There are people who say very little and let their actions be their guiding force.
There are other people who say a lot but fail to follow through all the way.
I fall into that second category, and if I had to choose one thing I’d like to work on, that’d be it.
I have said before that the progress made when working toward goals–whatever they may be–is not linear, but I did not anticipate feeling like I backslid upon the “reset” that I felt was necessary when I started the new year. Over the past few months, I have been thinking a lot about my life: the habits I would like to lose, the habits I would like to develop and what the near future is going to be like, for example.
A new year may lead many to believe that a “revamp” of their lives is necessary, but I’d argue that this is hardly ever the case. Three months into 2026, I am certain that many can say that their New Year’s resolutions have not held up.
My take? “New year, new you” is a farce. It’s just something that people say trick themselves into believing that all of a sudden a big change is going to happen in their lives. Only about 10% of people actually stick to their New Year’s resolutions, which is understandable because the struggle to follow through is real.
“Consistency over perfection. Celebrate the small wins,” is what I have been trying to stick to. And this is good advice, in theory.
But what happens when consistency fizzles out? When there aren’t any wins to celebrate because progress has stagnated?
I still have my goals. Writing down and planning accordingly is still a good idea on paper, but the problem now is movement. How do I get the chutzpah to move toward these goals every day?`
About a week ago, my little brother asked me something similar. He asked: “How do I get motivated to do something?”
At the time, my response was almost instantaneous. I told him that motivation comes easy and that all that he has to do is to envision himself doing something that he wants to do.
I have heard time and time again that “the hardest part is starting,” and that “momentum will carry you the rest of the way once you actually begin a task,” but I believe that this is an oversimplification of productivity.
The truth is that distractions are very hard to avoid. Momentum can be broken. It is easier to establish the desire to do something than it is to actually start doing it. Resistance to begin tasks is a real thing.
And the scariest part of this is realizing that there is no clean solution to these issues because people are not machines.
The best solution I have right now is to act immediately on anything that I tell myself I will do. If I know that I will not follow through–even if that means making small progress–I will not make any declarations.
When I think about the small things that I have started and completed, I can’t recall a time when those tasks began with a declaration promising myself that I was going to carry them out. I may have thought that I wanted to complete a certain task, but anything that I have successfully started and completed has begun with motivation and an almost-immediate action to take that first step.
