Are you one of the 80% or the 8%?

Are you one of the 80% or the 8%?

The first data point is the estimated number of people who fail and/or opt out of New Year’s Resolutions by the end of January. I’ve seen other stats that put that number at 43%. There’s even a day called Quitter’s Day that lands on 17 January where many folks who brimmed with confidence on New Year’s Day just stop.

No matter the quitting number, think about the success number: 8%. That’s a single digit. Not even 10% of the people polled over the years have managed to continue their resolutions through 365 days. That’s shocking and, yet, not surprising, is it? That’s the kind of data point most folks look at, shrug, and say, “That’s about what I’d expect.”

But why? Why is failure so common? 

When it comes to resolutions, perhaps most people see the end goal—a fitter body, a healthier lifestyle, a happier person—and don’t see the small steps it takes to get there. If you could snap your fingers and get yourself shredded abs or bulging biceps or stop smoking, you’d do it, right? Sure you would. I probably would, too. 

But the underlying habits that got us to the place we find ourselves on New Year’s Eve are still in place. If we magically got abs and biceps but still ate junk food and guzzled beers, we’d eventually lose our muscle and return to the place from which we want to change.

It’s the habits that matter. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says that ingrained habits are “the aggregation of marginal gains.” He goes on to say that habits are “the compound interest of self improvement.” Minor things done on a daily basis have little visual impact, but when you look back on a year, or five years, or more, you can see real, tangible progress.

He did the math. If you get 1% better each day for a year, you end up 37 times better after 365 days. On the other end, if you get 1% worse each day, you’ll end up at zero. And that includes all the rationalizing we do to justify our poor choices.

Which brings up the obvious question: Do you want to be 37% better or right back where you started (or worse)?

Better! We all want to be better. That’s what you told yourself on New Year’s Day. You made a promise to yourself to improve. So what do you do when you realize, at the end of January, a mere 31 days later, that you didn’t successfully follow through?

You reset.

The February Reset

I make resolutions. I don’t always succeed, but I keep trying and I keep iterating. 

I’ve been reading You Can’t Screw This Up by Adam Bornstein, a book that’s ostensibly about habits that will help you eat healthier and become better fit but it all speaks the same language about habits. He makes the same point Clear writes in his book: “the best way [to not fail] is to make it so easy that it’s hard to fail.” 

He goes on to make this point: “The key is always keeping it easy relative to where you are, not where you want to be.” [italics are mine] This is Clear’s 1% better idea. 

I forgot where I initially saw it, but I have a notecard on my bulletin board at my home office that states “A year from now, you will have wished you started today.” 

This coming New Year’s Eve, you’ll look back on 2024 and wonder why you didn’t keep up with your resolutions…if you can even remember what the resolutions were. But here, on 31 January, those resolutions are still pretty fresh in our minds. They are for me, and I know how I’ve gotten off track.

Maybe you did, too. That’s okay. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his book, Be Useful, talks a lot about working out and reps per day. Those reps are the 1% idea. He also has this glaringly obvious comment about missing a workout day: It’s okay that you missed one. Don’t miss two in a row.

The February Resolutions

But more than that, there are 29 days in February this year. Take those resolutions you wrote down on New Year’s Day 2024 (you did write them down, right? Accountability is so much easier when you write down goals.) and write them down again. Look at the calendar and tell yourself that you will perform your resolutions for these 29 days. It’s the shortest month of the year so it’s not that bad, right?

It’ll be February tomorrow. Yeah, we might’ve slacked off or fallen off the wagon or just not been as dedicated to our resolutions—our habits—as we thought we would be. That’s okay. There are 335 more days in 2024. Enough time to reset. Enough time to restart what you want to do.

Remember: Resolutions are merely Habits you haven’t started yet. Or things you want to become habits. After a while, some of those habits will become automatic. When that happens, not only will you rarely notice you’re doing them, you’ll be free to create other habits, make newer resolutions, and become a better version of you.

It can start any given day, but why not make the February Reset? If you can start a new habit any day, make 1 February the day you start. Later, on New Year’s Eve 2024, when you are toasting the end of one year and the start of a new one, you’ll be part of the 8%. And that will make all the difference.