By Neal Glatt

Have you set a New Year’s Resolution for 2023?  Have you ever wondered why they don’t seem to work for most people?  In fact, 1 in 4 people will abandon their New Year’s Resolution by the end of this week and only 9% will succeed in achieving their goal.  The problem is that New Year’s Resolutions don’t actually work as well as we’d like them to because…

A system of behaviors is far more important than just considering an outcome.  For most people, a New Year’s Resolution is simply a desire.  For some people, a New Year’s Resolution will have detailed metrics.  For very few people, a New Year’s Resolution has a detailed plan to achieve the results.  And practically nobody creates a New Year’s Resolution that incorporates a holistic approach to daily behaviors, core personal motivations, personal sacrifices, and the support of others that is required to really achieve their dream.

This is why an overwhelmingly large number of people will once again be disappointed by their lack of achieving a New Year’s Resolution; their approach just nearly isn’t enough to deliver significant results.  The only way to really set and achieve big goals is to create an entire system of support and daily activities powered by individualized strong and compelling motivations, which allows for a healthy balance across all areas of well-being.

Without a strong system in place, New Year’s Resolutions become completely meaningless in comparison.  For instance, a friend of mine and I were looking to improve our physical wellbeing.  Previously, we created a strong system of nutrition, accountability, exercise, and support that helped us run a half marathon together.   We each had compelling motivations that were personally inspiring to be healthier in order to set an example for, and to have the energy and strength to provide for, close family members.  And we had determined in advance the sacrifices we would make to realize our dream.

We recently decided it was time to recommit to our system of physical wellbeing.  It would have been easy to decide to wait until New Year’s Day but instead, we started our system the day we realized it was important to us.  As a result, I dropped 16 pounds in December and have already acclimated to the habits which will propel me to success.  Hoping that a New Year’s Resolution would help me reach my goal would have cost me an entire month of progress, have led me to overeat during the holidays, and have been a significant setback.

This is why really successful people don’t bother with New Year’s Resolutions.  They aren’t needed because successful people have successful systems in place for success.  If you are already feeling like the goals you set this week aren’t going to compel you to succeed this year, consider building a system of professional development starting with my course on Goal Setting where I teach exactly how to implement a success system that will work for you and your goals.  I promise it will help you where New Year’s Resolutions fail.  Let’s make 2023 the year where we finally break through to the next level together by building systems that work.