Top 3 Reasons New Year's Resolutions Fail and What Might Work
- reshamras21
- Jan 8
- 7 min read
If you have the habit of making New Year's resolutions and find it difficult to keep them up throughout the year, then you have to know this.
The idea of a new year gives people plenty of energy and inspiration to set fresh goals and resolutions and become more organized in their day-to-day lives.
However, the ambitious start of the year may not last for more than a week because they find it difficult to stay consistent in achieving these resolutions and goals they have set for themselves.
There are plenty of reasons for New Year's resolutions to fail despite having good intentions or writing down the list with great interest and passion. Some people don't find the resolutions interesting or necessary down the line as they move through the different days of the year and generally quit them abruptly.
Whereas, others set different resolutions that are more vague and surface level and find it difficult to create a habit to achieve these resolutions in the long run.
Realistically, we have a set of 3 reasons that might help you to shift your perspective about setting resolutions for a new year.
#1 Reason Why New Year's Resolutions Fail: Undefined Heart Center
A new year starts in January based on the English calendar, where it comes immediately after the winter solstice, where the nights are longer and the days are shorter, and we might feel the need to hibernate and take things more slowly instead of finding the energy and passion to move towards our goal.
One of the reasons why we don't find the willpower and energy to achieve our goal is that only 37% of the world population has a defined will center, or the heart center, in their human design chart.
Defined ego center, also known as the will center in human design plays a key role in motivation, self-confidence, self-esteem, and the drive to move toward new goals.
About 63% of the world population have an open or undefined ego center that makes it difficult for them to set new year resolutions.
Most of them decide to set resolutions based on surface level intentions or simply follow what others are doing in their life based on the information that the brain gathers. It may not be in correlation with the heart or the purpose of fully feeling these goals wholeheartedly.
Even people with a defined will center may find it difficult to move towards their resolutions at the start of the year because they might still need time to process the goals they have set for the new year.
If you are a person with an Undefined Heart Center in your human design chart, it becomes especially necessary for you to not force yourself to set resolutions for the whole year and instead take it in a lighter way to create a vision and goals for yourself that you would like to achieve and take the time to gather more insights and data to work with for setting up the plans down the line.
#2 Reason Why New Year's Resolutions Fail: Gate 38
Every year the Sun enters Gate 38 in human design, which is the Gate of the Fighter. It deals with fighting for things that have meaning and purpose, and mostly it puts us in a pressure situation to set goals for the new year and not necessarily come up with a plan that is right for us.
The gift of gate 38 is perseverance, while the shadow is the struggle, and the Siddi is the honor that we get after pursuing a particular goal for a long time and achieving great recognition for it.
Gate 38 sits in the root center and connects to gate 28 in the splenic center, which gives challenging energy to the start of the new year.
There can be moments of exhaustion and overwhelm with different things to do at the start of the year, and you might either have the internal pressure to keep the struggle going or you will just like to throw in the towel entirely and not set any goals at all for the year.
Because of this reason, it is better to wait for a few more days, and when the sun enters Gate 41, The Gate of Imagination, you can set long-term goals and intentions for the year than at the start of the new year.
#3 Reason Why New Year Resolutions Fail: Astrological New Year
The start of the new year is based on the English calendar, where it is during the Capricorn season in January.
This sign deals with restrictions, responsibility, and accountability and becomes important to make goals more specific and realistic.
Since Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, it becomes difficult for people to make resolutions during this time because they might be faced with a lot of obstacles and time restrictions.
When the sun enters the zodiac sign of Aries, it becomes easier for you to set long-term goals because Mars rules this zodiac sign and gives you a better action plan, determination, drive, and passion for achieving your goals.
It is always best to start small at the start of the year and slowly move on to goals for achieving better satisfaction and happiness.
How to Keep Yourself On Track With Your New Year's Resolutions
If you want to start your new year in a better way, you have to follow these simple steps instead.
Set Intentions, Not Resolutions:
One of the reasons why resolutions don't work for the long term is because you focus on what not to do at the start of the year rather than setting the right intentions of doing things that truly work for you.
When you start the year by writing down, “I don't want to do this, or I will stop doing this,” it will mentally trigger you to focus on the negative side of the task instead of giving you a lot of positivity to start fresh.
Therefore, set intentions and be more specific about what you have to do for the year and write down the goals in a positive manner instead of negative phrases.
Positive intentions will lead you to achieve those goals in a better way than resolutions.
Go for Short-Term Goals:
Most people feel pressured to set annual goals at the start of a new year, which leads to a lot of stress and anxiety. The lack of visualization and a clear action plan to progress toward your annual goals will make it difficult for you to achieve them in the long run.
It is better to start small by setting short-term goals month by month, for 90 days, or quarterly, focusing on the first three months of the year. This will help you to divide and conquer the different quarters of the year without becoming stressed at the start of the year.
You will have more time to think about what you want to achieve when you divide the month of the year into different parts and slowly set goals that truly give you a sense of achievement and sustainability.
Create Systems Instead of Habits:
One of the first things that we choose to create for a new year is the different habits that we want to incorporate into our lifestyle for this new year to become more healthy, wealthy, or wise. But habits can lead to failure because it takes a lot of determination and consistency to create a habit for yourself.
Instead of choosing to create habits for this new year, try creating systems on a weekly or monthly basis that you would like to rotate, and come back after a specific period to understand your progress in a better way.
The systems will help you to change your goals or action plan and understand how much you have achieved or progressed for a particular period and give you the space and freedom to choose new goals and different ways to own your schedules and responsibilities.
Keep Doing Despite Resistance:
If you want to be realistic and move fast in the first few weeks to achieve your goals and resolutions, you might have to keep going despite resistance that comes in any format.
Be it lethargy, laziness, procrastination, diversion, new goals, or lack of interest in moving towards the goals for the year, you have to become disciplined and responsible for achieving the goals that you have set for yourself by simply showing up every day.
Every time you have the mindset to give up on your resolutions or intentions due to a lack of motivation or not setting the right goal, it is better to start by taking small steps instead of jumping to big conclusions.
Any progress is still good progress to achieve your goals by taking it one thing at a time.
Take the Detours:
One of the reasons why it is difficult for you to stick to your intentions and goals for the whole year is that you are focused on instant gratification and ways to finish your journey instead of enjoying it by striving hard for a long-term process.
Every day can be different, and there can be circumstances and situations that unexpectedly put you on a different pathway because of people, situations, workplace tensions, and other things in your day-to-day environment.
Make sure that you can track your performance for the year with a weekly review system and gain the confidence to take the detour by setting different goals or choosing different pathways to achieve that exact goal in the long run.
Detours are not failures but instead, a new way to start your journey and end it in a more profitable and sustainable way
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