The Lie of New Year's Resolutions
The Dr. Phil Podcast
Dr. Phil McGraw
4.3 • 13.5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Most New Year’s resolutions fail by February, not because you’re lazy, but because willpower is emotional and finite. Here’s how to “program” your environment so change sticks.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You know what? I'm going to talk to you about New Year's resolutions, even though we're in the second half of January. |
| 0:06.9 | Now, why am I talking to you about this when it's already passed? |
| 0:12.3 | You've all made your New Year's resolutions, but here I am talking to you about it when we're already through the first half of January. |
| 0:20.5 | Well, I want to talk to you about it when we're already through the first half of January. Well, I want to talk to you |
| 0:22.6 | about it because you've made these. What were they? I don't know. Go on a diet, get fit, |
| 0:29.2 | read more, just do a complete reset, get a better job, read more articles. I don't know. |
| 0:35.2 | Whatever it was that you were focused on. But all of them were probably about how to fix yourself for 2026. |
| 0:45.1 | And to be honest, a lot of these things sound really reasonable. |
| 0:49.2 | They're encouraging. |
| 0:50.2 | They're positive. |
| 0:51.2 | Take a look at just few of the headlines from December. |
| 0:54.5 | 65 achievable New Year's resolutions for 2026. |
| 0:59.8 | Here are the top five New Year's resolutions for 2026. |
| 1:04.6 | Let's kick off the new year ride. |
| 1:06.7 | Here are 60 New Year's Resolutions ideas for 2026. |
| 1:11.3 | Notice something? |
| 1:12.5 | The year wasn't even over. |
| 1:14.7 | People still enjoying the holiday season, still recovering from the year that they |
| 1:20.2 | just finished, but they're already being influenced, pressured, push, made to feel like once again they somehow failed |
| 1:32.9 | 2025. They need to change themselves in the new year. And what exactly do people want to change |
| 1:42.6 | for this year? Well, according to a survey from |
| 1:46.4 | UGov released just last week, 25% want to exercise more, about the same want to be happier, |
... |
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