How to approach New Year’s Resolutions: Think of them New Year’s goals instead

January 21, 2022 — by Howard Shu
Too many people try to snap immediately into fulfilling their often unrealistic or vague new year’s resolutions on Jan. 1, which leads to early burnout.

Near the end of 2020, I was pondering what my New Year’s resolution should be when it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to stop going to sleep at 1:30 a.m. and finally fix my messed up sleep schedule. Though I hadn’t changed my sleep schedule at all for the week of break before New Years, I thought I could finally make it happen with the extra motivation boost that comes with a classic New Year’s resolution.

With my newfound resolve, I was able to successfully change my habits and started to sleep at 12:30 a.m. or earlier — until Jan. 4, whereupon I promptly reverted to my previous bad habits. 

Many of us are guilty of making failed New Year’s resolutions. This is because we all too often demand too much of ourselves in too short of a time period. While this approach can be beneficial for the most disciplined, it is usually more effective to approach new year’s resolutions not as resolutions, but as new year’s goals.

The word “resolution” implies that once the new year hits, people can have the power to immediately improve their lives, whether by going to the gym, fixing their sleep schedule or spending more time with family.

Most people might be able to stick with their New Year’s resolutions for a few days before they stop wanting to deal with the adversity of breaking an old habit or making a new one.

For example, if someone’s New Year’s resolution is to start working out, it’s  likely that they’d try to go to the gym every day or every other day only for the first few days of the new year. For many, this is not a sustainable plan, especially if that person has a history of previously failed attempts.

If someone isn’t able to break a bad habit or make a good habit during the rest of the year, there is no reason to believe they could succeed at it just because it is a new year.

Another reason New Year’s resolutions often fail is that they are often vague, unrealistic and not measurable. For example, someone might say they want to eat healthier or be a nicer person for the new year, but not come up with any way to track and ensure their progress.

There’s no clear way to measure success in keeping such vague resolutions, which is why they often don’t actually change anything for more than a few days. If the goal isn’t clear, it’s hard to stay focused on working toward it.

A better approach is to create specific, measurable goals to work toward. This allows more time for people to get mentally prepared, set aside time in their schedule and work their way up after starting with a lesser load.

Instead of saying that you want to “work out more,”  it is more effective to slowly build up to working out regularly by the end of a few months or a year rather than making a resolution to jump immediately into working out with no specific goal.

For example, you might make a goal to consistently go to a local gym to work out for at least 45 minutes every other day by the end of three months. This is a quantifiable and achievable goal, and a plan to reach the goal might start off with working out twice a week for 30 minutes for the first month, then ramping up after every month until reaching the goal by the fourth month.

A plan such as this avoids early burnout by allowing you to start slower and have more time to get used to the pain and soreness that comes with working out.

As long as people keep goals for the new year in mind and make it a priority for themselves, they’ll have a good shot at achieving it.

Making goals at the start of every year is good, but nothing is magical about the turning over of a calendar between years. Improvements can and should be made as soon as possible. The new year is just a good time to remind people to make new goals to work towards. 

New Year’s resolutions are fun to mess around with and are well intentioned, but they have gained a reputation of not being practical for actually changing habits. Instead of making resolutions, forming goals to achieve in the new year is much more effective in getting people focused on what they want to achieve and what their priorities are.

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