Start 2026 with Gratitude, Leave the Resolutions Behind in 2025

By Pamela Martorana, LPC

 It’s closing in at that time of year- when we all start thinking about the new year ahead. The glorious new year, filled with hope and endless possibilities. A new year symbolizes fresh starts, new beginnings, a redo in life. 

 But what do most people do with this opportunity? They show up with resolutions--yes, dreaded New Year’s resolutions. Many times, they are the same ones from years gone by, wash, rinse, repeat. We commit ourselves to losing weight, eating better, exercising more. 

 Do people actually maintain their resolutions and reach their goals? According to a 2024 Forbes Health/One Poll survey the average resolution lasts just 3.74 months. Longer than I thought they would last! Only 8% of respondents reported sticking with their goals for one month, 22% lasted two months, 22% lasted three months and 13% lasted four months. 

 So, what if you started 2026 differently? What if you rang in the New Year with gratitude?

 New Year’s resolutions tend to focus on things we want to change or improve --our perceived flaws. When we focus on what we don’t like or want to change about ourselves, we can end up feeling judged and “less than” in compared to the next person. But shifting our focus to gratitude puts the abundance and the blessings already in our life in the spotlight. Sometimes when people hear the word gratitude they focus on the larger picture, “I am grateful for my family, my job etc.” Get granular with your gratitude, be grateful for your ability to hear, see, smell, taste and touch, some people can’t. Be grateful for the being alive, breathing, being able to walk down the street and feel safe. 

 Gratitude helps us recognize what we have in our life and not what we lack. Focusing on appreciation of what we already have in our lives is a much gentler and kinder form of motivation. According to the law of attraction, when we use our energy to focus on the abundance already present in our lives, we will attract more of it.

 Of course, many of us will fall prey to making those dreaded resolutions- and that’s okay. I am suggesting you integrate gratitude into them and create more balanced and compassionate approach. Gratitude is a positive emotion connected to appreciating and celebrating what is good in our life. Imagine creating new year’s resolutions with a dash of gratitude and a sprinkle of celebration. 

 For example, instead of saying:

 “I walk 10,000 steps every day” 

 Try reframing with gratitude: 

 “I am grateful for my legs that carry me and help me take a walk each day. I commit to walking between 8,000 and 10,000 steps daily, listening to my body and when it needs rest.”

 It is the same resolution --but now it honors and acknowledges the work of your body and not seeing it as a failure on days when we do not walk 10,000 steps.

  Thinking and creating new year’s resolutions through the 

lends of gratitude invites us to take pause and be gentler with ourselves. Taking pause helps us to remember parts of our lives and ourselves that we may take for granted. 

 And remember, --we do not need the stroke of midnight on December 31, 2025, or any year, to give us permission to start over. As long as we are breathing, we can start over, try again, to begin anew each and every day. 

 That in itself, is something to be eternally grateful for in life

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