All New Year’s Resolutions Fail Because of Newton's Law

When a new year begins, people begin to make their New Year's resolutions.  The fact is that...

My new year’s resolutions of 2018 is to finish 2017’s which was set in 2015 because it hasn't been finished in 2016.

Nearly 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail, according to a survey conducted by University of Scranton. 

Why new year's resolutions always fail?

You may have read a lot of articles, trying to explain this failure by many different reasons: Why New Year's Resolutions Fail, 10 Tips for Keeping New Year's Resolution, etc.

I think, the reason is simple - it's quite human because people all love to maintain status quo.

This is also explained by Newton's Law of Inertia.  Human behavior also follows this Law of Nature.

If you have studied physics before, you should know this law.

“Inertia means a property of matter by which it remains at rest or in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force.”

Sound difficult to understand? Don’t worry. Here are two simple rules:

Rule #1: An object will remain at rest, unless an external force is applied on it.

Implication #1: People love to stay in comfort zone unless you take an action to change it.

In order to move a still object, you need an external force. And if the force is not strong enough, it will remain still.  Similarly, to change your status quo, you need to take action to push you out of the comfort zone.  No pain no gain.

Here is a simple diagram to explain:

Therefore, you don’t need to feel guilty if you can’t achieve your resolutions. It’s very natural (we just follow Newton's Law).

Rule #2: An moving object will continue its motion, unless an external force is applied on it.

Implication #2: Once the change becomes a habit, it will just keep moving as it is.

It sounds cool, right? But the problem is how you can turn your resolutions into a “uniform motion” or so-called a habit?

I also face the same problem as you have. When I review my resolutions every year, I always find that there are so many unfinished things. New year resolutions turn out to be a burden, making me feel frustrated and guilty.

Then, I tried different ways to stop this loop of self-accusation. Let me share my experience.

1) Instead of setting a lot of goals, just set ONE challenge every year.  

2) Break the challenge into tiny tasks that you can easily achieve gradually and feel satisfied.  The task needs to be so easy that you can't have any excuse for not doing it. Set a reminder and task schedule on your phone to keep reminding yourself.

3) Work with your friends and share the progress via facebook or twitter.  In Chinese, we call it “da-ka”, or check-in, similar to the way a worker punches a card when starts to work every morning.  

20-30-40

I still remember that my mentor shared his life experience to me, about 20-30-40.

• At age of 20, your role is to learn. Keep trying new things and don’t be afraid of doing things wrong.
• At age of 30, your role is to lead. Help other people learn and grow.
• At age of 40 or above, your role is to contribute, to your company, family and society.

I have been working for branding and marketing for more than twenty years in China. Several years ago, I was invited to share marketing stories about China market to university students in Hong Kong.  I found that even for Hong Kong people, they are so unfamiliar with China.  I decided to contribute my knowledge and let more people understand China, the most fascinating and dynamic market in the world.

I’ve set this as my only new year’s resolution and challenge.

I start something very small – write diaries. Just a few words or sentences, it doesn’t matter. The purpose is to make writing become a habit. I also spend time reading lots of marketing and psychology journals to refresh my marketing knowledge. Write down anything interesting and useful for my writing. Then, start to write and share.

This is my story. How about yours?

About Author