How to Succeed with Your New Year’s Resolution

There is an old joke about New Year's resolutions that goes something like this, "If you want to find a good parking spot at the local health club, wait until the second week of January." We all know that most New Year's resolutions never come to fruition. In fact, U.S. News & World Report recently estimated that the failure rate for New Year's resolutions is believed to be about 80 percent, and most lose their resolve by mid-February.

Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with having resolutions or goals. There is actually something commendable about trying to better ourselves. However, we are suckers if we have a New Year's resolution and expect to attain it without designing and implementing a system to support it. Setting any kind of goal and expecting to reach it just out of sheer intrinsic motivation is not realistic. As statistics show, this approach is destined for failure.

Whatever your resolution is, have an incremental approach and a system in place. If you want to read more, start by reading a few pages per night. Then after a while, start reading five or ten pages per night. Work your way up to 30 minutes per night or whatever you are comfortable doing. If you want to start running, run from light post to light post. Alternate by walking between every other one. Over time, run a quarter of a mile. Then a half mile.... a mile.... a 5K..... a half marathon. You catch my drift. This incremental approach is a system that will support your growth over time. By being invested in the process in this manner over time, you will be more apt to reach your goal or resolution.

Imagine your goal was to run a marathon, but you had no system in place to get you there, and you have never run any significant distances before. This is how most resolutions are set up- with very little thought or planning. This is why most resolutions are not accomplished. There is a saying about this: “You fail to the level of your systems."

One of the benefits of a mindfulness practice is the cultivation of greater self-awareness. Self-awareness is crucial in the development of habits that can either make or break the systems we have put in place to attain our resolutions or goals. Our habits work in a loop that goes from: CUE to CRAVING to RESPONSE to REWARD. This loop occurs for both good and bad habits. If your self-awareness is strong enough, you can identify a habit as helpful to your resolution or unhelpful to your resolution. If the habit is good, make the craving attractive. If it is bad, make the craving unattractive. This can be done with some mental effort over time. The eventual goal here is to repeat good habits over and over until they become automatic. In doing so, these good habits will support your systems, and thus, you have a better chance of reaching your objectives.

Greg Graber is an internationally respected leadership and mental performance coach who helps teams, schools, organizations, and individuals thrive under pressure. With a foundation in mindfulness-based practices, Greg teaches people how to stay grounded, focused, and resilient in fast-paced, high-stakes environments.

His practical, science-backed approach has made him a go-to expert for elite performers across industries — from professional sports and education to healthcare, hospitality, and law enforcement