Research shows that *88% of Americans abandon their New Year’s resolutions within the first two weeks of January, with a final tally ringing in at a 92% abandon rate by the time the bell tolls at the end of the annum. You have probably heard these statistics, but find no comfort in the fact that you join millions who have not followed through on their goals thus far. You’ve pledged that things are going to be different this time around. You now realize that in order to optimize your life you need help with New Year’s resolutions. Keep reading to make it happen!
Overview of Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail and How Counseling Will Help You Hit the Right Goals for YOU
Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail
Understanding why goals set in the past may have failed will clear the path for success this coming year. Below are common reasons for why New Year goals are rarely met:
Overambitious and unrealistic
Take an inventory of the goals that you set for yourself in the past. Did you set those that were overly demanding? If so, they likely led to frustration and burnout, especially if you had an all-or-nothing mindset going into them. Common examples include resolutions such as “I will exercise every single day,” or “I will never eat sugar again”.
Vague
Were your previous New Year’s resolutions unaccompanied by a clear path for action or measurement? Without specificity and defined markers of success, a resolution like “be healthier” is easily derailed. Vague and subjective goals do not tell you what to do tomorrow, or the next day, et cetera. They lack the specific actions, timelines, and behaviors needed to drive change. They do not allow you to track improvement, which often leads to a loss of motivation as the initial excitement wanes. The aforementioned all-or-nothing mindset concept also becomes a problem here, as broad goals often lead to a sense of total failure after a single slip-up because the goal is ill-defined with no plan for recovery from setbacks.
Someone Else’s Goals
Were prior New Year resolutions the result of external pressures from friends, family, and loved ones? While they may or may not have been rooted in good intentions, these goals do not align with your true inner self. Consequently they end up being vague, overwhelming, and unachievable (as per above) and founded in hollow intentions. Moreover, you’re not excited about getting started, much less doing the work required to attain them.
No Support System in Place
Were you all alone in your prior attempts to set, attain, and sustain New Year’s goals? A lack of a support system is a significant contributing factor to why they fail. Research shows that individuals with social support or an accountability partner are significantly more likely to succeed in achieving their goals versus those who go at it solo. This leads to the primary purpose of this article – informing you about how counseling will provide the requisite help with New Year’s resolutions.
Counseling Will Help You Reframe Goals
While effective when integrated at any point in the path towards optimized wellness, it’s important to initiate professional counseling as early as possible when setting New Year’s goals. A counselor will help you reassess and alter (as needed) past goals by changing how you perceive situations, challenges, and yourself. This process, often referred to as cognitive reframing or cognitive restructuring, is a core component of therapeutic approaches like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Further, a qualified counselor will collaborate with you to help identify, set, and achieve entirely new personal growth goals while recognizing and addressing (where applicable) mental health struggles that may be evident. Ultimately, a therapeutic approach to New Year’s goal setting will provider greater direction, focus, and structure, while significantly increasing the odds for success.
Counseling Will Help You Sustain and Grow
A qualified counselor will not only help you reframe old goals and set new ones, they will be a critical part of your success and wellness journey through the weeks and months to follow. Professional counseling provides evidence-based strategies for goal-setting, accountability, and emotional support to address any underlying behavioral and psychological factors that often lead to failure. And even if there aren’t any notable underlying behavioral and psychological factors at play, professional counseling provides direction, focus, and structure that you have not enjoyed in the past.
Counseling through Kindbridge also allows you to take full advantage of our group counseling services. Group counseling can be extremely effective in providing help with in New Year’s resolutions. It provides peer / social support that boosts New Year’s resolutions through the concepts of accountability, motivation, and shared experience. Goals become less isolating and more achievable through the application of accountability partners and group activities where you will receive encouragement, feedback, and consistent check-ins on progress. This will help you stick to healthy new habits and overcome setbacks as they occur.
Kindbridge’s proven virtual platform provides more convenient, flexible, and secure access to one-on-one and group counseling services. Start the New Year off right by connecting to a care coordinator with a click or call.
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Treatment Outcomes Reports:
Reference recent treatment outcomes reports for mental and behavioral health issues that may have been an obstacle to goal attainment in the past: