📅 It’s mid-January… and a lot of people already feel like they’ve failed. The resolution is slipping. Motivation is fading. Frustration is rising. 🪫
- Olly Bridge
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
If that’s you, let me reassure you of something important:
Nothing has gone wrong.
Most New Year’s resolutions fail not because people lack discipline…but because they’re built on the wrong type of goal.
We start January aiming at outcomes:
• Lose the weight
• Fix sleep
• Be less stressed
• Perform better at work
And when progress isn’t linear, self-criticism kicks in.
That’s not a motivation problem. It’s a goal design problem.
The science
A large 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis examining goal setting found something powerful:
✅ Process goals produced the largest improvements in performance
✅ They were also strongly associated with higher self-efficacy
✅ Outcome goals showed minimal benefit on their own
✅ Approaches grounded in self-regulation worked best
In other words…
Focusing on what you do repeatedly works far better than obsessing over what you want to become
(Williamson et al., 2024 - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1750984X.2022.2116723)
And importantly…Process-focused goals are psychologically kinder.
Why this matters in January
Outcome goals often trigger threat physiology: pressure, rumination, all-or-nothing thinking.
Process goals do the opposite, they give your nervous system certainty, control, and safety 🧠🌱
That’s when consistency becomes possible.
Not through force, but through trust.
Practical shifts that actually help
Instead of:
❌ “I must be fitter this year”
Try:
✅ “I’ll move my body for 20 minutes after each lunch”
Instead of:
❌ “I need to be calmer and less stressed”
Try:
✅ “I’ll take one deliberate pause to focus on my breath between meetings”
Same intention, but much more self-respect.
A human reflection
Sustainable change doesn’t come from being harder on yourself in January. It comes from choosing goals that allow you to succeed and stay regulated.
You’re not behind, you’re learning how to work with your biology, not against it.
That’s not lowering the bar, that’s playing the long game 🤍
At @Essentio Health and @Build a Bridge – Live Your Best Life we help leaders move beyond January guilt and into sustainable, science-backed habits. We focus on progress that supports performance and wellbeing.
@Justin Vaughan
