A new year has just begun, which means it is time for new year resolutions. Here’s some statistics from University of Scranton on the New Year’s resolutions made by Americans:
- 45% of Americans make resolutions
- 75% of those make it past the first week
- 71% make it past two weeks
- 64% make it past one month
- 46% make it past six months
- 18% fully achieve their goals
Impressive? Or maybe not? It’s very interesting to notice that the largest number of dropouts occur in the very first week. I wonder if they really meant it when they made their new year resolution?
How do these numbers compare to strategy and business plans? I don’t have trustworthy statistics on this, but I am not sure that 18% can claim that they fully achieved their goals last year. There could be many reasons for that, but read along in my next blog post and learn how to make SMART goals – goals that have a much higher probability of being achieved over traditional types of goals.
P.S. The survey from University of Scranton showed that persons in their twenties were more than twice as likely to achieve their resolution compared to people over 50. I’m 52 so maybe I should forget about losing weight, getting organized and spending less/saving more, which are the top 3 resolutions. On the other hand: I’ll give it a shot, at least for a week.