Why do so many new habits fail?
Many people are highly motivated, especially toward the end of the year, to finally change their habits in the year ahead. New goals are set for the coming year, and motivation is at its peak.
This motivation often continues beyond New Year's – sometimes even for several weeks. At some point, however, the year has progressed far enough that you look back at your New Year's goals and planned changes and sometimes no longer even know when you started drifting away from your new positive habits.
But why does this happen?
Here are five common reasons why new habits can fail.
1. Dependence on motivation
Motivation can be an initiator that has a positive effect on change. However, changing habits should not create a dependence on motivation.
This is where a common problem arises: We assume that motivation is essential for maintaining a habit. This misconception leads to habits being interrupted, particularly on difficult days.
💡 Learning
It is unrealistic to expect only perfect days over a longer period of time or even throughout an entire year. Especially on days when things are not going so well, habits should still be maintained. This allows the habit to become increasingly embedded in everyday life, while motivation becomes less important.
2. Habits are not measurable
Habits are often defined without measurable indicators. Take the habit "Daily push-ups" as an example. The intention is to do push-ups every day, but the number of repetitions is not defined. This problem mainly affects quantifiable habits rather than binary habits.
Examples of quantifiable habits:
- Instead of "Read daily," you could define "Read for 10 minutes."
- Instead of "Daily push-ups," you could define "10 push-ups."
Examples of binary habits:
- Don't smoke – the quantity does not matter here because the target has already been defined as 0.
- Don't drink alcohol
- Go to the gym – the focus is simply on going to the gym rather than performing specific exercises. On a weekly basis, however, this could become a quantifiable goal, such as three visits per week.
💡 Learning
Quantifiable habits should already be described measurably in their title. This makes the daily goal clearly defined and objectively verifiable.
3. Habits are defined unrealistically
Even when quantifiable habits have already been defined with a measurable indicator, another problem arises when the daily goals are too ambitious. Such goals can often only be achieved reliably on particularly good days.
Habits should therefore always be created based on my Baseline Model. This means defining habits in a way that makes them manageable even on bad days.
On some days, I do 60 push-ups or more. Nevertheless, I still have a lower limit – my personal baseline – of 10 push-ups. As a result, the intensity may be lower on some days, but I remain consistent with my habit.
If, for example, I am feeling a little under the weather or have already exhausted myself through another physical activity, I know that 10 push-ups are still manageable for me.
💡 Learning
Define your habits with a baseline that can be maintained even on bad days. On good days, you can simply do more. In the long run, consistency beats intensity.
4. Progress is not visible
New goals or habits are often formulated only in our minds or occasionally recorded in structural diagrams such as mind maps. However, actual progress is often not tracked and remains invisible.
It is important to understand why streaks are interrupted and why changes to habits suddenly lose their importance.
How are you supposed to know when a habit began or when it was interrupted if the progress is not visible?
Without visible progress, there is also no clear point from which to resume an interrupted habit. At the same time, its perceived priority can decrease when progress is no longer visible.
💡 Learning
Progress should be visible. This makes broken streaks less problematic because it becomes easier to get back on track.
For a long time, for example, I did not understand why my push-up streak was always interrupted on Saturdays. Using the yearly view in Ninety Days, I realized that I was doing other exercises at the gym on Saturdays and had therefore temporarily forgotten about the push-ups.
This allowed me to recognize the pattern and get back into my routine. I have since built up another streak of more than 46 days.
5. The habit is stopped after a broken streak
Habits are often no longer continued after just a single day has caused a streak to break. At that moment, the focus is entirely on the length of the streak rather than on personal progress.
It is still a considerable achievement to have maintained a habit on 5 out of 7 days, for example. If the habit is abandoned completely after a broken streak, however, long-term success actually moves toward zero.
Streaks are therefore primarily indicators. They show a direction, but they should not determine whether a habit is continued.
For example, I would never think of logging brushing my teeth. It is a habit that is 100% natural to me. Nevertheless, there may be 1–2 days a year when I do not brush my teeth. But those 1–2 days should not result in me no longer brushing my teeth at all.
So why shouldn't we approach other new habits with the same discipline and seriousness?
💡 Learning
It is perfectly okay and admirable to live by the motto "Never break the chain" and build long streaks. However, individual streak breaks should not lead to abandoning a habit completely. What matters is picking it up again afterward. A single interruption does not change the progress you have already made.
Andreas Stein