New year, new luck! We are tackling our work with fresh enthusiasm. New plans have been made and good resolutions have been formulated for 2025. However, good resolutions at the beginning of the year are tricky.
Psychologists agree: New Year resolutions are usually doomed to failure. More exercise, less food, less alcohol, more relaxation – all good ideas, but more often than not, we revert to our old habits within the first two months. Also, a fasting cure or four weeks of abstinence from alcohol or nicotine does not solve the actual problem and only gives us short-term satisfaction. In the worst case, we eat more, drink more or smoke more afterwards than before.
Often, we feel like failure. Our inability to implement our resolutions in the long term affects our self-esteem and inhibits our motivation to tackle future changes.
But why is that so? Why do we keep making good resolutions at the beginning of the year and repeatedly fail to implement them? Again, psychologists agree that we take on things that often do not meet our needs. Moreover, our resolutions are too unspecific and too ambitious.
But failure can also be helpful on the road to success. It can encourage us to pursue our goals with greater ambition. It helps us to develop a clearer strategy and to “think smaller”. Consistency and small steps usually lead slowly but surely to the goal!
With this in mind, let us tackle the new year and take small steps towards the desired changes.