In partnership with
A few years ago, I made a classic New Year's promise: “I’ll meditate every morning for 5 min.”
January 2nd? Crushing it.
January 7th? Still proud.
Then a brutal week hit—travel, deadlines, less sleep. One missed day turned into three. By the time I noticed, I had quietly stopped calling myself “someone who meditates,” and my resolution died the most boring death possible: not with drama… but with drift.
That’s why I don’t believe most people fail because they “lack willpower.” People fail because the resolution is designed in a way that makes follow-through unlikely.
And the pattern is common: many estimates suggest 80–90% of resolutions are dropped by the second week of February. In fact, the failure rate is so predictable that the second Friday of January has been dubbed "Quitter's Day."
If you want this year to be different, you need to understand the primary traps that sabotage our progress.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how to set your 2026 goals with a focus on habits and identity. Now lets talk about how to keep these goals alive throughout this year 👇
🎯 The real reasons your goals fail (and how to fix them)
1. You made the change too big for real life
Most resolutions are designed for an imaginary version of you: well-rested, uninterrupted, and morally pure.
Failure mode: “Start running” becomes “run 5 days/week,” immediately. Its great if you can sustain that. But what sometimes happens - one busy week breaks the streak, and the streak breaking kills the goal.
Fix: if you keep missing your goals, revisit them and build a Minimum Viable Habit
Pick a version of your goal so small you can do it on your worst day:
2 minutes of stretching
5 push-ups
Open the journal and write one sentence
Put on running shoes and walk to the corner
Small is not stupid. Small is sticky. You can build it up from there.
2. The willpower myth vs. systems
Many treat willpower like an infinite resource, but psychologists view it more like a battery. You start the year with a full charge, but as life gets stressful—work piles up, sleep is lost, or kids get sick—that battery drains.
When your willpower battery hits zero, you default to your old, comfortable habits because they require zero effort. If you rely on motivation alone, you are at the mercy of your mood.
Fix: Build systems that don't require willpower.
Pre-commit: Schedule your habits like doctor's appointments in your calendar and add them to your to-do list.
Reduce Friction: Lay out your gym clothes the night before.
Design your Environment: If you want to eat better, clear the "junk" from your pantry. If your environment fights your goal, you will eventually lose.
3. You don’t keep your goals visible
The most predictable way to lose a goal is to simply stop seeing it. We start the year with a "mental tab" open for our goals, but daily life eventually overwrites it.
Fix: Make your goals unavoidable. Write your top 5 goals and put them where you’ll see them before work starts (a sticky note on your monitor, your phone lock screen, or your notebook cover).
Start each day by reading your goals. Then, align your daily plan as much as possible with your goals.
4. You don’t track your goals
First, a reminder: if your resolutions or goals are too vague (like "eat healthier") and not attached to a specific habit and behavior (make a weekly healthy meal plan each Monday morning when you make your first coffee; buy groceries according ot the meal plan), they will be much harder to plan, measure, and achieve.
If you have no way of tracking your progress, that means the goal isn't set clearly enough. Because to succeed, you need to measure what matters.
Fix: Make sure your goals are measurable (read THIS). Schedule 15 minutes once or twice a month in your calendar to revisit and track your goals.
This way, you can adjust things before it's too late—before the end of the year, when we often look back at our resolutions and just declare that we've failed them yet again.
5. The perfectionist’s curse
If you miss one day of journaling or eat one "bad" meal, the brain tells you the whole endeavor is ruined. This leads to the "What the Hell" effect—where one slip-up turns into a week-long binge.
Travel. Sick kids. Deadlines. Bad sleep. The resolution collapses because it had no “storm protocol.”
Fix: If–Then planning
This works because it tells your brain what to do before the stressful moment arrives. Research on implementation intentions (“if–then plans”) finds that they can improve goal follow-through by linking a predictable obstacle to a specific response.
Examples:
If I miss my morning workout, then I do 10 minutes at lunch.
If I can’t journal, then I voice-note 60 seconds.
If I’m too tired to cook, then I eat the “default healthy meal” (already chosen).
Your goal doesn’t need more motivation. It needs a contingency plan.
Redefine success as "returning," not "perfection." The moment you notice you are off track is actually a small victory. It means your self-awareness is working.
The Resilience Habit: When you notice you’ve slipped, don’t engage in negative self-talk. Simply start over immediately. By doing this, you aren't just building a habit like "eating healthy"—you are building the much more important habit of resilience.
📝 The “Make it stick” template
I will [behavior] at [time] in [place].
If [obstacle], then [smaller fallback].
I’ll track it by [simple measure].
I’ll keep it visible by [daily ritual].
I’ll make it easier by [environment change].
Example:
“I will read 20 minutes at 9:30pm in bed. If I’m exhausted, I’ll read just 2 pages. I’ll track it with a checkmark on my calendar. I’ll keep my book on my pillow every morning. I’ll charge my phone in the kitchen (so that you are not tempted to use it instead of reading).”
✅ Action Item (10 min today)
Pick one resolution/goal you care about most and rewrite it using the template above. Then do one tiny environmental change immediately (shoes by the door, journal on pillow, veggies at eye level, phone off the home screen). That is a great, visible, measurable start!
Remember: The struggle is the work. The back-and-forth, the slipping up, and the starting over—that isn’t you failing at the process; that is the process. Progress is not a straight line; it is a series of loops. Every time you catch yourself off track and choose to pivot back toward your values & goals, you are winning. Embrace the "bouncing back" mindset, and keep going ✊
How did we do?
Fuel your business brain. No caffeine needed.
Consider this your wake-up call.
Morning Brew}} is the free daily newsletter that powers you up with business news you’ll actually enjoy reading. It’s already trusted by over 4 million people who like their news with a bit more personality, pizazz — and a few games thrown in. Some even come for the crosswords and quizzes, but leave knowing more about the business world than they expected.
Quick, witty, and delivered first thing in the morning, Morning Brew takes less time to read than brewing your coffee — and gives your business brain the boost it needs to stay sharp and in the know.