Why You Keep Falling Short of Your New Year’s Goals

I know why you fell short of your goals for the New Year last year. I bet it’s the same reason you fell short of the same goals the year before. It’ll probably happen again this year. (Sorry but it’s true.) It’s not for lack of effort. Because I see you out there working your ass off. 

You had hoped to wake up earlier in the morning to work out, or even just go for a damn walk. But you also know that sleep is important and how do you do both?? There’s no way to do both when before you go to bed you also have to meal prep little mason jars full of overnight oats with collagen peptides and chia seeds that you can eat in the morning before you get to drink your coffee. 

You were hoping to finally heal that nagging chronic foot pain. You saw a podiatrist, 2 chiropractors, an acupuncturist, 3 physical therapists, and a dietitian. You bought at least 5 different kinds of shoes, 4 different creams, kinesio tape, an at home cupping set, CBD gummies and so. much. magnesium. 

You wanted to get along better with your partner and be calmer with your kid. But then they got laid off and childcare costs almost as much as rent or a mortgage (if you are even lucky enough to have a mortgage. So does therapy when your insurance deductible is $9,000. Your dishwasher no longer works, your toilet running for no reason, and you’ve come to terms with the fact that your life is a constant battle between whether you need more money, or more free time. 

You wanted to go back to taking dance class for yourself. Or finally sign up for an improv class. But that went to shit when you decided that you needed to pick up a side hustle (or extra clients or classes) to pay for all of the above. 

You are existentially tired. 

I am existentially tired. 

(And this is all tied to the reason I’ve been having such a hard time creating fitness content for the past year.)

Because it doesn’t matter if you lift weights 3 days a week if you can’t afford to take a day off if you tweak your back while doing it.  Going for walks is ruined when !CE is trying to snatch up you or your neighbors or their landscapers depending who you are and where you live. 

You can choke down Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Zinc until you piss fluorescent yellow, and it still won’t change the fact that wellness grifters are spreading pseudoscience and measles outbreaks from highest offices in the government. 

Meanwhile we’re being sold impossible levels of skinny, outrageous amounts of Ozempic, AI generated everything, and unsustainable amounts of fast fashion in the form of dupe leggings peddled to us by influencers who are paid by billionaires who don’t give a fuck about any of us. Don’t even get me started on lists and files. 

We have lost the plot. 

Or more likely, we’ve been purposely misled. 

But if I learned anything in 2025 I am convinced that real life community can bring us back.

Plus real systemic change and policy. Individual efforts are a start. But I want everyone to finally realize that until we address root of what’s actually making us unhealthy as a society, we’ll be perpetually running ourselves into the ground, chasing the elusive vision of health and wellness we’ve been sold for far too long. 

It’s like I’ve been saying since the beginning. It’s all just different flavors of the same shit sandwich. Until we finally decide to acknowledge this and do something about it, we’re just gonna keep running in circles with our weighted vests and $30 water bottles getting absolutely nowhere.