The missing step in New Year’s Resolutions
Ending the epidemic of lazy New Year's resolutions.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana
91% of New Year’s Resolutions fail.
The reason is not a lack of motivation or time. We all have an innate desire to become better, and even when we’re at our busiest, we make time for what’s most important.
The number one reason we fail is that we set unrealistic and vague goals.
We become excited and idealistic when we’re building a vision for the upcoming year, but when it’s time to take the first steps, we don’t know where to start. Within a few weeks, we’re left feeling frustrated and hopeless and abandon our goals altogether.
The perils of “should”
We gravitate toward unrealistic and generic goals because we’re lazy.
Instead of taking time to consider what we want to pursue, we’re caught in the easy trap of chasing what we feel like we “should” accomplish. Our list of resolutions becomes indistinguishable from the next person: “lose weight”, “more time with family”, “travel”, and “eat healthy”.
We struggle to follow through because they’re not personally meaningful. They sound good, but we don’t know where to start, and we don’t care if we achieve them or not.
Goals like this are about as exciting as bland corporate mission statements and quarterly objectives. They are good goals in an abstract and generic way, but they mean nothing to us, so we’re not willing to invest the energy required to see them through.
This pattern is particularly insidious when we repeat it over and over again each year, effectively teaching ourselves that we can’t accomplish anything, making it harder and harder to achieve something worthwhile each year.
To break the cycle, we need to look back and review the past year before looking forward and creating goals for the upcoming year.
The annual review
Review comes from a Latin word that means “to see again”.
When we take the time to “see” the previous year again, we learn things about ourselves. Reflecting on how we spent our time gives us the perspective we need to identify our patterns, values, and identity.
With a better understanding of ourselves, we can create better goals. Instead of blindly choosing goals based on what it feels like we “should” be pursuing, we can align our goals for the upcoming year with who we are and what’s important to us.
We’re much more likely to accomplish goals that are personally meaningful than goals that sound good at a cocktail party.
Trying to become better is an innate human pursuit, but if we don’t review and reflect on the past year, then we’ll be choosing generic goals and setting ourselves up for failure.
To become better in 2026, we must start with an honest and structured review of 2025 to create goals that inspire us to take action.
Only after we understand ourselves can we make meaningful progress on the pursuits in our lives that actually matter.
Prompts
What did I enjoy most last year? How can I do more of it this year?
What did I hate most last year? How can I remove that from the upcoming year?
When I was at my best last year, I was usually…
When I was at my worst, it was usually because…
What did I continually gravitate towards without external pressure?
What did I continually avoid that I believed was important? Were there consequences for avoiding it?
What did I do last year that aligned with my values?
What did I do last year that was out of alignment with my values?
Deep Dive
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin