New Year’s Resolutions: A Masterclass in Under planning, and Seasonal Self-Delusion.

New Year Resolutions may be hazardous to your health

Welcome to New Year’s Resolutions — the time of year when you confidently announce goals you have absolutely no intention of executing, all because the calendar flipped and you got motivated, inspired or confused after seeing a “New Year, New You” social media post. You know the one, it told you just how easy it would be. Not like last year...

Let’s break it down from a mental performance point of view.

I'm going to use "getting fit / healthy eating / weight loss" as examples here. Please note other resolutions are available. It’s your shout so knock yourself out and pick whatever you like.

Why Do You Make New Year’s Resolutions?

Well, it’s part of the thing, isn’t it? You have to, its tradition and stuff.

And let’s face it that nothing inspires self-reflection quite like a hangover and the crushing awareness that what you’ve eaten for the last week is bordering on self-harm. You are not happy with what is happening and now is the time to turn things around.

Psychologically, it’s called the “Fresh Start Effect.”

Practically, it’s called “lying to yourself with enthusiasm.”

So, January 1st hits and suddenly you think you’re the type of person who meal-preps like a professional athlete.

Adorable.

Why Are You Doomed to Fail?

Because resolutions are nothing more than daydreams disguised as goals. You see your NEW YOU and are just going to magic yourself there.

You’re not writing a plan — you’re writing fan fiction where you star as a completely different person who:

Wakes up early

Dispenses with every single bad habit overnight.

Has discipline

Drinks water

Your fridge contents look like an advert for Holland and Barret.

You just can't wait to drop your latest half marathon time into a conversation

Your Sub Conscious reads your resolutions and goes:

“Ah yes, a fantasy novel. How creative.”

And don't forget people when it comes to any sort of uncomfortable choice your sub conscious wins every time. It's just too quick and knows you too well.

From now on if you do nothing else stop calling whatever is prodding you to act New Years Resolutions. Banish that from your vocabulary. From now on you are all about habit change.

The Stuff You Actually Need for Habit Change (AKA: The Boring Reality You Avoid)

Clarity

“Get healthy” isn’t a goal. It’s a slogan. That's why they put it on cereal boxes.

Your brain doesn’t do slogans.

It needs instructions, not inspirational quotes from Instagram. Simple and concise and realistic.

Consistency

Your January 1st burst of motivation is smashing, but habits require the radical act of deliberately doing something more than once. A lot more than once.

Shocking, I know.

Environment

If temptations exist in your house, your willpower doesn’t. You need to make the easiest options the ones that are going to benefit you. If you are relying on nothing but willpower to get you through then you are likely to be disappointed.

This is neuroscience, not personal failure.

Identity

If your internal self-image is “chaotic gremlin fuelled by donner kebabs and alcohol,” then no, you’re not magically becoming a minimalist fitness god on January 1st.

We live our life in stories. What is your story now? What do you want to be your story a year from now? If you are one of my clients reading this, I presume you will be smiling as this is something we will have spent some time on (and come back to often).

Upgrade the identity → change the story → change the habit.

Starting Change Is Like Running a Race

Imagine showing up to run a marathon with:

No training

You have been on the lash for the last fortnight.

Wellington boots instead of running shoes

A backpack full of emotional baggage

The sincere belief that enthusiasm will get you through the first 25 miles and well you can walk the last bit. I bet it's downhill.

That’s how most people start resolutions.

A dramatic sprint, a spectacular collapse, and then an undignified limp home.

Are You Giving Yourself Any Sort of Chance?

Let’s review your strategy:

“I’ll just… try harder.” Try at what. It's not about trying (and for once I am not being sarcastic). To quote the little green bloke from Star Wars "Do or Do Not". There's no "try" in teams. OK he didn't say the bit about teams.

“This year will be different.” It will indeed. if you failed on the 12th Jan 2025 it was a Sunday, 2026 it will be a Monday.

 “I’m feeling motivated.” By implication that means all the other times you were not motivated? Motivation is great but it is not unlimited and it doesn’t make up for correct planning and preparation. Note: most people confuse motivation and willpower. They are not the same. I have a blog post coming out shortly specifically about this (yes, it's that important).

" I'll use the Force.”, Best of luck mate (other belief systems are available).

Oh yes, truly excellent planning — if your goal is to fail creatively.

So, as It stands: Your resolution is essentially a loyalty program for disappointment.

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Resolutions Encourage Vague, Unrealistic Goals.

The classics:

“Eat better.” (Are you referring to the nutritional qualities of your food or using the correct cutlery instead of eating everything with a spoon?)

“Lose weight.” (Where? How? When? Why?)

“Be more positive.” (It’s January. Be serious.)

“Stop procrastinating.” (…starting tomorrow.)

These are not goals.

These are stumbling steps on the road to disappointment.

Your brain needs specifics, it doesn’t respond to “eh, we’ll wing it.”

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Hope for the Best. Plan for the Worst.

Maybe you can indeed just wish yourself to that beach body that runs sub 3-hour marathons without doing any of the stuff the rest of us have to. There is a difference between possible and probable. If you feel that you can wish yourself to success, well you probably aren't reading this anyway so who cares?

Hope says,

“I will resist temptation.”

Reality says,

“The celery sticks are in the fridge. Behind the cheese cake. The one with the Maltesers on.”

Hope says,

“I will wake up at 5 a.m.”

Reality says,

“You wake up at 5 and then snooze until 07:30.”

Hope is sweet and naïve. I hope to win the lottery but I still pay into my pension.

Planning and preparation are the drivers for anything that ever works.

Hope doesn’t hurt but it’s taking action after some planning and preparation that gets the job done.

Remove Temptation

If you walk into your kitchen and see:

Any form of cake, pudding or desert especially with the word "luxury" in the title

Biscuits

Jaffer cakes

Chocolate. Including half eaten selection boxes and boxes of celebration or quality street (which now only have the ones that nobody likes but you will still eat).

The remains of the "Nut selection”, the only ones left are the ones which you can't open without something from a tool box.

5 catering size bags of crisps (one of which is some random flavour which you won't normally eat anyway).

And that leftover mystery cheese you swore you’d thrown away.

 NO, the token satsuma looking lost and forlorn on it's own does not qualify as "healthy eating"

…please understand you are not entering a kitchen.

You’re entering a psychological war zone.

Your environment shapes your behaviour. Right now, yours is shaping you into someone who could snack for Britain at the 2026 snacking Olympics.

You have to make it as easy as you can to succeed and as difficult as possible to fail.

If you have to cross a crocodile infested river to get to that last piece of Toblerone, the banana in the bowl on the kitchen table starts to look a great deal more interesting.

Is It What You Really Want?

And this is a thing I work on with my clients who find themselves in this situation. If we ever work together, we will talk about this time after time. I need to know the real “why” before we can sort out the how.

Ask yourself:

Do I want the goal, or do I want the "Social Media, airbrushed, filtered, faker than a fake thing" version of the goal?

Because here’s the truth:

You might not want to run. You want to say you run.

You might not want to diet. You want to say you’re “working on yourself.”

You might not want to go to the gym. You want the illusion that it is your biceps that are stretching your polo shirt and not your belly.

The root reason will be in there somewhere. By discovering the true inner reason, you can build a successful strategy to get there. I’m not saying it will or will not involve running, changing your diet or going to the gym. These could well be part of lifestyle changes that will need to be made to get to your true goal.

Clarity cures delusion.

Painful, but effective.

Why Haven’t You Done It Before?

This is not an insult.

This is a clue.

If you’ve wanted the same change for years and still haven’t done it, this means:

 Something is blocking you

 It’s not motivation

 And it’s definitely not “because you’re lazy”

It’s because habit change requires a system — not an annual emotional declaration shouted into the void.

By the way this is a big thing I work on with clients,

There Is a Very Good Reason You Are the Way You Are

You didn’t become you through randomness.

Your habits solved something at some point.

Procrastination?

Fear of failure; If you don’t start, you can’t get it wrong.

Overwhelmed; Tasks feel too big or vague, so the brain avoids them altogether.

Lack of clarity; Not knowing where to start often looks like laziness from the outside

Overeating?

Emotional regulation: Food soothes stress, anxiety, boredom, or low mood — even when we’re not hungry.

Stress and cortisol; Chronic stress increases cravings for high-sugar, high-fat foods.

Restriction and dieting; The more you try to control food, the more power it can gain

Avoiding the gym?

Fear and self-consciousness; Worry about being judged, not knowing what you’re doing, or feeling out of place can be enough to stop you walking through the door.

Overwhelmed and low energy; Busy lives, stress, and fatigue make the gym feel like another demand rather than support.

All-or-nothing thinking; If you can’t do a “proper” workout, it feels pointless — so you do nothing.

Your brain is not sabotaging you.

It’s protecting you.

Just… in a way that kind of ruins your goals.

Understand the reason, and you can finally change the behaviour.

Final Thought: You’re Not the Problem — Your Strategy Is

New Year’s Resolutions fail because they are well meaning day dreams, with no plan, no process and no accountability. They are generally undermined by poor timing and lack of environmental control. There are no support resources in place and no look forward planning. So what you actually have is:

✨ vague wishes

✨ wrapped in feel good intentions

✨ sprinkled with guilt

✨ fuelled by peer pressure

It doesn't have to be that way.

With clear goals, a real plan, and an environment that isn’t actively sabotaging you, you can actually change.

Not because it’s January —

but because you finally stopped relying on hope alone.

If the above sounds like you then how I work boils down to this. You come to me with a shopping list of "stuff" that if you could "fix" your life would be wonderful. We work on clearing the clutter, ponder it for a bit going back and forth and then discus " what is it you really want?" At this point a lot of people can find their own way from there and I wave them a fond good bye.

However you decide to proceed I’m not saying it will be easy. Long lasting change never is. It is easier if you are going in the right direction for YOU.

So, let's finish with Tony’s Top Tip for habit change at New Year; Unless your goal is to spend longer in bed, make your start date any time of the year at all except January. A start date that helps you in every way possible. That presents the least obstacles. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere January is the most miserable month of the year. The weather is crap and it’s cold and dark all day. Try to give yourself every chance to succeed.