By Cassie White.
So what’s your new year’s resolution? Is it to lose that pesky five kilos? Or maybe you’re keen to get fit. Or is 2016 the year you learn a language, give up smoking, save money, or spend more time with your family?
Whatever your goal, if you’re reading this, chances are you’ve resolved to achieve something amazing this year.
Good for you. Change is a good thing and a freshly minted new year is a perfect time to make a start.
Unfortunately, change is also hard work. Really, really hard work. This is why even though many of us wake on January 1 truly believing this is the year we will make the big change we’ve dreamed of, very few of us actually achieve our resolutions.
Research suggests only about 8 per cent of those who set new year’s goals achieve them.
Despite our best intentions and initial burst of enthusiasm, too often, old habits die hard. Motivation wanes after a week or two and before long we’ve slipped back into our old ways.
You know how it goes, you sign up at the gym in January, but come March you just don’t have the time because work/family/new episodes of House of Cards get in the way.
So like the gym gear gathering dust bunnies under your bed, your resolutions are forgotten until next year.
But why is it so difficult to nail these goals?
When it comes to big, bold and brave transformations, we’re often fighting against a lifetime of ingrained behaviours that conspire against us.
We tend to underestimate how difficult the process of change can be. So we’re not ready to do the hard work that’s needed and; therefore, aren’t as ready to change as we thought.
Even when we’re willing to put in the hard yards, we don’t understand that failure is going to be inevitable.
You imagine the process, thinking it’s going to be a cruisy journey down a double-lane highway, instead it’s more like a wild bumpy ride along a dirt road (where you often find yourself going in reverse).