Do New Year's Resolutions Set Us Up For Failure?

At December 31 at 11:59 we start the count down into the new year. Along with the new year comes the resolution. A New Year's Resolution is a goal or promise that is made for the new year to better ourselves or help the community. Many of us during the first week will quit our resolution. Back to the question: Do New Year's Resolutions set us up for failure?

When a person makes a resolution it is broad. A person may state their new year's resolution is to lose weight. On January first they jump right in head first no plans. It is like jumping into a lake without knowing how to swim. If you almost drown do you quit? Most of us will or we delay going back in. You must learn to swim before you jumping into the deep end of the lake. The same goes for resolution. First decide what your resolution will be. Then break it down. I will take one of resolutions as a example.

One of the my resolutions is to lose weight during 2014. Now I have this resolution a couple of times and jumped right into it. Ended up quitting within two weeks. This year will be different. For the past month I have researched different exercises for my target areas that I would like to seem slimmer. My broad goal has smaller goals to make up it.

Lose Weight

1. Eat less fast food
2. Drink more water (goal is 64oz a day)
3. Exercise more (goal is 4 times a week)
4. Eat more fruits and vegetables
5. Drink less soda (drop to 8oz- 12oz)
6. Start preparing for my 5 k in March (Drop of 18 minutes from last years time)

These are just my small goals which can be broken down into details. I work for a fast food company and I get free food when I am working plus sometimes on my day off I may visit another fast food place. Let's just say I eat fast food 7 days a week. For my smaller goal of eat less fast food I can say by the second week I will be down to eating fast food 6 days a week. By going about my resolution this way I am taking it slow plus it is less stressful. Can't win a race if you don't know what the marks are.

I want to prove it is not the resolution, but the mental setting of the person that actually fails. I will take a couple of resolutions off the popular list on USAToday plus add one or two more of own and do them starting January 1st.

The popular list consist of:

1. Lose Weight
2. Volunteer to help others
3. quit smoking
4. get a better education
5. get a better job
6. save money
7. get fit
8. eat healthy
9. mange stress
10. manage debt
11. take a trip
12. reduce, reuse, and recycle
13. drink less alcohol

My New Year's Resolutions is to lose weight, save money, get fit, eat healthy food, manage stress, manage debt, and write at least 12 hubs for year. The 12 hubs will come in as an update to let everyone know how my resolutions are going plus to give tips on each of my resolutions to help others.