Why You are Less Likely to Achieve Your New Years Resolution

I’m usually an advocate of not keeping any new years resolution. It’s because we are less likely to accomplish any goals when we keep a specific date to start.

Inspiration and motivation might hit you anytime, and it usually happens at random periods.

If inspiration and motivation hits you today, then start right away. If you wait for a specific and perfect day to start then it’ll never happen. Even if you do stick with it, you are less likely to succeed.

There’s a distinction between people who succeed versus people who fail at their goals. I see most people who accomplish their goal start at random date. They don’t wait for the right moment. If they want to start learning piano, then they’ll look for next step right away.

Whereas people who usually don’t end up accomplishing their goal try and wait for the perfect moment like new years day, or their birthday.

I usually accomplish my goals when I start at random date instead of waiting for the right moment like new year or September 1st.

I learned Git this year. I didn’t have any time frame for it. I just started it when I needed it, instead of waiting for it. And now I’m already comfortable with git. Instead, if I tried keeping a resolution for it like ‘learn git in 2014’ or ‘start from Jan 1st’, then I’d be less likely to succeed.

However, it’s not entirely bad. Your success level largely depends on your ability to stick to your goals. For example: If you want to succeed as a graphic designer, you need to work on it everyday. If you stick to it, you’ll start to improve overtime. The reason most people fail at their new years resolution is because they fail to stick at it. They feel less motivated to work for their resolution with time.

I was recently surfing reddit and found a good post:

Start 2014 off with an empty jar and fill it with notes of good things that happen. On new years eve, empty it and see what awesome stuff happened that year.

Even though I didn’t commit on exact same resolution, I had a resolution to write something everyday on 2013. I started writing on Evernote and now I have more than 265 posts. I changed what I’d write there everyday. At first, I’d try to write a blog post everyday. But it was very hard. So, I switched to writing what happened during the day. And then slowly, I started to explain my feeling for the day. I have evolved it over time. And I’m sure I’ll modify my writing style again in the future. But for now, I’m really happy that I kept up at it.

I read some posts I wrote on 2013 and couldn’t believe it. I got to read about the goals I set, goals I failed to achieve, my feelings galore, and everything that happened during the year.

It was really an eye opener for me. So, I’m keeping up at it. Maybe you might want to try something similar.

What are you planning to start this year? What are your goals? You might want to share it in the comments below. That way you can make use of public accountability to push yourself and achieve the goal.