Listening Instead of Resolving: What Failed New Year’s Resolutions Can Teach Us About Longevity

By Karen Mitchell, NBC-HWC, FNLP Functional Nutrition Coach

The new year wasn’t all that long ago. So let’s check in—how are your New Year’s resolutions going?

If you’re like most people (88%, according to the Baylor College of Medicine), New Year’s resolutions fail even before the end of January. The second Friday in January has even been dubbed “Quitter’s Day.” And honestly, that doesn’t surprise me. Resolutions are often arbitrary, rigid, or disconnected from how we actually feel.

“Dry January.” Running five miles a day—starting January 1st, no matter what. Cutting out entire food groups overnight.

It’s been a long time since I’ve set New Year’s resolutions. They never stuck for me. And when they didn’t stick, I felt upset with myself. That frustration often turned into resentment and defeat—which never made for good habit creation.

Here’s the catch: many of these goals sound healthy on the surface, but they can be surprisingly unkind to our bodies and unrealistic for real life. Often, these resolutions don’t take into account what’s actually going on inside the body.

From Resolution to Awareness

Before you fully succumb to feeling defeated over a failed resolution attempt, I invite you to try something different. Ask yourself:

How do I actually feel right now?

Most of us live busy lives. We move quickly from one responsibility to the next, and along the way subtle signs and symptoms begin to creep in—fatigue, digestive discomfort, poor sleep, brain fog, irritability, or a general sense that something feels “off.”

Because these changes often happen gradually, we tend to explain them away.

If you wake up tired, you might blame a bad night of sleep—without noticing that you haven’t been sleeping well for weeks or even months.

If your digestion feels unpredictable, you may chalk it up to stress or aging, rather than pausing to look at the bigger picture.

The changes in irritability or mood you’ve been experiencing? Maybe that’s just part of your stressful job—or coworkers who get under your skin.

Over time, this habit of tuning out our bodies or repeatedly justifying symptoms can have real consequences.

Why Awareness Matters for Long-Term Health

Our bodies are constantly communicating with us. Symptoms are not random inconveniences—they are signals.

Many of the most common chronic diseases develop slowly, often quietly, over time. Heart disease, for example, remains the leading cause of death for women in the United States, accounting for roughly one in five deaths. Long before a diagnosis is made, subtle risk factors and warning signs are often already present.

When you begin to listen to your body more closely, you give yourself the opportunity to make small course corrections in your daily habits—changes that can mean the difference between living with increasing pain and disease, or living with more ease and resilience.

The same is true for many other chronic conditions, including most cancers, which are largely influenced by environmental and lifestyle factors rather than genetics alone. Nutrition, movement, stress, sleep, toxin exposure, and inflammation all shape our long-term health.

Longevity isn’t built through extreme overhauls or short-lived challenges. It’s built through ongoing awareness—and small, doable shifts made consistently over time.

Let’s look more closely at a few of these lifestyle factors.

Nutrition

Nutrition is shaped by many things—age, location, access, culture, beliefs, and stress. One pattern I see repeatedly is cutting corners on food choices because life is busy or stress drives cravings for quick comfort foods high in sugar and unhealthy fats. Most people don’t want poor nutrition habits. Life simply starts running the show.

Movement

Movement is often the first thing to go. Many people don’t enjoy exercise, don’t feel they have time, or don’t know where to start. According to a Harvard Health report, only about 18% of adults meet recommended guidelines for both cardiovascular and strength-based activity. That’s striking—especially considering how protective movement is for heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and more.

Stress

Stress deserves its own conversation. Chronic stress is so common that many people no longer recognize it as stress at all. Yet it affects nearly every system of the body, influencing digestion, hormones, immune function, mood, and sleep.

Learning From the Resolution You Didn’t Keep

Let’s go back to that resolution you made just a month ago.

If you chose Dry January, for example, ask yourself why.

• Were you noticing that alcohol was disrupting your sleep?

• Were you using a glass of wine to calm your nervous system after long, demanding days?

• Were you hoping to reduce inflammation after learning that alcohol can be pro-inflammatory?

These questions matter far more than whether you “succeeded” or “failed.” They point directly to what your body and nervous system may be asking for.

The same is true for movement goals, dietary changes, or productivity resolutions. Beneath the behavior is usually a signal—low energy, chronic stress, blood sugar imbalance, inflammation, or a nervous system that’s been running in overdrive for too long.

A More Sustainable Approach to Longevity

True longevity depends on our ability to listen inward—and that is a skill we can practice and refine.

Instead of rigid goals, consider cultivating awareness:

• Notice patterns in your energy, sleep, digestion, and mood

• Pay attention to what feels supportive versus depleting

• Get curious about symptoms rather than pushing through them

• Make small, compassionate adjustments that your body can sustain

This isn’t about perfection or optimization, and it’s certainly not about judgement. It’s about building a compassionate relationship with your body that allows you to respond earlier, more gently, and more effectively.

As the new year continues to unfold, you don’t need another resolution.

You may simply need to listen.

If you’re noticing patterns in your energy, digestion, mood, or sleep—and you’re not sure what to make of them—you don’t have to sort through that alone. Sometimes it helps to have a thoughtful, supportive partner to look at the bigger picture with you.

At Enso Natural Medicine, Karen works with clients to better understand what their bodies are communicating and to create personalized, sustainable paths toward long-term health and longevity. If you’re curious whether working together might be supportive, I invite you to reach out to schedule an appointment.