New Year, Same Me? A New Year's resolution idea to help you stick to your goal.

A woman sits at a desk to review their goals for 2027.

"This year(Next year) is going to be different."

We've all said it. Often, we say it in the first or second week of the new year, heading to an overcrowded gym with a planner or journal we forgot at home.

How do I know? I've been there (and I coach on this for a living). It's not easy, but before you start drafting your list for the new year, let's try a different approach to your New Year's resolution ideas. To move forward, we'll look backward without beating ourselves up about it (Seriously, no judgment).

First, the facts about resolutions

You may have heard that only 8% of people keep to their resolutions. That number gets passed around every December, but it doesn't always hold up. It's often credited to the University of Scranton, but it traces back to an informal survey on a consultant's website, not a peer-reviewed study.

Here's newer data. In January 2025, The Harris Poll surveyed more than 3,000 Americans for Origin about the resolutions they set the year before. Of those who set one, 49% had abandoned it by February, and 40% didn't make it out of January. By the end of the year, 70% had completely given up on their resolution, and that number was even higher for Gen Z (89%) and millennials (74%). (The Harris Poll for Origin, 2025).

Even the poll above doesn't tell the full story. However, both can support the conclusion that resolutions do fall off. From conversations I've had with others, and from my own experience, it comes from the "slipping" part of the story.

A bad day, week, or even month. When that happens, the inner critic takes over the rest of the story and starts attacking who you are. It tells you things like:

"You don't have the discipline."

"You didn't really want to change."

"You're never going to change; it's too hard."

"See, you didn't want it bad enough."

As harsh as that sounds, this is a natural way that the inner critic is trying to help protect our own ego; it starts to remove real accountability, and then the excuses can show up about being too busy, not having enough money, injury...(feel free to throw your own in here).

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying there aren't legitimate reasons it's hard to stay dedicated to a goal or resolution, but focusing on accountability can help you build the systems and structures you need to achieve it. You can ask yourself, "Did I make it easy to drop?"

Why New Year's resolution ideas really fall off

In my coaching, I discuss three layers of self. The Surface is what the world sees: titles, roles, numbers, behaviors, actions. The Undertow is what pulls on us underneath: feelings, fears, emotions, biases, comparisons, judgments, and the inner critic. The Bedrock is our foundation and ultimately where the gold sits: values, beliefs, principles, purpose, our authentic self.

Most resolutions live on The Surface, and the driving motivator lives in The Undertow.

Lose 20 pounds. Make more money. Read 50 books. Those are all Surface goals, and there's nothing wrong with them. In fact, many decisions we make start on the surface, but where they get lost depends on what is happening in the Undertow. When we ask ourselves "Why", the honest answer might be because we are ashamed or embarrassed. It might be because we compare ourselves to others, either at a stage of life or in the material things others have. We tell ourselves that others seem to have it figured out or have it all together, so we should too.

When you tie your goals to your values and interests instead, you'll put in more sustained effort to reach them (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999).

It also helps to know the difference between outcome goals and process goals. An outcome goal is the result itself: lose 50 pounds. If you get there, you've succeeded...but now what? You need a new goal. A process goal focuses on the practices and systems that get you there: meal planning, an exercise routine, a new sport, hiking (these are just ideas. Choose the ones that fit you).

Start goals beat stop goals

Another coaching technique I often use is Energy Leadership. One of its core ideas is noticing the energy you're operating from, and whether you're choosing it. Guilt tends to sit within a victim mindset, where life feels like it's happening to you. Guilt is a great starter, but it's a terrible engine.

Once you notice where you are, you can shift your focus to what you want (a start goal) instead of what you don't want (a stop goal). That shift matters more than it sounds. In a study of more than 1,000 people, researchers found that resolutions framed as starting something like walking after dinner were kept by about 59% of people after one year. Resolutions framed as stopping something, such as quitting snacking at night, were kept by around 47% (Oscarsson et al., 2020). A stop goal keeps your eyes on what you're trying to leave behind.

A port and a heading

Before the Navy, I thought a ship aimed its bow toward the port and just set course in that direction. However, that's not how it works. The helmsman (the person steering) doesn't just steer to a point. They hold the course: "Steady on two-seven-zero." The port is days or weeks away. The heading is what the watchman holds, and it can depend on weather, currents, and the ship's capabilities.

A resolution is the port.

Your values are your heading.

You can't arrive at "lose 50 pounds" on a Tuesday in July. You can hold a heading to that Tuesday. You do that by choosing the energy that you show up with and how you hold that energy with those that count on you, starting tonight.

When the goal is tied to a heading, a missed day doesn't sink the ship. You might get a little off course and miss your port by the desired date, but you can course-correct and get right back on track. When the goal is only the port, and you have a bad week, focusing on where you thought you were going can make you feel lost at sea.

The pushback

Aligning with your values is where I've been telling you to go. However, discipline is where the results come from. Your values won't be what wakes you up and gets you out of bed at 5 am.

Research backs both. Plans by themselves don't make a measurable difference. Plans attached to the goals people actually value do (Koestner et al., 2002). So you need both. Values give you the reason to hold the heading. The plan tells you what holding it looks like within your schedule.

A couple of honest caveats. First, support matters, in the right dose. In that same Swedish study, people who received some support kept their resolutions at higher rates than people who got none, and higher than people who got a lot (Oscarsson et al., 2020). An accountability partner or regular check-in can help, as long as it doesn't turn into pressure. Second, value-aligned goals can downright suck. They ask you to look inward, answer some tough questions, and poke at things you've been ignoring. That's where doing the right thing gets hard.

Why start on November 1st

Why not? Seriously. Ok, I get it maybe you weren't ready today, but you can use this as your Day One instead of One Day. The truth is, you have three real choices, and each one will ask something of you.

• Wait until January 1. You'll ride high on the energy of everyone else. You'll also be starting cold, right after six weeks of holiday food, travel, and late nights (excited for the holidays, haha).

• Go all in today. You'll build momentum early on. You'll also find out how you respond when you are tested against the holidays and what that can often feel like: failing before you've really begun. It could also give you the opportunity to see how you course-correct when you get bumped off course.

• Run a trial. Use the next eight weeks to find what works and what doesn't. You'll discover where you are, what you want, and what might get in the way, and you'll have the opportunity to rewrite your resolution the week after Christmas based on what you've learned

Try This: The Bedrock Resolution (Approx. 15 minutes)

Grab a pen and pad (or if you have a tablet, grab your tablet and stylus). Writing beats typing for this one.

1. Write the resolution you'd normally make. Don't polish it. Don't judge it.

2. Ask, "Why do I want this?" three times. Write down each answer, even the ones you don't love. Remember, you're not judging or filtering at this stage.

3. Sort the answers. Which ones are Surface (what it looks like)? Which are Undertow (feelings, emotions; look for "I should" or "I need")? Which are Bedrock (What you value)? Circle the Bedrock ones. If you can't find one, that's useful too. Maybe the goal isn't really yours.

4. Turn the value into something you could watch. "Family" is a word. "Phone in the drawer" or "Playing on the floor with my kids" are behaviors.

5. Rewrite the resolution as something you'll start. Try to leave the words "quit" and "stop" out. You're focusing on where you are headed, not where you have been.

6. Add one when-then. "When ______ happens, I will ______...". Researchers call these implementation intentions, and across studies, they've been one of the more reliable ways to close the gap between meaning it and doing it.

Here's what it looks like:

Resolution: Lose 20 pounds.

Why, why, why: I don't like how I look. I get winded trying to keep up with my kids. I want to be here for them as long as possible.

Bedrock (Values): Family

Watchable: On the floor or in the yard, rolling around with my kids and having energy left over.

Start Goal: Walk 20 minutes every weekday.

When-Then: When we finish dinner, I'm going to put the dishes away, change clothes, and go for a walk.

Run it and look at what happens.

One last thing before you put the pen/stylus down, ask yourself:

• Who is this resolution really for?

• What value would I be living out if I kept it?

• What does holding that heading look like on a Tuesday evening?

Hit reply and tell me the value that is sitting under your resolution.

Comment and tell me the value sitting under your resolution

Find Your Current, Flow With Purpose.

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James Seastrom is a U.S. Navy veteran and ICF-credentialed coach who spent 20 years developing teams before moving into Corporate leadership at Oracle NetSuite, where he learned that performance follows people: invest in their growth, and the results follow. He founded Strom Coaching on one idea: most people don't lose their way in one bad decision. They drift. Today he facilitates leadership development courses at Stagen Leadership Academy and coaches service members through career transition to civilian life.