If Your Fitness-Focused New Year’s Resolution Isn’t Working, Try These 5 Expert-Backed Tactics

First of all, this isn’t a New Year’s resolution takedown. To say they’re all silly or ultimately ill-fated is simply false. In fact, around 60 percent of the people who made New Year’s resolutions are still going strong one month in, per the Pew Research Center. So if you’re locked into a goal you set on January 1, keep your foot on the gas pedal and leave all the resolution cynicism and “quitter’s day” rhetoric in the dust.

However, if you find yourself on the other side of those hopeful statistics—your resolution fizzled out, or you didn’t bother setting one because you figured you’d abandon it anyway—don’t despair. Maybe a traditional New Year’s resolution is not the best vehicle for you and your goals, and what you need is an entirely different approach.

For ideas on resolution alternatives, we spoke with experts in psychology, happiness, productivity, and life planning. They offered insights on why resolutions as we know them don’t work for everyone, and how different (and, sometimes, unusual) tactics can inspire feelings of excitement rather than drudgery and obligation.

But first, why you lose interest in your resolutions to begin with

If you’ve ever become ambivalent about a resolution, chances are you never felt a strong personal connection to it. Maybe it seemed like a good idea, but your why wasn’t clear.

Vanessa Scaringi, PhD, licensed psychologist and co-owner of Calm Counseling, helps clients set more meaningful goals by first helping them understand what’s important to them. “You need to sort of take a step back and try to understand what’s underlying the motivation for these goals. What are your values? That can be really helpful in getting people focused on why they want to reach certain goals,” she says.

For example, someone who struggles to hit a daily step count of 7,500 steps (an objectively “good” goal, based on research) may find it easier to stay on track if they can connect the health benefits of walking more to what they value, like improved mood or better sleep.

Resolutions that don’t align with your personality and preferences are also more likely to fizzle. Gretchen Rubin, best-selling author and host of the podcast Happier With Gretchen Rubin, found that this was the case with meditation.

Rubin, who studies and writes about happiness and productivity, made several months-long attempts at establishing a regular meditation practice, going so far as to attend a silent meditation retreat. However, at no point did she feel the benefits of meditation. “I was like, ‘Whatever you’re supposed to be getting from this, I’m just not getting,’” she says. “It’s not a tool that works for me.”

Preferences are also an important factor in how you attempt to keep a resolution. For example, a solo exerciser who likes spontaneity and independence may feel trapped by a running group. But, someone who thrives on accountability and camaraderie may benefit from having group runs on their calendar. Similarly, getting your workout done and over with first thing in the morning is great advice for a naturally early riser, but it’s useless to someone who is most energetic in the evening and struggles to wake up before 9 a.m.

Ultimately, whether you’re setting a traditional resolution or using one of the alternatives below, a clear sense of self is critical. Before you set any goals, ask yourself, What do I value? What do I enjoy? What do I dislike? Under what circumstances have I succeeded in the past? The answer to those questions can give you clues about how to go about setting and achieving your goals.

5 goal-setting alternatives that may work better than a traditional resolution

There’s no reason to white-knuckle your way through a resolution that isn’t working for you, especially when you may find other goal-setting tactics more effective and enjoyable. If you’re ready to pivot, here are some expert-endorsed ideas for resolution alternatives.

1. Choose a “word of the year”

Instead of nailing down a specific and measurable goal, this tactic, popularized by Rubin’s podcast, involves picking a one-word “theme” for the year and finding creative ways to infuse it into your everyday life.

For example, if you’ve been in a bit of an exercise slump, you might choose the word “play” to help shift your attitude toward working out. With “play” top of mind, you might seek out more playful group exercise classes or hit up the local playground for a bodyweight workout. You could learn to play a new sport or use a set of dice or a deck of cards to choose your workout.

Because the word of the year is loose and open-ended, there’s room for ongoing interpretation and evolution. You may find room for more “play” at work, in your family interactions, and in your social life, and seeking out those opportunities is what keeps you engaged. “You’re building a whole world of associations and activities around this core idea, and that just feels more imaginative,” Rubin says.

2. Draft an annual plan

Grace Clarke, marketing consultant and founder of GraceAI, doesn’t mince words: Her annual planning template that’s more than 30 pages long is “not for everyone,” she says. Aside from the length and level of detail, some find the initial processes of reflection and visualization a bit over the top. But for those who are looking to better understand themselves, these features are what’s missing from similar planners.

Other tools skip introspection and get right to goal setting, Clarke says. “They force you to start thinking about goals without thinking about anchoring it in the sense of who you want to be,” she says. “When our motivation is lagging, we need something to latch onto. We need a vision for the future.”

With a psychologist’s input, Clarke drew upon her background in marketing to create a visually appealing workbook that facilitates holistic self-discovery and strategic planning in all areas of life, from physical health and fitness to career to romantic relationships. At the end of the four-day drafting period, users have a blueprint for the year, complete with quarterly check-ins.

According to Clarke, her method works well for busy, driven people who “have all these good ideas but are disorganized.”

“If you make this plan, all you have to do is show up. Your plan is created for you. And that’s so relieving for adults who have a lot of executive functioning fatigue,” Clarke says.

3. Focus on collaboration

So many resolutions are individualized, and the process of pursuing them is often solitary. Think of the marathoner in training who forgoes social events so that they can log miles after work. Or the over-scheduled mom who gets up before dawn so she can have time alone to do her strength training.

For anyone feeling disconnected from their goals, Scaringi encourages prioritizing connection. “Make it more of a collaboration versus an act of isolation,” she says. Rather than emphasizing the completion of a goal, focus on building a community that can offer encouragement, support, and accountability.

It may be helpful to have a standing, face-to-face meeting with a friend or colleague with whom you feel comfortable discussing your goals. Or, you can go deeper and build a personal “board of directors” comprised of peers and mentors who are willing to offer advice and guidance within their area of expertise.

4. Make a “25 for 25” list

Another one of Rubin’s go-to goal-setting tactics, the “25 for 25” list provides a framework for accomplishing tasks by playing on the numerical year. The idea is to generate a list of 25 things you wish to achieve in 2025. (In 2024, participants drafted 24 items, and in 2023, 23 items.)

This can work for people who have a lot of smaller, unrelated things they want to accomplish over the course of the year. Or, it can help people with big, amorphous goals organize their efforts into specific, manageable tasks.

For example, if someone wants to be better about stretching and mobility, they can create to-do items like “buy a foam roller,” “find a 5-minute stretching routine on YouTube,” or “sign up for three different yoga classes.” Together, these actions support a regular mobility practice, but they’re also finite tasks you can cross off the list. Being “done” with something provides a sense of satisfaction that can generate momentum and motivate you to tackle the next thing on your list.

“Sometimes people make resolutions like, ‘Learn Italian.’ You’re not going to cross that off a list. You’re not going to get that done in 2025,” Rubin says. “This is a way to have that feeling of, ‘Oh, I did it.’”

5. Keep a streak

It sounds counterintuitive, but if you’re having trouble doing something, the answer may be to do it more—like every day.

This works for Rubin, a self-proclaimed “all-or-nothing person.” “It’s much easier for me to do something every day than for me to do it sometimes,” she says, specifically referencing eating sugar, which she chooses to avoid altogether rather than allowing for occasional indulgences.

Doing (or not doing) something every day establishes clear boundaries and expectations. The everyday behavior eventually becomes a habit that doesn’t require extra thought or management; it just is. Plus, keeping a streak gamifies the challenge. “People love streaks. Some people get very engaged and excited by the idea of really trying to do something every day.” When motivation lags, a desire to protect a long-running streak can keep you on track.

That said, a streak is only meant to help you. If you happen to miss a day, don’t be too hard on yourself, as that can make it more difficult to re-engage in the habit you’re trying to build. “It’s better to be like, ‘What I do most days matters more than what I do once in a while. So that’s okay,” Rubin says. “But you don’t want it to happen all the time, or it’s going to undermine the behavior you’re trying to shape.”