New Years Resolutions-Are They Really Helpful?

Everyone knows this time of year is all about resetting, resolutions and setting goals. We know it all too well. The gym memberships sky rocket, people set out to read the bible in a year, and the parks are filled with people on runs. But what is it about the new year that has people wanting to reinvent themselves? Especially when new years resolutions seem to be a big joke about how nobody really sticks to them. Why do we continue to make these resolutions and then year after year forget them by spring? 

As the new year approached for 2026, I began to ask myself that exact question. I took a look at my goals I had set for myself in 2025. I accomplished some of them without really even noticing. Things like “do more cardio” or “reading instead of screens before bed.” However, others I re-read and thought I really wrote that down? It made me start to wonder if setting goals at the beginning of the year actually makes a difference for our overall wellbeing. I’m sure some people would say that they love the resolutions and that it really does change them each year. And that is great for them! But what about the person who sets goals each January and never sees them through? Or the person who opened TikTok on New Year’s day to see people starting 75 hard, or some other goal that feels so unachievable and felt behind? If that's you, so many people are in the exact same boat! 

At the end of each year, I like to do a reflection journal to think about all of the things I have learned in the past year. It opens my eyes each time to see God’s faithful hand and sovereignty in my life. It is always so cool to see how different things can be in just 365 days. So I sat down on December 31st this year to just that. As I reflected on all the things I’ve learned this year, I realized that almost none of them had anything to do with the goals I had set in the beginning of the year. My “word of the year” I had chosen turned out to not be something transformative for my life. Rather, it was the seasons, situations, opportunities, and people God placed in my life that I learned the biggest lessons from. It was actually the unexpected and unplanned things that were the most pivotal in my growth, not the planned out goals I decided for myself. 

Now do I share this realization to give everyone a pass from having ambition or to say that dedicating yourself to something like working out is bad? Of course not. I say this because I realized I produced more fruit by day to day listening to the Spirit and his will for my life, rather than a self made version of myself I envisioned on January 1st. 

So this year, I decided to do something a little different than I typically do. I didn't pick a word of the year, make a list of all of my goals I want to accomplish this year, or find a strict work out regiment to start. Instead, I have decided that throughout the year, as I discover changes that need to be made in my life, I will adjust them. Let me explain. 

For example, at the end of this year I became very interested in needlepoint and embroidery. Instead of waiting to learn how to do these things until January 1st, I started in December. Another example of this would be that maybe in February of this year I will decide I need to cut down on sweets. Instead of waiting until the beginning of the week to start this goal, I could start on a Thursday. Or maybe, April rolls around and I say “I really want to read more, but I just don’t have the time!” Instead of waiting till summer when my schedule is more free, I could commit to 15 minutes of reading before I go to sleep starting now. 

My point here is this: don’t wait. If you see a change you want to make in your life the best time to conquer it is right now. Start on a Thursday. Start in your 50’s. Start at 6:00 P.M. Start when life is busy. Start when you don’t have everything figured out. Start when no one else is. Just start. It doesn’t matter the time of week, month, or year, it just matters that you start.

So if you’re like me and feel defeated every December because you can’t even seem to remember the goals you were so excited to achieve in January, maybe it’s time to try something different. For me, I want to focus on being more aware season by season of the things in my life I need to improve on. I've found that it is much more effective to focus on just a couple of things to improve on at a time, and master them. When we stack our schedule with dozens of things we want to add or improve on in our life it can become too much and we end up accomplishing none of them. 

Maybe right now you can’t seem to get yourself into the gym. Instead of setting out to work out seven days a week for two hours, commit yourself to three days a week for 30 minutes. After some time of consistency with those three days, it will become a habit. Then after that maybe you can start adding more days to work out in your schedule. This can be said with an array of different goals or habits we want to implement in our lives. 

By not setting a year-long resolution for myself, I’ve felt much less pressured. This isn’t to say I have no ambition or am setting out to do nothing. It is simply to say I am allowing room to grow and improve no matter what time of year it is. Maybe you missed setting your goals this January. If you did, let this be an encouragement that you are not behind. Allow God to reveal what you should improve on in this season of your life. You don’t have to have a list of 20 goals you want to hit this year. Pick one thing you want to do right now and don’t put a timeline on when you will complete it. It might be within a month or it could be until the end of 2027. The important part is that it is planned and consistent. Because if it isn’t planned, it won't be consistent. You will never regret taking the next steps to improve yourself, no matter what time of year it is.

Happy New Year, friends!