If you, like most people, have tried year after year to make new year’s resolutions, only to find that before January ends, you’re out of the will power to keep them up and consign yourself to having “failed”, then this post is for you.

Resolutions can make a huge difference to your future, especially as most of us use them in an effort to improve our health!

The trick is to find ways to make them STICK and become part of your daily habits.

In the video below, Martin outlines some of the major mistakes that most people make in setting themselves new goals.

For those of you who prefer to read, the video has been transcribed below.

Hi there, Martin here from Align here from chiropractic and today's video is

really all about how to make good new year’s resolutions or more importantly in fact, how not to make bad New Year’s resolutions. 

You see, the data on this, the statistics, the research in this area is that 80% of people when they make a resolution, don't keep it for long enough to get a health benefit from it and the vast majority of New Year's resolutions are about improving our health, things like exercising more, eating better, meditating more or whatever it is. 

So there's a whole lot of social psychology research in this area and what I wanted to do today was first of all, make sure that you avoid the most common mistakes that people make when they're making a resolution, so that the year ahead can be a super healthy one for you. 

So what are the big mistakes?

Too big

The first one is people, when they're making a resolution, they make the size of their resolution too big, they're sick of being flabby and unfit, and then they decide they're going to exercise every day at a super high intensity when they've been spending the previous year on the couch. It's a recipe for disaster.

Too Many

The second thing that's kind of related to the first, is that they look at this blank slate of the year ahead and they try and change too many things at once. 

Now the problem with both of these things is not only that they don't work, but reason that they don't work is first of all they're too radical we really run our lives on habits. 

We kind of go through the same routines and when we're in that routine or habit, our behaviour kind of comes with zero need for willpower, but all of a sudden, we're going to be doing things differently, we're going to be eating different foods and putting ourselves through the discomfort and discipline of going to the gym. 

If we make too many of those things all at once, we tax our reserves of willpower super fast and a week later we are back to our old habits with no net benefit. 

Going Solo

The last big mistake that people make is that they go alone, they do they resolve to do something but without any social support, without having a buddy to help them through. 

You see we're social creatures and part of what is going to motivate us to get our the established patterns that we've got, is having somebody else that we're accountable to, somebody else that can support us when our willpower is feeling a little bit wobbly. 

So if you want to avoid the three big mistakes in making resolutions, we suggest you take this in into mind:

  • don’t go too big,

  • don’t have too many and 

  • make sure that you've got a buddy

We're going to have a follow-up video that it will show you exactly how to do those things.