Top 10 most commonly broken resolutions and why they fail

Here is the Time’s top 10 list of most commonly broken New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Lose Weight and Get Fit

2. Quit Smoking

3. Learn Something New

4. Eat Healthier and Diet

5. Get Out of Debt and Save Money

6. Spend More Time with Family

7. Travel to New Places

8. Be Less Stressed

9. Volunteer

10. Drink Less

Caught up in the cycle of making New Year’s resolutions and then not following through?

Behavioural psychologist and author, James Clear, presents a few reasons why more than 8 out of 10 people fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions.

Does any of the following sound all too familiar:

• You try to change everything at once
  Try focussing on building one new behavior into your life at a time. Once that habit becomes routine, move on to the next one. For example, James spent six months focusing on going to the gym every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Once that felt like a routine, he moved on to his next habit, which was writing a new article every Monday and Thursday.
• Starting with a habit that is too big
  It takes a lot of motivation to head to the gym for a workout after an exhausting day at work, but once you actually begin the workout it doesn’t take much willpower to finish it. For this reason, one of the best things you can do for building a new behavior is to start with a remarkably small habit.
• Seeking a Result, Not a Ritual
  New goals don’t deliver new results. New lifestyles do. And a lifestyle is not an outcome, it is a process. For this reason, all of your energy should go into building better rituals, not chasing better results.
• Assuming Small Changes Don’t Add Up.
  Nearly every habit you have today, good or bad, is the result of many small choices made over time. It is the repeated pattern of small behaviors that leads to significant results.