This New Year, Instead of Resolutions, Set Intentions

After nearly two years of pandemic time, let’s not be so hard on ourselves

It’s that time again for gyms and fitness studios. New members and students, inspired by their New Year’s resolutions, are beginning to flock to the places where they think they’ll find fitter, happier, versions of themselves.

Most gyms and studios offer some sort of incentive to encourage the January “resolutionist” rush. And this new population of clients is important to their bottom line: nearly 11% of gym memberships sold in 2016 were sold in the first month of the year—two points higher than any other month. Of course, before the month is out, many of these new members will abandon the resolutions that got them to the gym in the first place; by the mid-point of the year, 60% will have given up.

And these stats all pre-date the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has zapped many of us of our resolve to begin with…not to mention making the prospect of going to a place where everyone around you will be breathing heavily awfully daunting. It’s too soon to see any definitive data on this, but I suspect that the resolution drop-off in 2020 and 2021 was even steeper than in years past.