5 Of The Worst New Year’s Resolutions And Why They Are Destined To Fail

This is the last full week of December and of 2025. We will be knee-deep into 2026 this time next week so now seemed like a perfect time to talk about New Year’s resolutions and why they often fail.

According to reports from recent years, somewhere between 40-45% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions. Of those 40-45%, less than 10% actually achieve their goal over the course of the year according to CBS News. So that’s around 4% of Americans that are actually achieving their goals. Those that fall short most often do so because they fail to set the right goals or right types of goals when going into the new year.

The Worst New Year’s Resolutions And Why They Often Fail

Let’s run through the five most common New Year’s resolutions and why they are most likely to fail.

1. Lose Weight

I’m all for losing weight in the pursuit of health and longevity. In fact, I lost over 40lbs this year myself and rebuilt my body along the way.

Ultimately though, this New Year’s resolution is destined to fail without specificity and without a plan of action. My plan was using MacroFactor to track calories, working out regularly, and sticking to the routine. The plan worked because I had a set goal of how much weight I wanted to lose and how I was going to get there. Just throwing out ‘lose weight’ as a New Year’s resolution will never work without a plan of action.

2. Work Out More

Exercise is great! I work out every day and feel better than I have in decades. On a weekly basis, I work out solo and do group classes. I lift 4x a week, swim, run, and cycle. And I’m 100% on board with everyone working out more.

But ‘more’ is very subjective and if we learned anything from ‘lose weight’ it is these New Year’s resolutions need specificity in order to succeed. Start with a plan. Go into it armed with a workout routine that is appropriate for your needs. If you have a trainer or P.T. in your life you can talk to about an upper/lower body split routine that will help you ramp up hypertrophy over the coming months, that’s perfect.

But don’t go into the new year saying you want to ‘work out more’ because what does that mean exactly? Do you want to lift more? Run more? Get into group fitness classes like CycleBar, F45 or OrangeTheory? Define what ‘more’ means to you and then create actionable goals.

3. Eat Healthier

Not to rain on anyone’s parade but ‘eat healthier’ is a New Year’s resolution that is doomed to fail. What is ‘healthier’ exactly? Are you removing foods from your diet or adding new ones into it? Is ‘eat healthier’ simply a goal on the way to losing weight or are you trying to lower cholesterol and blood pressure? Do you want to cut out meat and if so, why? Where will you make up the protein in your diet so you don’t lose muscle?

These are just a few things to consider and when I hear someone say they want to ‘eat healthier’ in the new year I’m always ready with follow-up questions. And it’s not borne from a place of pessimism at all. I think eating healthier is a fantastic goal, but defining what ‘healthier’ means is complicated.

For what it’s worth, a good place to start is eating 3 different fruits and 3 different vegetables each day. You will quickly discover how easy that is when you set that goal. But if the New Year’s resolution is just ‘eat healthier’ and that means you might forego one serving of fries each week then is it really a life change at all?

4. Travel More

This is a common New Year’s resolution that is often destined to fail due to inaction. Traveling is fantastic, albeit expensive. It expands our world views and we acquire experiences over unnecessary treasures.

But this is a New Year’s resolution that will fail unless you are a person of action. The ‘make it out of the group text’ phrase often gets tossed around but it won’t happen unless you take charge. Book the trip. Do the planning. Be the person that brings it all together and if everyone bails then you still take that trip and go experience new things.

5. Teach Yourself A Valuable New Skill

This one is great on paper. You are going to embark on a journey of learning and acquire a valuable new skill. Well, don’t bite off more than you can chew.

This New Year’s resolution often fails because people realize early on they might not be all that interested in the skill to begin with, or that it’s not nearly as valuable/useful as they thought, or learning the skill requires a lot more practice and time than anticipated. To that I’d say: don’t get overwhelmed, consistency is key. If you stick with it over the course of the next year the knowledge and skill will come. Don’t give up early on because your goal feels daunting.

Why Your New Year’s Resolutions Are Destined To Fail

As I mentioned throughout, the most common reason for failing to achieve a New Year’s resolution is lack of specificity. Set a very defined goal for yourself that you can reach through actionable items.

Furthermore, try and rid yourself of the ‘it all begins on January 1st mindset.’ Because that traps you into thinking that if anything strays from the plan along the way that all is lost. That’s not reality at all. Consistency is key. Start now. Don’t wait until the first of January to make change if you want to make change. And then don’t abandon all progress and hope if you face any setbacks along the way.