The truth about goals we set in January

January is well underway. The energy and excitement can be felt. I started doing the Saturday Park Run every Saturday morning from the 29th of November 2025. On that day, around 350 people crossed the finishing line. Saturday the 10th of January 2026, there were 635 of us runners that crossed the finishing line. A lot more did not finish the race. This has me wondering  what it is about January that brings the goal setter in many people. And why does the follow through fizzle out as the year progresses?

Every January, many people feel a genuine pull to do better. We set goals carefully and with intention. We reflect on what did not work before and decide, sincerely, that this time will be different. For a short while, that belief feels justified. Energy is higher and the goals seem achievable. But not for long. The drop-offf is quite massive and shocking.

• About 23–25% of people abandon their new year’s resolutions within the first week.
• Roughly 40–45% give up by the end of January, when initial enthusiasm meets work pressure and fatigue.
• By February, close to 80% of resolutions have been abandoned, despite strong confidence at the start of the year.
• Only about 8–9% of people fully achieve their New Year’s resolutions by year-end.(University of Scranton, Journal of Clinical Psychology

New year, new me is a thing because January feels like a great month to start new things because it creates a psychological reset. The brain responds strongly to fresh starts. A new year, a birthday and even the start of a new week forms a mental boundary between the past and the future and that boundary increases optimism and a sense of control.

There is also a neurological reward in planning and  imagining a better future and this releases dopamine. This is why goal setting feels energising and why January carries so much momentum. What fades later in the year is not commitment. It is the temporary chemistry that made change feel easy.

Follow through weakens over time because motivation relies on parts of the brain that tire quickly under pressure. As the year progresses and daily life resumes at its full pace, the nervous system prioritises immediate demands over long-term intentions. Missed days turn into missed weeks. Small compromises accumulate and eventually the goal no longer feels part of daily life. It is a predictable response to cognitive and emotional load.

Follow-through improves when goals are designed to work with human behaviour rather than against it. In practice, this means paying attention to a few key principles:

• Lower the barrier to starting. Small actions reduce resistance and make it easier to begin. Commiting to exercise everyday  is far more likely to fail than commiting to a short walk after work. The second goal lowers the barrier to starting. Starting small keeps the goal alive long enough to become part of your daily routine.
• Link the goal to something that you already do. New goals are difficult to mantain when they float separately from daily life. They survive when they are attached to existing routines. Reading every night feels unrealistic until it is linked to an existing habit, such as reading two pages after putting children to bed. Saving money becomes easier when it is attached to payday through an automatic debit order, rather than relying on a monthly decision that competes with expenses and fatigue.
• Removing daily decision-making is essential. Every decision draws from a limited pool of mental energy. Goals that require frequent negotiation are more likely to fade. Apparently that is why the late Steve Jobs wore the same signature outfit on most days. Maybe let’s use a realistic example…
  Someone who decides once to automate their investment or savings monthly removes the need for repeated effort. The same applies to blocking out a fixed time for personal development or rest, rather than deciding each week whether there is “space” for it. When decisions are made upfront, consistency becomes easier to protect.
• Treat missed days as normal, not as failure
  Setbacks are inevitable. What matters is how they are interpreted. A missed workout, skipped reading session or delayed saving contribution does not mean the goal has failed. Goals survive when they are allowed to be imperfect.
• Anchor the goal to who you believe you are becoming. Goals hold more firmly when they are tied to identity rather than outcomes. Someone who sees themselves as a person who looks after their health is more likely to return to movement after a disrupted week than someone chasing a specific weight. A parent who identifies as someone who manages money intentionally is more likely to restart saving after a tough month than someone focused only on hitting a number. Identity reduces internal negotiation. Actions aligned with self-perception require less motivation because they feel consistent rather than forced.

These principles above have one thing in common, they are not about trying harder. They are about shaping the conditions in which a goal is expected to survive until it’s achieved. Goals fail when they are placed into an environment that demands more energy, attention or consistency than what real life can  supply. Starting too big, relying on depleted energy, renegotiating the same decisions daily or interpreting interruptions as failure all create conditions that undermine follow-through. In other words, many goals fail because existing conditions do not allow them to thrive.

In Matthew 14, Jesus teaches on The Parable of the Sower.  A farmer scatters seed across different types of ground. Some seed falls on a path and is quickly lost. Some falls on rocky soil, where it grows fast but cannot develop deep roots. When heat comes, it withers. Some seed falls among thorns, where it begins to grow but is gradually crowded out. Only the seed that falls on good soil grows steadily and produces fruit.
The seed is the same in every case. The difference is not effort or intention. It is the condition of the soil.

Comparing this to how goals behave over a year, the parallel is clear. Goals placed into shallow conditions may start with enthusiasm but struggle when pressure arrives. Goals placed into overcrowded conditions are slowly suffocated by competing demands. Only goals placed into supportive conditions, where there is space, depth and protection are able to endure.

The responsibility in this parable is not removed from the farmer. The work happens before and around the planting such as clearing space  and creating conditions where growth is possible. The parable of the sower is a call to take ownership of the environment in which our goals are expected to grow.

Goals that last are not always announced as resolution in January. They look more like joining the Saturday park run in July on cold mornings when motivation. They look like automating an investment or savings debit order mid-year, when there is no emotional surge, just a deliberate choice. They also look like committing to a  daily walk  after work rather than a perfectly structured fitness plan which will not survive daily life demands. Finally they look like setting aside ten minutes of reading or prayer at night instead of aiming for an idealised morning routine you saw on TikTok that rarely survives family life.

You can set a new goal on any random day of the week, any month and continue. You don’t need January to set goals that you follow through with. The goals that endure are usually the ones built to keep going when motivation fades, routines are disrupted and life carries on which, for most people, is most of the year.

Gratitude: This week I am grateful for the gift of work. In a world where there are many lay offs and people are qualified but are still waiting for their next opportunity, I am grateful for work that is enjoyable (for the most part) and challenging ( always 😊)

On my playlist this week  was Mighty Name of Jesus by Hope Darst.  What a powerful song.

Gratefully