It says something about human tenacity that—even though 88% of people fail their New Year’s Resolutions within a month—we leap into every new year with full faith and confidence that this year will be different.

This year we’ll eat better.

This year we’ll lose weight.

This year we’ll exercise more.

And we do, for a while. But then we fall off the wagon and it’s back to the same old habits.

Perhaps it’s time to rethink how we approach the new year. Perhaps it’s time for a Revolution for Fitness Resolutions.

Research has found that over half of American New Year’s resolutions in 2025 were fitness related. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, fitness resolutions have long been at the top of the list. We clearly want to be fit. It drives us to rise up and say, “This year is my year!”

So why do we fail? And more importantly, how can we do better this year?

It all comes down to SMART goals. Our resolutions typically are not (and they clearly need to be) Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Specific Resolutions

Don’t be vague. Simply saying, “I’m going to get into better shape” has no end state. It has no finish line for you to strive toward, no success for you to celebrate. Bring specificity to your resolutions.

Don’t say that you want to improve your pullups, say that you want to string five unbroken strict pull-ups together.

Maybe you don’t exercise at all, and you want to start running. Be specific. Give yourself a goal of running a mile, or perhaps even join the famous Couch to 5K program (MC Corporate Wellness’s founding coach started her fitness journey with CT5K).

Your resolution doesn’t have to be complex. It could be as simple as committing to attend a certain number of classes each week in your company’s onsite fitness facility.

Bear in mind that one reason resolutions fail is inflexibility. Don’t make your fitness goal so stringent that you can’t miss a day. Life will get in the way. Plan for that and ensure that your specific goal allows for flexibility.

Measurable Resolutions

Make it countable. Take that vague ‘get into better shape’ and turn it into something you can count. Improve your running speed by a certain percentage, increase your weight lifting by a number of pounds, or plan to attend a certain percentage of onsite fitness classes each week. With measurable results, you can definitively say when you achieved or even exceeded your goals.

Achievable Resolutions

Keep it real. Many resolutions fail because we sprint off the starting block at 100mph and then collapse from pure exhaustion. Massive improvements won’t come in a single day, week, or even month, and setting the bar too high only means that you’ll never reach it.

Small, realistic gains build sustainable change. 

This is the key to our Revolution for Fitness Resolutions. Keep it small, achievable, and realistic, and your chances of success will skyrocket.

Relevant Resolutions

Stay on target. If you’re resolved to improve fitness, pick goals relevant to that end. Improve skills, increase weights, and add time in small, realistic goals relevant to your final overall resolution.

Time-bound Resolutions

Make a deadline. Giving yourself an achievable, relevant deadline does several things. It motivates you, it stifles procrastination, and it provides an end date to your goal. Saying that you’re going to achieve 100 unbroken pushups by January 31st is much more achievable than some endless goal of doing pushups every day. Forever. Until you die.

That sounds terrifying. But simply pushing yourself until the end of the month? That you can do.

Cap the goal with a deadline. Once you hit it, celebrate the win! Look at what you’ve achieved and then make a new goal. Keep it small, achievable, and realistic. Make it SMART, and before you know it you’ll have achieved more toward your fitness resolutions than ever before.

Welcome to the Revolution for Fitness Resolutions.