A majority of New Year’s resolutions fail in the first six weeks of the new year because they are too vague, not realistic, or were totally reliant on self-motivation. According to insights provided by academic centers, this trend is also seen in students who are attempting to manage the intensity of a given year of medical school. However, most medical students from MS1 through MS4 are short on time, dealing with high stress levels, and still trying to define the best lifestyle goals for pursuing a career in medicine.
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“Ever tried.. Ever failed.. No matter. Try again.. Fail again.. Fail better!”
Samuel Beckett, (1983)
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Generally speaking, the second Friday in January is widely recognized as “Quitter’s Day”, which is when many people choose to abandon their hastily made resolutions. As bad as that sounds, roughly two weeks into 2026, about 80% of resolution setters had given up on their goals. Moreover, roughly 95% of people will put a halt to chasing their resolutions by the end of February. So, the long-term success rate is very low and less than one out of ten medical students will continue to pursue their resolutions throughout the entire year.
“While statistics emphasize that weight loss is often the number one New Year’s resolution for the general population, med students often pivot their resolutions to focus on their studies and personal well-being,” says Dr. Hans Wolf, founder of WOLFPACC’s Physician Achievement Concept Course that’s designed to boost a med student’s potential for high scores on any USLME or COMLEX medical licensing exam. “Organizing their schedule for a given school year to achieve balance for both their school work and student life can help reduce the risk of burnout during the calendar year.”
For starters, experts today are recommending that students shift from defining their resolutions as “all or nothing” to specific functions or habits that are specifically stated; are both relevant and achievable; and are time-bound rather than vaguely left as open-ended. So to position your resolution and reduce unnecessary intensity, set a goal to maintain a consistent study schedule as opposed to “I’m going to study four hours every day.” Plus, sharing your goals with a partner, roommate, or mentor helps to increase the likelihood of success. Then, use February, which is a shorter month that’s less chaotic, to revise and reset.
Test sequences pursued by most med students…
While specific studies on the Quitter’s Day and February Resolution Success Rate Day for med students is quite limited, resolutions for many students has shifted from exercising more and losing weight to academic optimization that focuses on student study habits and prep courses for medical board exams. After all, both USMLE Step 1 and COMLEX Level 1 licensing exams are most often taken near the end of spring semester at the end of MS2 and before starting their clinical rotations.
In addition, board exams must be successfully completed in numerical order and students often prefer to take a “dedicated study block” just before or right after a summer session. COMLEX Level 2-CE is usually taken during the third or fourth year of medical school for osteopathic students. Most students sit for the Level 2 exam in early summer once they have finished their core clinical rotations after their sixth semester. USMLE Step 2 CK is generally taken after the third-year clinical rotations between May and July, right before or during the student’s fourth year of medical school.
Reframe Mindset from Perfection to Resilience
Instead of accepting the failure seen on Quitter’s Day, medical students can benefit by rebranding the second Friday of January as an adapter’s day. A day devoted to evaluating one’s New Year’s resolution that may already be failing by the end of the second week. Habit stacking is a common strategy for success that allows students to pivot their efforts rather than blame failure on their shortcomings. After all, resolutions must show resilience due to demanding study loads, and it’s never easy to just attach a new goal to a student’s daily routines.
Psychologically and behaviorally, failures most often stem from core pitfalls. Here is a breakdown of why resolutions during med school often fail:
- a) Unrealistic Resolution Goals: Setting overly ambitious goals leads to burnout and quick abandonment.
- b) Intent Is Too Vague: Hastily stated goals often lack the specific, actionable steps needed, which makes them difficult to measure or track.
- c) Resolution Without an Action Plan: Students often quickly set a goal but do nothing to plan the daily changes required to achieve it.
- d) All-or-Nothing Mindset: A single setback, such as missing a study day, is viewed as total failure, causing students to give up completely.
- e) Relying on Willpower Alone: Motivation is temporary. Without building routines, resolutions start to fail once enthusiasm wanes.
- f) Negative Self Input: Resolutions driven by self-criticism or negative self-perception are less sustainable than positive, growth-oriented goals.
- g) Wrong Timing for Optimal Success: January can be a high-stress exhausting time, which is not ideal for starting difficult, long-term behavioral changes.
Instead of focusing on the final result as a poorly defined resolution, making successful lifestyle changes during medical school requires focusing on small, incremental changes to one’s identity rather than trying to force major behavioral changes. Early on, medical students often assume motivation will stay high all year, but in reality, motivation is fleeting, which allows them to revert back to old habits once stress and fatigue hits. That’s why experts recommend starting with simply-stated resolutions that are nearly impossible to skip.
Setting Data-Driven SMART Goals
Forty-five years ago in the November issue of Management Review, George Doran’s paper titled “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to set goals and define the objectives” for resolutions of change. Doran emphasized the importance of setting clear goals by arguing the value in balancing quantifiable objectives with more abstract goals to formulate an action plan for each step or level. This allows a medical student to integrate objectives into their daily plan.
SPECIFIC: Targeting a particular area for improvement. Defines exactly what needs to be achieved, who is involved and what steps are needed.
MEASURABLE: Quantifying, or at least suggesting, an indicator of progress that allows a student to know when a given goal is met.
ASSIGNABLE: Defining responsibility clearly ensures the medical student’s goals are both challenging and attainable with available resources.
REALISTIC: Outlining attainable results with available resources aligns a student’s resolutions with their overall strategies for life as a doctor.
TIME-RELATED: Including a timeline for expected results establishes a clear timeframe with a proper sense of urgency for better accountability.
“Making positive changes during your four years of medical school will not happen overnight and should never depend upon willpower alone,” adds Dr. Wolf. “That’s why it is important to create routines that will work with how your brain best forms new lifestyle habits. After all, missing a day is not failure, it’s just a normal setback.” As the Irish literary critic Samuel Beckett had suggested over five decades ago, setting yourself up for success is all about starting small, making necessary changes along the way, celebrating your progress, and never giving up by learning how to FAIL BETTER.
Photo credit Georges Tomazou (pexels.com)
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Every year of medical school, It is important for students to strive for success at each phase of training. Since a medical student’s program takes so much of his or her time to become a full-fledged, licensed doctor, Dr. Hans Wolf developed the WOLFPACC Physicians Achievement Concept Course. It is purposefully designed to provide allopathic (USMLE) and osteopathic (COMLEX-USA) students with a powerful approach for not only passing their board exams but for successfully practicing medicine for a lifetime. If you are a medical student or IMG who wants (or needs) to score well on any Step or Level of medical licensing examinations, Dr. Wolf and his team look forward to helping you reach your career goals.
