Episode Details

The Case: 

• Sarah is struggling to lose weight and has been for years
• Every year she makes resolutions and goals but she never sticks to them
• She wonders if she hasn’t found the right diet protocol or supplement

As the new year dawns, many people will be like Sarah - vowing that this is the year they eat better, get fit, commit to self-care… but then the new year's resolve dissolves before the end of January. 

The Investigation

To better understand why our goals and resolutions fail, I invited Tanya Dalton on the show. Tanya is a best-selling author, speaker, and productivity expert. She’s the CEO of inkWELL Press Productivity Co. They provide tools that work as a catalyst in helping people do less while achieving more. 

She shared that about 81% of people don't follow through on their New Year's resolutions and 23% drop off in the first week alone. 

Why Do New Year’s Resolutions Fail?

Tanya says that one of the main reasons New Year’s resolutions fail is because we do them in a hurry to meet the deadline of the changing calendar and we don’t spend enough time making sure these goals are aligned with what we want, what we desire in our lives; aligned with your big, bright, beautiful future. 

Instead, these goals are a knee-jerk reaction to the time of the year and can often be influenced by what other people are suggesting or doing. 

Additionally, we focus on the numbers instead of what those numbers will lead to. For example, with Sarah, she was focusing on the number on her scale instead of focusing on what a healthy lifestyle will afford her in the future. The numbers on the scale this week start to mean a lot less (and create less stress) when you focus on the long term vision of years and decades to come. 

Words Matter: Use Empowered Language

All too often when someone is trying to create a new habit, they think of the negative impact of that change. And, their language follows suit. This can contribute to the failure. 

For example, dieters might focus on all the food they can’t eat instead of the good food they can eat. Or, they might say, “I can’t eat that” which makes them feel deprived, restricted, and like they have no choice. They no longer own their decision. If they say “I don’t eat that” instead, it empowers them and keeps things positive. Tanya says that our success rate more than doubles when we make this kind of adjustment to our language. 

Set Goals with IMPACT

You’ve likely heard of SMART goals. Tanya uses the acronym IMPACT to create powerful goals.

Inspirational

Measurable

Purpose-driven

Adaptable

Challenging

Timed

Inspirational

Write goals in the positive (as mentioned above). Be sure to ‘order up’ the results you want to get as your goal. When you really start identifying with what it is you want, it builds endorphins which serve to motivate you. And, the positivity you put out, comes back to you. 

Measurable

Even though Tanya suggests not focusing on the numbers day to day, you do want your goals to be measurable. You can pick whatever measurement you want. It could be something like eating healthy three days out of the week. Or, exercising twice a week. But ,Tanya encourages you to give yourself some grace. Create measurements that allow for an average. This might mean that if you have a goal of drinking 2 liters of water 4 out of seven days of the week. One week you might do it 3 days and the next week it might be 5. Instead of seeing this as having failed one week, see it as being on track for the month, on average. Having measurable goals in this way creates a pattern for yourself and generates a feeling of success. 

If you’re going to measure your goals, Tanya suggests using a habit tracker app so you can see your progress. 

Purpose-Driven

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