According to the time management firm FranklinCovey, one third
of resolutioners don’t make it past the end of January.
A lot of these resolutions fail because they’re not the right resolutions.
And a resolution may be wrong for one of three main reasons:
- It’s a resolution created based on what someone else (or society) is
telling you to change.
- It’s too vague.
- You don’t have a realistic plan for achieving your resolution.
Your goals should be smart — and SMART. That’s an acronym coined
in the journal Management Review in 1981 for specific, measurable,
achievable, relevant and time-bound. It may work for management,
but it can also work in setting your resolutions, too.
• SPECIFIC
Your resolution should be absolutely clear. “Making a concrete goal is
really important rather than just vaguely saying ‘I want to lose weight.
’ You want to have a goal: How much weight do you want to lose and
at what time interval?” said Katherine L. Milkman, an associate professor
of operations information and decisions at the Wharton School of the
University of Pennsylvania. “Five pounds in the next two months —
that’s going to be more effective.”
• MEASURABLE
This may seem obvious if your goal is a fitness or weight loss related one,
but it’s also important if you’re trying to cut back on something, too.
If, for example, you want to stop biting your nails, take pictures of your
nails over time so you can track your progress in how those nails grow
back out, said Jeffrey Gardere, a psychologist and professor at
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. Logging progress into a journal
or making notes on your phone or in an app designed to help you track
behaviors can reinforce the progress, no matter what your resolution may be.
• ACHIEVABLE
This doesn’t mean that you can’t have big stretch goals. But trying to take
too big a step too fast can leave you frustrated, or affect other areas of your life
to the point that your resolution takes over your life — and both you and your
friends and family flail. So, for example, resolving to save enough money to retire
in five years when you’re 30 years old is probably not realistic, but saving an
extra $100 a month may be. (And if that’s easy, you can slide that number up
to an extra $200, $300 or $400 a month).
• RELEVANT
Is this a goal that really matters to you, and are you making it for the right reasons?
“If you do it out of the sense of self-hate or remorse or a strong passion in that
moment, it doesn’t usually last long,” said Dr. Michael Bennett, a psychiatrist and
co-author of two self-help books. “But if you build up a process where you’re thinking
harder about what’s good for you, you’re changing the structure of your life,
you’re bringing people into your life who will reinforce that resolution, then
I think you have a fighting chance.”
• TIME-BOUND
Like “achievable,” the timeline toward reaching your goal should be realistic, too.
That means giving yourself enough time to do it with lots of smaller intermediate
goals set up along the way. “Focus on these small wins so you can make gradual
progress,”Charles Duhigg, author of “The Power of Habit” and a former New York
Times writer, said. “If you’re building a habit, you’re planning for the next decade,
not the next couple of months.
