Most people will make one or more “new year resolutions” on or before January 1^st.  Unfortunately, many of these people will never fully realize their goals, even though they try their hardest to do so.    

Over the years, I have noticed a pattern at my gym regarding the resolution of exercise and weight loss.  Every January the gym is so packed that you have to wait for machines, but by the first week of February the crowd has thinned out considerably and most of the faces are ones I have seen there for many months past.

So what happens? Why do people—like the ones described above—set goals and then not achieve them? It is NOT because people do not mean well or try hard. So what IS the reason? There are two main ways I believe people sabotage themselves when it comes to achieving their goals.   

1)      We set our goals too high:  If you set your goal too high it makes it impossible to achieve, no matter how hard you work. Moreover, if you only set one goal without setting smaller goals all along the way, you set yourself up for failure (see The Personal Side of this blog to come).

2)      We lack support:  Most goals we will achieve in life require support, be it emotional, physical, spiritual, etc. We must invite other people to be a part of our goals and dreams. That could mean several things, like being accountable to someone, asking an expert in a particular field for help, or asking a partner or friend to take some of your regular daily task load so that you can pour some time into this new part of your life.

I believe people put too much pressure on themselves every January to attain unrealistic goals.  Whatever you are hoping to accomplish in the new year, remember the most important thing is to start small. I will speak more to this in the upcoming second part of this blog.