New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work. Habits Do.

Welcome to 2026.

Now, I’m conscious that I may be beginning the New Year with something most of us may not want to hear.

But here goes: New Year’s resolutions fail, there I said it, and it’s not because any of us lack discipline.

It’s because resolutions are vague intentions, not proper actual change. They rely on motivation, not behavioural change. And when the motivation wears off, the behaviour change goes with it.

That’s why most New Year’s resolutions don’t survive past Easter, if not the first few weeks of January.

Real habits, on the other hand, stick. Once established, they don’t require motivation; they come naturally.

That’s why I don’t set New Year’s resolutions.

I build one habit per year and commit to it.

Why New Year’s resolutions fail

Most resolutions sound something like this:

“I want to eat better”

“I want to exercise more”

“I want to read more”

“I want to be more present”

The truth is none of these are habits. They’re outcomes. And outcomes don’t change behaviour – our habits do.

If you want a different result in 2026, you don’t need a bigger goal. You need a better habit.

The science of habit formation

I’ve read more books on habit formation than almost any other topic and  the research is surprisingly consistent.

For those who don’t know, building a habit takes between 21 and 60 days.

• Around 21 days: the behaviour starts to feel familiar
• Around 60 days: the habit becomes automatic

But it’s worth noting that there is a rule most people break (and it’s why they fail).

You cannot interrupt the habit. Miss a day, and you need to reset the process. This is where most ‘all-or-nothing’ resolutions die.

How habits work

Every habit follows the same neurological loop:

Cue → Routine → Reward

Over time, a craving forms, and the habit runs without conscious thought.

For example:

• Alarm goes off (cue)
• Go for a run (routine)
• Endorphins or a post-run smoothie (reward)

Most people try to change the routine without understanding the cue, and this is the reason why they struggle.

You don’t need more discipline. You need better habit design.

The insight most people miss

You don’t eliminate bad habits. You replace them.

When I set out to be more present last year, I didn’t ‘quit my phone’. That was obviously very unrealistic.

Instead, I identified the loop:

• Cue: boredom
• Routine: checking my phone
• Reward: a dopamine hit engineered by Silicon Valley

So, what did I do? I swapped the routine.

Boredom now triggers a walk and coffee with my son in the morning and reading a physical book during the day.

Same cue. New routine. Better reward.

That’s how habits change.

My habit for 2026

This year, my habit is to become more proactive.

• Proactive in how I spend my time
• Proactive in how I organise my day
• Proactive in how I pursue improvement

The habit is to schedule blocks of time in my calendar to be spent on important things before they become urgent. Time for thinking, time with my wife without our kids around, time for learning something new.

Not a resolution that requires motivation, but a habit that I am confident will eventually stick.

The question you need to ask

What habit, if I built it over the next 60 days, would you like to form?

Could you re-purpose your new year’s resolution into a new habit?

And again, to reiterate, habits, unlike resolutions, stick.

Go ahead, try it!