December 23, 2024

Achieving New Year’s Resolutions in 2025

A new year for many of us means it’s time to make a resolution but sticking with them can be difficult or challenge. In 2018, a study found only 6 percent of people fully stuck to their resolutions.

So what is the key to make New Year’s resolution in 2025?

Most of the time when people making new year’s resolutions they essentially making a goal for themselves. The thought is you want a different outcome this year such as losing weight, meditate more, reduce stress, or being more productive.

The typical New Year’s resolution focuses on the wrong thing which means we think that outcome is the thing that needs to change but it is the habit or the system behind the outcome.

For instance, If you have a messy room and you need to clean it but If you get motivated in cleaning the room for an hour, you are cleaning the room for an hour. But if you don’t change the sloppy messy habits that led to a dirty room in the first place then you end up in the same place. 

The example above is the same with New Year’s resolution, we think what I need is to feel less stress, or what I need is to accomplish something or lose weight but actually what we need are the habits in the system behind those things.

So how then wire your life with good habits?

The first thing that you focus on is not the outcome that you want but the type of person that wants to become. If you take the losing weight, a lot of people may say or want to lose 50 pounds but the question asked who is the type of person that could lose weight? or maybe it’s the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts.

New Year’s resolution becomes not to lose a certain amount of weight or to achieve a particular goal but to be a certain type of person. Small habits are so useful because even if doing something five push-ups is not enough to transform your body overnight. 

It is enough to cast a vote for being that kind of person or for being a fit person and every action you take is a vote for the kind of person you believe you are.

The first task is to start casting votes for that new identity and then worry about ramping up intensity later. Translate the identity that you are looking to build and to a small action that you can take.

The things like doing five push-ups or meditating for 100 seconds may not sound ambitious for New Year’s resolutions but all of them cast a vote for being a fit person or being a meditator.

Ultimately when we get to the end of the year where we want is not have a result but to look at ourselves in a new way.