The Real Reason New Year's resolutions Fail and What Neuroscience Says You Can Do About It

Are you a New Year's resolution person? Have you developed a resistance to the idea of starting something new for fear of not following through? You aren't alone.

As cheesy as it feels to ask my loved one's this, I have been asking more about people's resolutions for the year. Partly because it is a great way to open the floor for connecting on people's desires and hope's but also it has been eye opening to hear more about people who are resistant. So much resistance can be rooted in shame or fear of failure, and I think there is a sweet spot here for conquering this with the power of WHY our brains operate the way we they do.

We're bombarded with New Year's resolution content without much explanation as to HOW we can actually see these goals through. That's because the neuroscience driving behaviour can be complex, boring and dry if you aren't interested in the biochemical workings of your brain and body (totally fair!!). I believe that understanding the why and learning a bit more about your brain can make space for both success and self-compassion as we step into the new year.

What's Actually Happening in Your Brain

When you start a new behaviour, your prefrontal cortex, your brain's decision-maker is putting in most of the work. Which can be exhausting, especially if you have other variables contributing to a tired brain (lack of sleep, stressful job, busy life etc etc). The key with getting the decision to move from conscious effort to more unconscious drive is with repetition, that pattern shifts to a deeper brain structure called the basal ganglia, which handles automatic routines. That's why brushing your teeth feels effortless, but meditating every morning still feels like a battle.

The early days rely on conscious effort. And conscious effort runs out. This is a very predictable pattern. This helps explain why so many people "give up" on new habits. It's not about weakness or lack of discipline, it's about how much energy your brain needs to sustain a behaviour before it becomes automatic.

Why Your Brain Isn't Wired for Big Goals

Most behaviour change doesn't fail because your goals are too big. It fails because your brain isn't wired for delayed gratification. This actually feels so deeply relevant to a lot of preventative health behaviours, it is hard to connect to a strength training habit in your 30s that is designed to protect you from a fall and fracture in your 80s. So we need to find ways to tap into that system earlier.

This is where your dopamine system comes in. Most people associate dopamine with addiction and reward, but it plays a very large role in motivating our behviour, both consciously and unconsciously. It doesn't light up when you achieve something. It lights up when you expect to achieve something soon. Small wins work because your brain can actually see the connection between effort and reward.

Try to overhaul everything at once? Your brain sees no pattern, no payoff, no reason to keep going. Motivation flatlines.

This is why "I'm going to exercise every day, eat perfectly, meditate for 30 minutes, and journal" falls apart by January 15th. Your brain can't find the reward signal in all that noise.

Our recommendation, one habit daily like "take my supplements", "be in bed at 10pm", "fill water bottle up in the am", or "no phones or emails during lunch" will be more impactful in change than the bigger goals listed above. This is why last Janaury I made the goal of adding in one strength training session a week, and was able to rebuild a habit I had lost through postpartum. Smaller steps, more likelihood of following through, more opportunities for that intention and impact connection to occur.

One Thing You Can Try Today

Pick one tiny behaviour. Not a transformation, a behaviour you can do in under 5 minutes:

• One glass of water or filling your water bottle up
• Five minutes of journaling before bed
• Two minutes outside after lunch
• Taking your supplements

Track it daily. Use your phone, a notebook, an app (my favorite it this one) whatever works. Even just marking that you attempted it creates a small dopamine hit when you check the box. That hit strengthens the neural pathway you're trying to build.

This isn't about perfection. It's about consistency and giving your brain the feedback it needs to recognize a pattern.

Habit tracking externalizes the memory load and gives your brain a visible cue and reward loop it can recognize. You're not just building a habit, you're training your brain to expect success.

Why Generic Advice Doesn't Work

Everyone's brain, context, and reward systems are different. Some cues already exist in your environment. Some rewards feel more motivating to you specifically. Some habits take longer to build anticipation and meaning.

That's why "just do it" doesn't work. Real behaviour change is personal and it needs to fit your rhythms, your life, and your brain.

What works for someone else might create friction in your routine. What motivates your friend might feel meaningless to you. And that's okay. The goal isn't to copy someone else's system. The goal is to understand how your brain responds to cues, effort, and reward.

When You Need More Support

If you'd like help understanding what triggers your habits or exploring stress patterns that make change harder, individualized care can make a real difference. Working with someone who understands the neuroscience behind behaviour and can tailor strategies to your unique context and can accelerate lasting change.

One of my most talked about examples is how iron deficiency (with or without anemia!!) influences executive function (think motivation, task initiation, focus, concentration etc). Vitamin D deficiency will also impact executive function and low protein impact will reduce energy and impact the neurochemical messengers (like dopamine) needing to make impactful connections in the brain. So knowing where you are at from a baseline health perspective is playing perhaps a bigger role than you realize in your ability to make change as well.

The Takeaway

Lasting change comes from tiny, repeated steps that align with your brain's reward system not from forcing yourself harder.

Your brain isn't working against you. It's just doing what it evolved to do: conserve energy and seek patterns. When you work with that system instead of fighting it, change becomes less about willpower and more about design.

‍

If you would like to learn more about how to implement change based on where you are at right now, book an appointment with me today. Because your health is so much more than your symptoms and preventative health and behaviour change are more individual than you think.

‍

Happy new year, hope to see you soon,

‍

Dr.Céline, ND