Why Most Resolutions Fail — And How to Beat the Odds

In January every year, our feeds fill with “New Year, New You” campaigns promising life-changing transformations, including effortless weight loss, unshakable calm, and career breakthroughs. And around this time every year — about two to three weeks into January — most of us start to lose steam on our resolutions.

Whether you’ve set a New Year’s goal or not, sticking with change is the real challenge. “Only 9% of people who set goals on day one actually achieve them a year later,” says instructor AK Ikwuakor in his course, Tips to Coach Yourself to High Performance Daily. “But more shockingly is that 46% drop after just 30 days.”

The good news? You don’t need a perfect plan or sheer willpower to succeed — you just need the right approach. If you read my post on charting your vision earlier this month, you’ve already defined what you want to achieve. Now, let’s talk about how to make it happen — without burning out along the way.

Aim for consistency with microhabits

In Tips to Coach Yourself to High Performance Daily, AK explains that in his years of training teams and leaders, he’s learned that it’s not the most talented who succeed. Instead, it’s the ones who consistently show up and take small actions every day. “Consistency beats intensity every time,” AK says. “It's not about being perfect, it's simply about just showing up.”  

As a recovering perfectionist myself, I find myself learning this lesson year after year. Rather than following the advice to take small steps, I set big unrealistic goals that become impossible to maintain for more than a few days — such as meditating every day for 30 minutes (instead of starting with just one minute) or walking three miles seven days a week. But when I look at the good habits and routines I’ve formed, they often started small and built over time in fits and spurts. I had to be patient and continue recommitting to the effort. 

AK encourages you to focus on microhabits for lasting success. “A microhabit is any action that takes less than five seconds or five minutes, but can dramatically increase your chances of success,” AK says. For instance, if my goal is to walk more regularly, I can increase my chances of success by consistently scheduling time on my calendar to do so and making sure my shoes are always by my treadmill. 

The key takeaway here is that when it comes to achieving your goals, consistency is more important than intensity. This means you need to consider pacing your effort.

Pace yourself for the long term

In the LinkedIn Learning course, Greg McKeown on the Art of Getting Effortless Results (Without Burning Out), instructor Greg McKeown explains how (somewhat counterintuitively) pacing yourself can lead to the best results.

For instance, Greg shares the story of the race to the South Pole between British and Norwegian explorers in 1911. The British team pushed as hard as they could every day there was good weather (sometimes 20, 30, or even 50 miles in a day), then rested during bad weather. They were especially miserable on the bad weather days, often mistakenly thinking they had the worst weather in the event’s history. The Norwegians, however, set a consistent pace of 15 miles per day, regardless of the weather and stuck to it. Not only did the Norwegians beat the British to the pole by a whole month, they had the energy to safely make it back home. Their incredible accomplishment was achieved, Greg says, “without particular effort.” 

For those of us working in less extreme conditions, Greg shares how we can all relate to this story: “Don’t do more today than you can completely recover from by tomorrow,” he says. 

I can relate to this. The days I work too late often lead to my struggling to be productive during the following day or two. “What you want,” Greg continues, “is to be able to execute again and again and again on the things that matter most — and to do that without burning out.” 

But even if we’re pacing ourselves and trying to stay consistent, how do we stick with these habits through tough times? 

Follow the Clarity, Intentionality, and Consistency (CIC) framework

AK offers a simple but effective framework in his course, Tips to Coach Yourself to High Performance Daily, to stay consistent when you encounter roadblocks and obstacles: Clarity, Intentionality and Consistency (CIC). When the going gets tough and sticking to your goals becomes more challenging, the CIC framework helps you figure out what’s going on, decide what to do, and stay consistent to meet your goals. 

• Clarity: AK coaches you to ask: How do you feel? What are the facts of the situation? Are you anxious before a presentation? Are you feeling upset about an email you received from a colleague?
• Intentionality: Instead of letting your feelings or roadblocks take over, AK advises, decide to act with purpose. For instance, would doing another run-through of your presentation help you feel less anxious? Would it help to schedule time with your colleague to talk through some of the tension you’re feeling?
• Consistency: “Show up regularly and repeat what works,” AK says, “It’s not about being perfect, it’s about repeating the right habits.” Maybe that means building more practice time into your presentation prep or scheduling more time to discuss issues with that colleague you’re having trouble with. 

Put it all together

Success isn’t about dramatic leaps, but instead is about showing up consistently, building microhabits, and pacing yourself for the long term. Whether you’re trying to develop a new skill, advance in your career, or simply create better daily habits, the key is to start small, commit to steady progress, and give yourself the grace to keep going even when it’s not perfect.

When setbacks happen (because they will!), the CIC framework can help you course-correct. Take a step back, assess what’s happening, make intentional adjustments, and keep moving forward.

So instead of burning out in a sprint, think of your goals as a marathon — one that’s won not by those who go the fastest, but by those who keep going.