#Project2016 | Why New Years Resolutions Don't Work

Are you one of life's goal makers? Do you value and strive for constant self-improvement?

Do you see the beauty in fresh starts and achieving what you thought you never could?

Does the thought of 365 fresh new days where you can dream anything, accomplish anything, become anything, inspire you?

If so, then these posts will be for you.


I'm fully aware there are a lot of people who don't believe in goal setting or making New Years Resolutions, for their own reasons. 

But I am one of life's eternal optimists and someone who is constantly on a self improvement drive in some capacity or another, so they work for me.

This coming year, I really want to tackle some new goals and some long standing ones that I've never fully achieved. 

Life has changed so much, in so many ways with the arrival of my little boy, but what's really become clear to me is how quickly time dances by without us really being aware. A week turns into a month, turns into a year. The clock is ticking for all of us, and I feel bad that I still haven't conquered some of the goals I've had on my list for literally years.

You know the ones. Generally the large, slightly vague self-improvement ones. Eat more vegetables. Drink more water. Read more books. The kind of things we all know we should be doing. We resolve every year to tackle them, and make a good start. 

But then something happens. Life gets in the way. The plan goes off track and never recovers. And before we know it, it's another new year and we're vowing the same things. 

So this year, I'm resolved to try much harder. I'm going to educate myself in smart goal setting, the science of willpower and how to overcome common obstacles. 

Lasting change, so I'm told, requires a 'lifestyle change', so that is exactly what I'll be making. It's not going to be pretty. 

Although I have been good about some resolutions before, even on a longer term basis, I've tended to relapse. I've tended to allow small slip-ups to become derailments that then became endings. My willpower is terrible. Like a lot of people, I'm weak and self indulgent, and not great at following through on challenging myself.

So instead of just setting a target, I am going to look at how to succeed, keep on track, eliminate my own objections and work harder and smarter for what I want. 

It's not a New Years resolution. 

It's Project 2016, a new way of living to achieve what I want to in the coming year. Over the next few weeks and months I will be posting the summary of my research on how to set the right goals, how to develop your willpower, how to stay on track and how to celebrate success.

You are welcome to join me on this journey, which I will be logging on this blog, Twitter and Instagram under '#Project2016'.

Let's do this thing together.