An Alternative to Your Failure Bound New Year Resolution

Like nearly everyone at this time of year, I am spending time reflecting on the past year. Taking time to appreciate the positives, but also considering the negatives. Reflection is an important task for all of us and the new year seems like the perfect time to do it with promises of a fresh start and an opportunity to change. But here is the thing, I am not a fan of the age old “New Year Resolution” mindset.

There are a few reasons why I do not love the idea of New Year Resolutions, but mainly that they set people up to fail. Most resolutions are sweeping initiatives to keep all year long and are phrased in a very general way. One that comes to mind is, “I am going to work out everyday in 2022.” What does this mean? Is it realistic? I would say no. Inevitably, there is going to be one day where the prospect of working out simply is not going to happen due to family priorities or a long workday. This leads to another issue with the idea of a resolution. If you set this goal of doing something every single day and you miss a day, you are more likely to give up on it entirely and abandon the objective. Resolutions can often times be treated like excuses. In October, someone might say they are not going to work on that goal until the New Year since that is his or her resolution. This delays the opportunity to start working toward improvement now.
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Finally, a resolution is rarely a SMART goal. I am personally a big advocate for setting SMART goals. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. By setting broad declarations for the start of the year, you typically are not setting yourself up for success. Is your resolution an attainable goal? How are you measuring success? Now I realize that this is a harsh criticism on resolutions, and this is not a “one size fits all” scenario. If resolutions work for you, that is fantastic, and you should not feel in any way obligated to change that. But, if you have trouble sticking to your resolutions, I have a proposal on how to switch it up and set yourself up for success.

Toss out the idea of creating a resolution and create goals for yourself—SMART goals. Don’t make a goal that has to last the entire year. Structure quarterly goals that you can review and adapt. The shorter interval is likely to help you enable success. Instead of “work out every day,” you can start with making sure you go on a fifteen-minute walk before work three times per week until March because you know that is time available to you. You might realize you actually have thirty minutes in the morning and can revisit that goal in a couple weeks or months and revise it for the next few months. Maybe you start feeling more in shape and decide to change it to a jog rather than a walk. Regardless, you can build on the shorter-term goal and improve incrementally. We are often conditioned to swing for the fence with our goals, but the reality is, not every goal has to be a homerun.
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The point of this blog is not to completely bash the “New Year Resolution” mentality, but to offer an alternative to reshape how you think about resolutions and goals. I personally know I have had some success with resolutions in the past, but that is rare for me. Setting goals in a different format has helped to be more successful overall in completing both personal and professional challenges. This will also help to avoid delaying goals. You can update your goals whenever you want and do not need to wait until the New Year to try again!