New Year's Resolutions: Why They Fail, and What Works Instead

The real problem with New Year's resolutions

A classic New Year's resolution has three built-in problems. First, it's usually vague: “exercise more” can't be checked off, only felt bad about when you skip it again. Second, it has no milestone: hardly anyone can really picture twelve months straight, and the motivation from January 1st rarely survives to February 1st. Third, it's all or nothing: one missed day in February feels like the whole year is blown, and because it feels that way, it often ends up that way too.

12 Challenges solves all three problems with the same idea: not one year, but twelve separate months.

The twist: twelve goals instead of one

Instead of one big resolution for the whole year, you pick twelve smaller ones, a new one each month. Each goal runs on its own, with its own start, its own end, and its own result.

Classic resolution

• One vague goal for the whole year
• No milestone before December
• One missed day often sinks the whole resolution
• A single attempt per year, on January 1st

A month with 12 Challenges

• One concrete goal, checkable every day
• A result after 30 days, achieved or not
• The 85% threshold forgives a few missed days without sinking the month
• Twelve fresh starts a year instead of just one

Why exactly 30 days and why 85% work is explained in detail on the method page.

Twelve examples for your year

The twelve goals don't need to match each other or build on one another, each month can start completely fresh. A few examples, across the categories:

Need more options? 50 more ideas with reasoning are in the challenge ideas library.

You don't have to start in January

The biggest difference from a classic New Year's resolution: each challenge runs on its own, independent of the calendar year. You can start in March, in July, or today. Miss January, and nothing is lost, you have eleven more months to begin, and every one of them counts exactly as much as the first.