January 1! The day you wake up, make health resolutions, and resolve that this year things will be different!
You commit to losing a certain amount of weight.- You bought a treadmill.
- You join a yoga class.
- You commit to eating breakfast every day.
- You buy a fitness club membership.
- You say you will stop night time snacking!
You’re motivated. You’re energized and ready to get going.
You’re excited because…
This year things will be different!
But will it?
Many make health resolutions. Some fail almost immediately within the first week or month. Some experience some success for a short while. MOST cannot achieve and sustain the health resolution goals they set.
Most studies suggest that only 8% of those who make resolutions will realize their goals and be able to sustain them as their new normal, a new healthier them!
ONLY 8%!
So why do so many fail with their health resolutions?
Most posts on the subject will say it has to do with effective goal setting, planning, and scheduling. These are very important steps but the real reasons are a much deeper than that.
I believe there are 3 reasons your new years health resolutions will likely fail. I’ll illustrate them using 2 examples.
One common nutritional resolution is to stop mindless evening snacking.
You come home from work, have dinner, take care of evening tasks then settle down onto the couch to watch TV. After a bit you get up at a commercial, walk to the pantry, grab a bag of chips, return to the couch, resume watching while munching away. Next thing you know the bag is empty. You may not even realize what you’ve done. You may only realize after its done.
It has become a habit. Something you do unconsciously, without even realizing it. Even after you resolve to stop evening snacking the habit remains strong.
Of course, once you realize you’ve slipped from your resolution the tendency is to beat yourself up about it with self deprecating comments. The comments repeat and repeat so long as the habit remains in tact. Before long your inner voice is saying “what’s the point”, “I can’t do this” or maybe it questions your worthiness for change in general. The slide back to your old ways has taken hold.
QUICK TIP: Purge your pantry of all snacks and treats. Only buy them, in the exact amount you want, when you occasionally want them as a treat.
Another very common resolution is to join a running club (or some other fitness group) and get fit.
Excited you sign up and look forward to starting. Then the first morning comes. You wake up and that little voice in your head begins to talk. “It’s cold out there and the bed is so cozy.” “I’m tired.” “Maybe I’ll start next week.” Next week becomes the week after and you never get started.
Then again lets say you do get out there. Then that inner voice starts in with… “It’s cold”, “this is not fun”, “my legs hurt”, “are we there yet”. You might stop short and not gain in the benefit you might have otherwise gotten. Often you slide until you stop going altogether.
Your inner voice has the power to prevent you from even starting or to limit your experience when you do participate.
QUICK TIP: Create and repeatedly recite a positive mantra to yourself while running (or in whatever activity you’re doing) to fill your mind with reasons why to do it so that reasons why to stop cannot enter into your mind. Quiet your negative inner voice.
Now that’s just you and your own voice.
You’re also heavily influenced by thousands of things we can group as life’s little roadblocks.
When you’ve purged your pantry and begun down your path of not snacking in the evening your spouse ends up restocking the potato chip stash. It may not take much to trigger your chip eating habit once again causing you to slide back off track.
While out for your group run, you may be doing great with your powerfully positive mantra but others in the group are not there yet and are going on and on about how they hurt, are cold, are tired, and wish it was over. Their words may be enough of an influence to bring back your negative inner voice squashing your mantra and all it’s good. Gradually you may all stop altogether leaving yourself on a path of needing to reset your health resolutions once again, next January 1!
Despite your best intentions and perhaps the excellent plan you’ve created the 3 real reasons your new years health resolution will likely fail are…
- Your unconscious habits
- The power of your inner voice
- The wide range of life’s little roadblocks
Knowing these 3 reasons can help you take steps to stay on track, however, these are 3 areas that are not very easy to change by yourself. They often happen very unconsciously. You may only experience the failure that results or feel the emotion associated with that failure. You may not even see what’s going on.
If you liked the message in this post but feel you need more support then consider my private coaching. I help people be high achievers in business while also having the freedom and balance to live their ideal lives… including abundant health!
“Life is meant to be embraced, enjoyed and fully lived, not merely endured!”
Beginning with a degree in exercise science and kinesiology, Brent Haydey has evolved over thirty years as an entrepreneur; building four businesses, and as a health, executive, and life coach.