With the new year approaching, many of us decide to make resolutions. Considering our personal and professional goals, we think we might better meet our objectives by starting fresh on January 1. Yet, it’s easy to resolve to make changes, but much more difficult to sustain the effort. This article shares strategies to help make resolutions stick by turning our big ideas into routine, tangible actions.
Resolutions don’t last — for many of us
Research into resolutions suggests only 9 percent of Americans carry through. Some 23 percent of people only make it a week; 43 percent quit within a month. This, obviously, defeats the purpose of setting a resolution.
Still, before we get to the how-to, let’s first look at what psychology tells us about why resolutions fail (see what we did there, you didn’t fail…the resolution did). Common reasons include the following:
- Setting a goal because it is December 31 isn’t the greatest motivation. It’s an arbitrary day on the calendar. It doesn’t necessarily indicate you actually feel a need to make a change or pursue an objective.
- People set goals that are too big. Instead of picking something small and straightforward you might pick something broad and sweeping. You might make the resolution to “eat healthier” or “be more collaborative at work.” But those are pretty abstract ideas.
- Your goals should shift as you evolve and grow. Over the course of a year your circumstances and priorities may change. A year-long resolution doesn’t offer flexibility.
- You set goals because others around you are doing so. You like the idea of making a fresh start. But you haven’t really thought about why you’re making a certain resolution and how it will reward you. Without this reflection, the resolution feels less critical. When you face an obstacle (e.g., you’ve resolved to work out five days a week but you have to stay late at work one night and miss your class), you lack the motivation to overcome that challenge.
Those are just a few explanations for why humans have such a hard time with resolutions. You may have others. But, let’s turn instead to the strategies that can help you approach your resolutions differently.
Resolutions to improve quality of life
One big piece of advice for people making resolutions? Break major goals into smaller ones. For example, you might decide to learn a new skill for work. That’s a big project. So, you might set yourself the task of researching programs that offer that skill by the end of January and enrolling in a program by the end of February. This gives you milestones along the way that you can measure against throughout the year.
It’s also important to select a resolution that really matters to you. UC Davis’s health experts suggest “be picky about your resolutions.” Choosing too many things to change can be overwhelming. Reflect on what you want to achieve and why it matters to you, then select one or two specific things you can achieve.
You might recognize the two ideas above if you’ve ever read about SMART goals. We’ve covered specific and relevant (and a little bit of the time-bound). It’s also important to set something that is achievable. Say you want to quit smoking. It can help to research how long it takes the average person to beat the craving. Then, you can set a resolution for an achievable timeframe.
Tracking your progress can help your motivation, and that’s going to be easier with measurable goals. Instead of simply saying, “I want to exercise more,” you’d say “I want to exercise for at least 20 minutes three times a week.” Then, you might download a fitness app to track progress or simply go old school and start a notebook in which you record what you did and when. To create a stable habit, it can help to journal or have some other way of tracking your progress.
Another strategy? Turn the steps you need to take to reach your resolution goal into a routine. Making something a routine grounds it in habit and helps you achieve incremental change.
Consistency is key
Psychology research tells us it’s a lot easier to change our goals and intentions than it is to change how we behave. So, making a resolution into a routine is critical to success.
Apparently it takes 66 days to form a habit. That’s what a 2009 study found. Let’s hope that 15 years later, we’ve shaved some of that time off (after all, in 2009, people thought 5 Mbps was fast Internet. Today we have 500 Mbps).
Regardless, whether it takes you 66 days or less, here are six tips to help you establish your new routine:
- Try to be consistent with time. If you want to improve work-life balance and spend more time with family in 2025, plan a time that works for all of you. Maybe this means planning to leave work by 5 every Tuesday and Thursday.
- Be prepared to do what you want to do. If you want to eat healthier lunches at work, research recipes and get all the ingredients you’ll need to prep those meals in advance.
- Add the element of fun where you can. This might mean inviting friends to do it with you (which also helps with accountability). Or making a playlist you will enjoy listening to on your daily walk. Or finding an audiobook you’ll want to listen to when you finally sort through those boxes of files you keep carting from office to office.
- Plan ahead to anticipate scenarios that might derail your efforts. If you’re trying to lose 5 pounds by the end of February, but you have several work dinners to attend in the next eight weeks, you can research the restaurant menu for healthier options beforehand. Or make a plan to work the gym or other exercise into your schedule.
- Reward yourself when you meet one of your mini milestones. This can help you to keep your motivation up. For example, if you wanted to get into a routine of clearing out your inbox each day, you might reward yourself with a lunch out of the office when you meet your goal 14 days in a row.
- Forgive yourself if you falter. It’s easy to give up when life gets unpredictable and your attempt to establish a routine gets derailed. Instead, acknowledge that you got off track but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep going. If you are continually stumbling, it might indicate you need to revisit your plan, the schedule you’re trying to keep, or even the resolution itself.
If you are continually stumbling, it might indicate you need to revisit your plan, the schedule you’re trying to keep, or even the resolution itself.
Ready, set, resolve and routine
This article has demonstrated there should be a lot more involved in making a resolution than just saying “I’m going to do X.” By reflecting on a goal that matters, making a plan, and working to establish a routine around that objective you can achieve a lot more.
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