Why Your New Year's Resolutions Fail

They will only succeed if there is true want and desire behind them.

Today is January 1, 2025, which, for most people, means a day of recovery after a night of revelry ringing in the New Year. It's a day to take down holiday decorations, watch college football playoff games, and enjoy a traditional meal with family to ensure good luck in the coming twelve months. It's also a day where people lie to themselves about the changes they are (finally) planning with their New Year's resolutions. As you can likely tell, I'm not a fan of the tradition for one simple reason:

I've never seen one work.

Before I go much further, let me clarify: I'm sure some people make a New Year's resolution and stick to it – I've just never witnessed it. From personal experience, every single proclamation of change I've made on January 1st lasted no more than a month, and I think I've found the underlying reason for this failure: I didn't want to make a change but felt like I had to because, well, new year means new me, right?

The cold, hard truth is that you have to WANT to create a change, and, at least in my experience, an arbitrary date doesn't create desire. I'll share a personal example. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I knew I had to lose weight and change my eating habits. Every New Year, I'd make some half-assed commitment about eating better, consuming less, and moving more. Even as I made those resolutions, I knew they would ultimately fail because, deep down, I didn't want to make the change. Yes, Pringles are THAT good.

It took a life-altering health scare for me to finally have that desire and want to manifest a life-long change that has now become part of who I am. You might think, "he didn't have the willpower until he had to change," and there's a bit of truth in that I did need the scare to move me to action. However, I am VERY strong-willed, and if I put my mind to something, that something gets done. Before my trip to the ICU, that desire to change was little more than simple lip service.

The same applies to any professional goal: if you really want it to the point where a fire is burning deep inside your soul, you'll make it happen. In other words, if it's really important to you, you will make the time and burn the metaphorical calories to achieve your goals. This applies to things like rebuilding a languishing website, committing to a content marketing strategy, or even getting outside one's comfort zone to find new business. If you want to do it, then do it now. Waiting for a specific date in the future only delays your results.

So, as you consider making your New Year's resolutions today for you and your business, it might be a good idea to focus only on the ones you genuinely want. If you do that, your January 1st proclamations have a fantastic chance of being a catalyst for you and your business in 2025.

Wishing each and every one of you the absolute best 2025 has to offer!