It’s almost March, and by this time in the year, most research suggests the majority of people have either partially or completely abandoned their New Year’s resolutions.

But Sarah Memmi, an assistant professor of commerce at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, said it’s not too late to get back on track. Some research, she said, suggests about 80% of people have abandoned their goals about two-and-a-half months into the year.

The challenge, Memmi said, is most people are reluctant to revise their goals. New Year’s resolutions, which are typically tied to things such as eating, exercise, careers, academics and social relationships, “are goals and behaviors that are difficult to change at baseline,” Memmi said.

While it’s tempting to begin with ambitious goals, such as exercising five times per week or always eating healthy, if those are things “you haven’t already been doing to a larger degree, that’s going to be a really, really challenging bar to meet,” Memmi said.

Goals don’t exist in isolation, Memmi said, and jobs and other parts of one’s personal life can come into conflict with achieving a goal.

“My top line guidance is don’t lose hope,” Memmi said. “Don’t give up.”

Goals don’t have to be difficult and challenging, Memmi said, and instead could include tasks such as watching TV on the couch at the end of the day. It’s important to keep goals realistic, so if there’s not an hour in the day that can be dedicated to exercise, Memmi recommended setting goals within smaller increments of time.

To get back on track, Memmi said using an app for exercise or tracking eating habits to get feedback and monitor progress could be helpful.

“Sometimes, it’s just paying a little bit more attention,” Memmi said. “Even just be putting a Post-it on your bathroom mirror to remind you of something.”

Creating accountability is also helpful, Memmi said, and that can be done by just telling someone else about your ambitions, “and recruiting not only their help in holding you accountable, but as appropriate, motivating you.”

Planning ahead can help prevent a conflict from interfering a goal, and Memmi said it’s important to recognize that goals shouldn’t just be about outcomes.

“If it’s in the health space, that might be losing weight, but often the outcome itself is not under our direct control,” Memmi said.

Reframing the goal as a “process-orienting behavior” can help with that, Memmi said. If the goal is to write a novel, she said, making the goal to write for a few minutes every day might make it seem more achievable.

People who seemingly achieve all of their goals don’t do it through willpower, Memmi said. Instead, it’s done through habits and routines.

“They’re using their willpower to make plans, to set up their circumstances in favor of a goal,” Memmi said. “But then in the day to day, they’re actually not experiencing a lot of conflict. They’re not resisting a lot of temptation. They’re the kind of people who don’t even try to resist the temptation, let’s say, to eat a dessert. They just make sure that there’s no dessert in the house to begin with.”

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