Never Make Another New Year's Resolution: A Better Way to Reset for 2027

NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Most Americans have already given up on resolutions. In a new book, author and TEDx speaker Jobert E. Abueva offers what comes next: a simple practice to begin the new year by looking back first. 

Every December, millions of people promise that January 1 will be the day they finally change their lives. 

Yet, most of those promises fade within weeks, and a growing number of Americans have stopped trying altogether: in a YouGov survey last December, only 31 percent said they planned to make a resolution for 2026. 

But giving up on resolutions has left a gap. People still want a fresh start. They just need a better way to make one. 

Author, TEDx speaker, and global marketing executive Jobert E. Abueva believes he has found it. In his SUCCESS Magazine personal development bestseller, The Janus Plan: A No-Resolutions Path to Begin Your Year with Intention (Weaving Influence Press), he offers a practical alternative that readers can use this New Year's Eve and at every threshold after it.

Instead of rushing to reinvent yourself on January 1, Abueva says, take time to understand what the past year taught you before deciding what comes next.  

"The problem with most resolutions is that they're focused on the future before we've made sense of the past," says Abueva. "Resolutions don't fail because people lack willpower. They fail because we skip a step. Get the order right, and you never need another resolution." 

The plan is named after Janus, the Roman god with two faces who looks both forward and backward. His name provides the Latin origin of the first month of the year: January. For thousands of years, New Year traditions around the world began by looking back: the Babylonian Akitu festival, the ten days of reflection that follow Rosh Hashanah, the house cleaning before Nowruz. Abueva argues that modern resolutions dropped that step, and that bringing it back changes everything that follows. 

His reset, at a minimum, offers this path:  

1. Look back. Answer three questions in writing: What worked this year? What do I need to leave behind? What did this year try to teach me? 
2. Choose one word. Instead of a list of goals, pick a single word to guide the year ahead, such as steady, brave or curious. 
3. Take one small step. Do one six-minute action in the next 24 hours that puts that word into practice. 

The Janus Plan works at any threshold—career transitions, relationship changes, retirement, burnout and personal reinvention—so the reset that readers start this New Year's Eve can carry them through every turning point that follows.

The no-resolution path begins at joberteabueva.com.

For media inquiries: Kaitlin Mark — [email protected]

SOURCE Jobert E. Abueva