4 Things To Do If Your Resolution Has Already Failed

Written By: Mairead, Registered Dietitian

So you set a resolution on January 1st, and you were really excited about it – awesome job! Maybe things went well for a few days before slowly getting harder, and then you gave it up all together. Maybe things were great for a couple week, before there was an obstacle to your resolution. If you’re reading this post, odds are you’re looking for a bit of help figuring out what to do next. We’re going to walk through 4 things you can do if your resolution didn’t go as planned so far this year.

1. Take stock of what worked and what didn’t! Think back over the last few weeks of your resolution. On days when it felt easy to keep, what was happening? Or days when it was harder, what was different? What, if anything, could you realistically change in your life to keep that resolution? For example, if your healthy eating goal didn’t work because of a busy schedule, what could you do to work around this?

2. Decide if this resolution is still important to you! Did you just pick a goal because you thought you should, or because everyone else was? Why this goal, and why this year? If you’ve since realized this resolution is not the one for you, ditch it! But if it is, dig deep and think of those reasons why it’s so important to you right now. For example, if your goal was to go vegetarian this year, think about all of those reasons that was important to you.

3. Get realistic! So often with resolutions, we go too extreme or too unattainable. While these goals do sometimes pan out for people, the more feasible and realistic the goal is, the better change that you’ll actually achieve it. Better to set and reach a smaller goal, with a plan to continue growing from there, than to aim unattainably high and end up feeling defeated. For example, if your resolution was to exercise every day, maybe aiming for 3-4 days a week is more attainable to actually do all year.

4. Reach out for help! Making changes is hard. Making changes with the support of a coach, mentor, or friend is less hard. If you have a friend or family member you can reach out to for help with your goal, try to do that in the next couple days. If your goal is fitness-focused, maybe you need a coach ! If your goal is around nutrition, a dietitian (that’s me!) is your best resource.

No matter whether you get back to an original resolution, change it to be more realistic, start something different, or decide to back off of resolutions for right now, you still learned more about yourself and your goals by setting that resolution this year.

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