"People need revelation, and then they need resolution." - Damian Lewis
What do we resolve to do each year when a New Year comes upon us? The statistics are actually quite interesting as provided by StatisticBrain.com from 2015. My guess is this list remains fairly consistent year after year and 2016 will be not much different.
1..........Lose Weight
2..........Getting Organized
3..........Spend Less, Save More
4..........Enjoy Life to the Fullest
5..........Staying Fit and Healthy
6..........Learn Something Exciting
7..........Quit Smoking
8..........Help Others in Their Dreams
9..........Fall in Love
10........Spend More Time with Family
How many people make or never make resolutions? The other 17% are those who once in a while decide to make a resolution.
45% - Percent of Americans who usually make New Year's Resolutions
38% - Percent of Americans who absolutely never make New Year's Resolutions
Success rates of those making resolutions.
8% - Percent of people who are successful in achieving their resolution
24% - Percent who never succeed and fail on their resolution each year
As you can see, success rates are low and the majority of people have mixed results. Sort of like life, our achievements are not always exactly as we intended. We try and end up somewhere different after trying.
Yet is is found that people who explicitly make resolutions are ten times more likely to attain their goals than people who don't. Of these people, here are some success rates for selected resolutions people make.
47% - Self Improvement or education related resolutions
38% - Weight related resolutions
34% - Money related resolutions
31% - Relationship related resolutions
Young or old, all of us resolve to do something.
Here are numbers regarding success rates for two different age groups. I would guess the in-between ages have a lot of other things going on in life. Their results are going to be mixed.
For those over 50 could mean we have learned to adjust and the resolution we started on has changed so the accomplishment is different from where we started. Just a thought!
39% - Percent of people in their twenties who achieve their resolution each year
14% - Percent of people over 50 who achieve their resolution each year
Keeping to your resolutions is probably the hardest part.
Life gets in the way, new and brighter shiny things come along and many times our will subsides. Yet in looking at these numbers, I am pleasantly surprised by the reasonable longevity of many folks in working to achieve what they set out to do. The drop-off is not all that surprising either.
75% - Resolution maintained through first week
71% - Past two weeks
64% - Past one month
46% - Past six months
So here we are, five days into the new year and you are feverishly working on you resolution. And my advice is to be as consistent as you can but not to beat yourself up if you need to make adjustments. Life is not going to be consistent. Trying to maintain consistency is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
Believe, adjust and realize the accomplishment.
And resolve to stay inspired my friends!
