We’re nearly towards the end of January 2025 and what a year it has been so far. The California fires have ravaged an estimated 40000 acres of land, killed over two dozen people, and cost millions in damages. A temporary TikTok ban was put in place and suddenly reversed, but it’s future remains uncertain. Loom deportations in Chicago are expected on Tuesday putting many communities and businesses that rely on immigrants for work on edge. Overall, 2025 hasn’t been kind to anyone and if this is what we get in the first three weeks of the new year, it’s likely that this is only the tip of the iceberg. With such events happening in quick succession, it’s no wonder that many people push the brakes for self-improvement and forget their new years resolutions as quickly as possible.
That being said, one would argue that it is because of duress that we should cling to our new habits. We know what will happen with our old ones: we’ll eat food that will make us feel sluggish and bloated, we’ll drink too much and be hungover for most of the day, we’ll spend money that we don’t have to feel a little bit better, and so on and so on. Our bad habits don’t help us in any way, shape, or form. They exist solely because of maladaptive coping skills and don’t improve our lives in a meaningful way.
Why We Fail
People expect the new year to be a place where they will be able to automatically change themselves for the better without addressing the overall key issues that keeps them making the same mistakes over and over again. Before you decide to revise or modify your new years resolution, take a look and see if you’ve done your work.
Do You Want To Change?
Everyone has an ideal self. They’re rich, successful, they work out every single day, eat all the right things, and knows exactly what to say and when to say it…but not everyone knows the true habits of the person who encompasses all that nor do they want to put in the hard work that comes in cultivating a lifestyle. The daydream is easier to achieve than the reality of the dream.
Does Your Environment Allow For Change?
“Genetics loads the gun, but environment and lifestyle pull the trigger”
If you want to stop drinking, but you live above a bar, then your environment does not provide the best support for you. The same can be said for if you want to lose weight, gain muscle, and run a marathon, but you take the route home where you will pass half a dozen fast food restaurants and all of your outings with friends and family are focused primarily on eating. Your environment is where you should have all the tools for you to thrive and grow as a person. If it is cluttered by everything that will enable you to be at your worst, then how can you be expected to grow?
No Visible Progress
We live in a world where we can have almost anything instantly. From clothes, food, entertainment, etc., our lives are in the now. Patience, while a virtue, does not exist as it use to. We hold the same instant ideas to our own progress. If we aren’t instantly good at something then we write it off as a lost cause or that it’s ineffective or that something (not us, never us) is going wrong. Progress takes time. Bad habits were built up over the course of years. Undoing them and embracing new habits to see the benefits will take just as long to do.
How To Succeed
All progress is good progress even if it comes from failure. The first step to succeeding is knowing that while you are trying to make progress and improve yourself, you will struggle and you will encounter failures.
Make SMART Goals
SMART Goals are goals that follow the Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. By using the SMART goals template to assess your new years resolutions, it can help reduce the likelihood of picking goals that would require a major life change rather than a steady life change.
Allow Mistakes
The mindset that you have to succeed the first time around is a mindset that will doom you to failure every single time. Progress is not made at a single effort. It is built upon countless efforts of failure and being willing to pick yourself up and try again will increase your chances for success.
Seek Outside Support
There is a school of thought that if you surround yourself with successful people, you will then become successful in turn. It’s a little bit of group vibes, a little bit of having a positive social environment where people will continue to encourage and support you and others to succeed. It’s easier to complete goals with others behind you.
Be Kind to Yourself
Making the first steps to change can and are incredibly hard. Failure will be had. Whatever you do, remember to be kind to yourself as you go on this journey of self-improvement.
