Failed Resolutions Survey Wrap-Up
The results are in, and only 27% of you aren’t making any New Years resolutions. Maybe you make a policy of year-round improvement, or maybe you’re a perfect little snowflake just the way you are—either way, let’s dig into the data and see how the people making resolutions did. [Note: contest winners will be announced at 2:00pm EST Dec 27th.]
Fact #1: Resolutions have a 77% failure rate.
Congrats to the 23% who reported success with their resolutions, but for the rest of you… in the words of Yoda, “Do, or do not. There is no try.” What happened??
More than half of you—64% to be precise—reported “I got lazy” as the reason for failing to achieve goals. Good to know, but come on, men! That’s a sorry excuse!! In a distant second with 16% was “didn’t have the time.” No comment. Of course everyone’s situation is different and surveys have a tendency to oversimplify, so here are some specifics:
- Quitting the urge to smoke is hard.
- My wife left myself and our kids. Just didn’t have the time to stick to resolutions. Being a single dad is very time consuming.
- [My goals] were too fuzzy, there was no direct way to check off that I’d done them.
- Had the last ten years of my life wiped out overnight by my greedy, slimy biz partner.
- Economy has effectively crushed some of my goals.
And here are some positive ones!
- I kept my resolution and it was freakin’ awesome.
- I completed my resolution to open my own business and am going to finally be working there full time starting Jan. 1 2012. For the first time in three years I will only have one job.
- My goal was to become healthier and stronger. I received a Double Lung Transplant on May 8th! From then-on, I restarted my resolution and dedicated my time and effort into gaining strength and muscle. It has been a success en progress!
Fact #2: A whopping 85% resolve to “get ripped and be healthier.”
No big surprise here. If you’ve ever been to a gym on January 1st you know what this one is all about. Following at 23% was “start a new project” which, as entrepreneurs, makes us really excited. Will be fun to see what the Manpacks community creates in the coming year.
Quitting a bad habit ranked 3rd, and for all the taken ladies out there here’s some good news: only 7% of respondents claimed “dumping my girlfriend” to be a 2012 goal (on the flip side, single guys get ready – the 7%ers have “rebound” in their future).
Here are some of our favorite resolutions (though only two of them have specific, achievable goals attached – something we will discuss in a future post):
- Come out of my shell and be a winner.
- Reading 52 books.
- More sex!!
- Travel more. Lots more.
- Running a marathon under four hours.
Fact #3: At least 49% have repeated resolutions
21% “can’t remember”, so this number is likely higher. There were only two repeated goals that came up again and again: lose weight, and quit smoking. As a friend once said, “quitting smoking is easy, all you have to do is not do something.” Anyone in the process of quitting will disagree with the “easy” part, but it really is as simple as deciding (definitively!) not to do something.
All in all, people are optimistic about the future despite how difficult their personal goals are, or how grim the economy may look. That’s right, 78% said BRING IT ON!!!
So here’s a non-alcoholic cheers to you men in becoming a Better Man. Good Luck in 2012, it’s going to be a great year.
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