Why your New Year’s Resolutions are Doomed!

Continued from @kasim_kasuri Instagram

I stopped making New Year’s resolutions about 10 years ago. After years of failed resolutions, I realized that New Year’s resolutions are psychological traps almost designed to fail – thus making us feel like EVEN BIGGER LOSERS than we did the year before. This is because the (fairly irrational) hype surrounding the New Year has no logical underpinning.

Let’s face it: there’s nothing magical about the clock striking 0000 hours on Jan 1 — it’s just another second in the timeless march of time. Though Forbes has a more optimistic view, almost everyone else agrees that only 9% of NY resolutions succeed – and that’s based on people’s self-reporting (clearly no reporter will really know if you lost those 20 pounds or not).

Why am I being the messenger of doom, you may well ask (unless you have the curiosity of an ant – or are so amazing that you don’t need to change any aspect of your perfect life)? Am I seriously advocating that we accept our miserable existence and don’t attempt to self-improve? Absolutely not!

All I’m saying is that if you’re seriously committed to a goal, you need “all-year goals”, not New Year’s resolutions. And those all-year goals can start at any time – they don’t need to be ignited with the fireworks of 31 December. More importantly, they need to be underpinned by strong plans that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound (ie SMART). This is where NY’s resolutions all too often go wrong: they are usually based on spur-of-the-moment, wishful thinking and, in most cases, do not have solid plans backing them. They are also an outcome of a deep-rooted societal expectation to set new goals with every 12-month block, much like you’re expected to make a wish before blowing out the candles on your cake (seriously, how many people really think those wishes through the peer pressure of “Make a wish! Make a wish!”).

So unless you’re a little wooden boy called Pinocchio with a blue fairy godmother and a desire to be a real boy (or a tragic little girl wanting to rock the Sind Club Winter Ball with your ugly stepsisters), I suggest you sit down and start some real planning!

Here is my advice (some of it rather obvious):

1. Please just set a few goals at a time – even if they must be framed as New Year’s resolutions. The more goals you have, the harder it will be to achieve them, and the greater your chances of failure. And if they are BIGGIES, then perhaps just 1 or 2 should suffice.
2. You must write down your goals. If it wasn’t written, it wasn’t said, it wasn’t even thought! In a nutshell, anything worth doing must be clearly articulated in writing on a device of your choice – or even a piece of paper.
3. Your goals must be converted into SMART PLANS.


Here, I shall employ the example of the (rather) popular aspiration of “becoming fit”. This goal must be turned into a plan that, in turn, is: 

• Specific (not a vague desire. What exactly does fitness mean to you? Will you achieve fitness through fat loss or muscle gain or both? Will you visit a nutritionist or join a gym? How often will you visit the gym, and what will you do there? Will you find a trainer or download an exercise app?) 
• Measurable (what does success mean to you in terms of fitness? Will (just) visiting the gym 5 times a week equal success, or are you looking for some tangible change in your body composition or bicep measurement?)
• Achievable/Attainable (it must be achievable within a specific period of time, not a never-ending story. Or perhaps you give yourself incremental targets with corresponding deadlines?).
• Relevant/Realistic (If you’ve never seen the inside of a gym, you simply cannot become Arnold Schwarzenegger in 6 months – not that anyone sane would want to, I’m sure. Set realistic and relevant goals, or you will be even more disappointed.)
• Timebound (how long will it take to get wherever it is that you want to be? Are you giving yourself all of 2023? 3 months? 3,000 years?)
4. Very importantly: you must review your goals on an ongoing basis.


Should it be every week, every month, or every quarter? It depends on the specific goal. But if you don’t audit your goals, it’ll be easy to fall off the wagon – or just forget about them. This, too, must be done in black and white, not just in your mind!

5. Finally, enjoy the journey and savor the little successes! I know this is easier said than done, especially if you weigh 300 pounds and wish to lose 100 pounds in a year. But being miserable about it won’t make it any easier to achieve – in fact, pretty much all experts, eastern and western, agree that a positive attitude can tip the scales (literal and metaphorical, in this case) between success and failure – mind over matter, law of attraction and all that good stuff. And remember: 100 pounds are lost one pound at a time, unless someone chops off half your body (I’m guessing that wouldn’t be too nice, would it?)

Good luck to you – and may you be living the life of your dreams well before the end of 2023!