’s resolutions (guilty of having the cliché ones). We don’t ridicule other goals the same way we do with those we make at the beginning of the year. Perhaps we do subconsciously work on these resolutions and make small progress throughout the year, but the time frame of 365 days does make it easy to forget about them or give up, especially with other real-life commitments keeping us occupied. Likewise, the rewards of achieving New Year’s resolutions take hard work and persistence, as opposed to short-term goals like finishing your assignment within the week so you can go for outings.

So how can we go about New Year’s resolutions from here? In no way am I saying don’t do them at all. Like any other type of goal, resolutions are subjective: they may work or they may not. Hence, if you are a more spontaneous person, they might not be the best for you.

2020 might have dampened our spirits to make New Year’s resolutions, but on the other hand, it could spur us to become better at achieving these goals. Psychiatrist Charles Herrick suggests finding the purpose of that specific resolution: why you need to achieve it, and then work from there.

Herrick also suggests breaking down your resolution into realistic and achievable process goals. For example, to eat healthier, start by cutting out sugary food and drinks before dramatically changing your diet. This gives you the joy of achieving smaller rewards before reaching your ultimate goal, so that the journey doesn’t feel so tedious and fruitless. Furthermore, finding a community that shares your goals will give you the sense of belonging and motivation to achieve such goals together.

As the saying goes, “well begun is half done”. So before we think about achieving mega-goals, let’s start 2021 by planning our New Year’s resolutions cleverly, making them both attainable and personal.