Inspire360

Setting Goals That Stick: How Fitness Professionals Can Inspire Success This New Year

Issue #22 - December 2024

Published On

12.10.2024

Nearly 91% of New Year’s resolutions fail — a statistic you’re likely to recognize, if not from the data itself, then with your own eyes as a fitness professional.


Year after year, billions of people around the world practice the millennia-old tradition of setting a goal for themselves: a resolution for the coming year. We resolve to eat well, lose weight, get in shape, quit a bad habit, achieve a career benchmark, try a new hobby…

Billions of people, thousands of years… but so much failure. Why?


There’s the old adage (often attributed to Albert Einstein): insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. So is it insane to set a New Year’s resolution?


We’d argue that it’s not… in fact, goal setting is incredibly important — both in and out of the gym — when it comes to confidence, psychological health, physical longevity, and overall well-being. And there’s better news yet: there are specific, tangible ways we can play a role in the success of individuals in our communities, the world over.


Why Goal Setting Matters


Don’t let the failure rate discourage you from personally resolving in 2025, nor from helping your clients and communities do so.


Here’s a more encouraging stat: Setting resolutions increases your odds of success tenfold compared to merely wanting a change.


Research indicates that individuals who make New Year's resolutions are ten times more likely to achieve their goals than those who don't explicitly set resolutions. A study by Norcross et al. found that after six months, 46% of resolvers were successful in sustaining their goals, compared to only 4% of non-resolvers.


Goals represent a commitment to improving life and cultivating personal growth — and when set the right way (we’ll get to that!), they can significantly impact an individual’s well-being for the better.


According to many studies, achieving personal goals contributes positively to one's overall happiness and life satisfaction. Even something as simple as maintaining a gratitude journal — a form of goal-oriented activity — improves psychological and physical functioning, including increased optimism and fewer symptoms of physical illness.


Let’s also acknowledge collective impact; an individual’s personal improvement, joy, and confidence can have a positive effect on the rest of their community, and the people around them.


If the data is accurate, and only 9% of the 41% of resolution-setting Americans actually achieve their goal, that still means over 12 million people successfully achieve their New Year’s resolutions each year in the U.S. alone.


Let’s expand that scope. If there are eight billion people in the world, half of them are making resolutions, and roughly 10% of them are succeeding, that’s 400 million people who’ve made a small, incremental but positive improvement to their lives.


So, while the overall success rate might seem low, it’s a powerful reminder that resolutions can lead to meaningful accomplishments for millions — and fitness professionals can help boost those numbers even higher.


Why Resolutions Often Fail


There are many reasons why these goals tend to backfire, but here are some common themes:


Ambition Overload: Setting overly ambitious or multiple goals at once is incredibly common, and also overwhelming… This approach leads to near-immediate backfire. This is especially true if there aren’t smaller “sub-goals” to measure incremental change.


Lack of Specificity: Vague goals like “improve my character” and “take better care of my health” lead to unclear paths. There's no benchmark for success and no way to measure progress.


No Plan: Author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Setting a resolution with no structured plan means the resolution is unlikely to succeed, and the individual is likely to be very discouraged.


Lack of Support: Goals need resources! Things like time, tools, and accountability (all of which can be supported by a health club, coach, etc.) make the biggest difference in terms of a resolution’s success or failure.


Misaligned Motivation: Setting goals you don’t genuinely want to achieve often leads to failure as well. Do you really want to quit smoking, or are you doing it because you think you should? You all know better than most: intention and motivation make an unbelievable difference. Intrinsic desire is tantamount to success.


How to Help Clients Set Goals They’ll Actually Achieve


So what now? This is actually where you come in — coaching and support could be the make-or-break factor for individuals in your community.


Here’s a toolkit with suggestions on how to set, keep, and achieve your New Year’s resolutions.


Be Specific: Set measurable, actionable goals to track progress. Have you heard of Locke & Latham’s Goal-Setting Theory? Developed in the 1960s, Locke and Latham's research demonstrated that setting specific and challenging goals significantly enhances performance compared to vague or easy goals.


Be Realistic: Choose goals aligned with your capacity and life circumstances. Competing in an IronMan is an incredible resolution… for the right individual at the right stage in their athletic journey. In the same vein, resolutions with too rigid of parameters (meditate every day in 2025, go to the gym three times a week in 2025) leave a LOT of room for failure. Striking the balance between discipline and wiggle room is essential for crafting a realistic and achievable resolution.


Break It Down & Create a Plan: Start small, build momentum, and add goals incrementally. If there is a big goal (even one that seems a bit lofty), try breaking it down into smaller goals for each season. A great resource for yourself and your clients is the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, which emphasizes the importance of sustainable, incremental change, with tools on how to get there.


Then, develop a roadmap, including steps, deadlines, and resources… as coaches and trainers, you’ll have excellent insight into how to do this.


Identify Resources: How much time does this person have to achieve their goal? Do they have the means to get to a health club, or purchase the types of foods necessary? Do they have a support system or accountability partner? Identify and gather the necessary tools, support, and time. Think of it like the ingredient list for a resolution, and the plan/sub-goals are the step-by-step instructions.


Clarify the “Why” and Check Desire: Ultimately, with any goal or project, you have to love the process as much as you love the end result. The realization that “this isn’t fun” or “I don’t like this” is often the nail in the coffin for a resolution. And identifying the inherent desire can come down to identifying why a person is setting a particular goal. The Precision Nutrition “5 Whys” approach can be a useful tool, getting to the root of what the client actually wants.


Do they really want to run a 5K, or do they simply want to feel more confident? Are there other ways of achieving that confidence without running if they end up not enjoying the sport itself?


Ensuring the process aligns with what someone genuinely enjoys also contributes largely to the success of the resolution.


Your 2025 Call to Action


Helping your communities and clients craft better resolutions has a positive effect from an altruistic perspective (improving their lives, happiness, well-being), but also from a business strategy POV. Failed resolutions by February mean a drop in memberships, absenteeism in classes, and a frustrated client base.


By helping them effectively set goals, you’re creating a better 2025 business plan, increasing retention, and giving yourself the opportunity to build deeper client relationships with a happier community.


You can start now with goal-setting workshops, one-on-one consultations, or community challenges as part of your offerings. Starting in January you can start conversations with clients about their New Year’s resolutions, offering guidance early in the year to kick things off on a positive, deliberate, strategic note.


This year, you have the power to turn your clients’ aspirations into achievements. Let’s make 2025 the year of goals that stick… and the year of happier, healthier communities in our clubs.


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Industry Happenings:


Upcoming Events:


  1. Mind Body Fitness 2025, January 8-12, 2025, Palm Springs, California
  2. NSCA Coaches Conference, January 08 - 10, 2025, New Orleans, Louisiana
  3. The Fit Expo, January 25-26, 2025, Los Angeles, California
  4. Connected Health & Fitness Summit, February 11-13, 2025, Los Angeles, California
  5. DC MANIA®, February 27-March 2, 2025, Herndon, VA
  6. IWF China Fitness Convention, March 5-7, 2025, Shanghai, China

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Upcoming Workshops in November & December:


  1. 20+ workshops from Peak Pilates
  2. 20+ workshops from TRX®
  3. 8 workshops from Spinning®
  4. 6 workshops from Oxygen Advantage
  5. 2 workshops from Mike Boyle's CFSC
  6. 2 workshops from Nordic Flow Academy
  7. 2 workshops from SoulBody Fitness
  8. 1 workshop from Exos
  9. 1 workshop from Gray Institute
  10. 1 workshop from Power Plate
  11. 1 workshop from Strive Life Fitness
  12. 1 workshop from U-Jam

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Industry News:



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Thanks for Reading!


This newsletter was brought to you by Kathie Davis, Peter Davis, Ravi Sharma, Dominique Astorino, and the Inspire360 team.


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A Note from Peter & Kathie


The industry is changing rapidly and we are here to help you sift through all the noise and get to the good stuff. Every month, we'll bring you trending topics and the inside scoop that we believe is paramount for fitness professionals to know.


Keep Inspiring,


Peter & Kathie Davis


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