5 tips to achieve New Year’s resolutions

Happy New Year! At the end of each year, many of us make resolutions and set goals for the New Year. Health, fitness and wellbeing resolutions tend to be the most popular ones: we resolve to exercise more, eat healthier, drink less, quit smoking and so on. Come the 1st of January, we have the best intentions to achieve these goals. Yet, a year later few can share a success story. According to a recent Australian survey, 2 in 3 people failed their New Year’s resolutions.

Instead of examining the reasons for failing, let’s focus on those for succeeding, and identify 5 tips to make it more likely to achieve our resolutions and goals for 2019.

Tip 1: Set SMART goals and resolutions

Setting the right kind of goals is a key ingredient for success. But, what is the right kind of goals? As a Psychiatrist, I often encourage people to focus on a specific problem and then set SMART goals to resolve that problem. The SMART acronym has several variations; here is the one I use:

S- specific
M- measurable
A– achievable
R- realistic
T- time-specific

S for Specific

SMART goals first have to be clear and well defined (specific). For example, losing weight is not a specific goal; losing an x amount of weight, however, is clear, well defined and specific. Reading more is not a specific goal either; reading a book a week (my New Year’s resolution for 2019) is.

M for Measurable

Second, SMART goals have to be measurable and quantifiable. In other words, there has to be a way to know whether we have reached that goal or not. For instance, weight loss and the number of books read are both measurable; being healthier or happier is neither specific nor measurable.

A for Achievable & R for Realistic

Then, SMART goals have to be achievable and realistic. Now, I have grouped these two together, as I’ve always found it hard to distinguish between achievable and realistic, and I want to keep goal-setting as simple as possible. The way I see it, for goals to be achievable, there has to be a positive answer to the question: Can I achieve this goal? For goals to be realistic, we need to take into account the availability of resources, knowledge, skills, cost and time (I’ll talk about the latter in more detail next). In other words, we should be able to answer the question: How can I achieve this goal?

For instance, learning a foreign language is not achievable (therefore not realistic) within a year. However, learning the basics is both achievable and realistic (but not quite as specific). Passing a language exam within a year can make this goal specific and measurable. For me, reading a book a week is both achievable and realistic as long as I have access to a library or a bookshop.

T for Time-specific

Last but not least, SMART goals ought to be time-specific. New Year’s resolutions are by definition time-specific. We resolve to achieve a goal within the next 365 days. Now, a lot of these goals are not one-off events, but regular habits. This allows us to monitor our progress at regular intervals, i.e. on a monthly basis (see tip 5). This, of course, depends on the nature of the goal (it can easily be done if the goal is to read one book a week, but it’s not as straight-forward is the goal is to learn a language), but also on the flexibility we want to allow ourselves. I believe that most goals will be achieved if we allow for moderate flexibility.

Tip 2: Share your goals and resolutions

According to the Ozzies, out of those who achieved their New Year’s resolutions, three in four reported that sharing their goals helped reach them. Sharing our goals, therefore making ourselves accountable, increases the likelihood of committing to our resolutions and ultimately reaching our goals.

It also allows for a support network. Having a support network will increase our chances of success even further. A few years ago, my resolution was to exercise on a regular basis. However, I’ve always found exercising boring and rarely felt motivated to hit the gym. To help me reach my goal, I shared it with a friend, who would often ask about my progress. Since I wanted to neither lie nor quit, I simply had to stick to my goal. This year, I hold myself accountable by publicly declaring my New Year’s resolution.

Tip 3: Start small

Being over-ambitious with your goals is akin to setting yourself for failure. When it comes to goal setting, there are two things we need to pay attention to.

First, the number of goals we set; too many and we risk not achieving any of them. Reading one book a week is a SMART goal for me. But, if I were to set 10 such goals, then they wouldn’t be achievable (and therefore not SMART), as they would be competing against each other for my time.

Second, the goals ought to be within reach (achievable). A few years ago, I resolved to be reading one book a month. Last year, I read more than two books a month, so I know that my new goal is within my reach.

I have previously written about the concept of the ‘aggregation of marginal gains’. Dave Brailsford, the cycling coach and manager of Team Sky, explains the marginal gains as ‘the 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do’. The doctrine of marginal gains is all about small incremental improvements in any process adding up to a significant improvement when they are all added together. Brailsford’s belief is that if every area related to cycling improves by just 1 percent, then those small gains would add up to remarkable improvement.

I believe that the same approach can also be applied to goals. For instance, exercising for an hour every day a week won’t be easy to achieve for someone who does not exercise regularly. But, going for a 10-minute walk 4 days a week is much easier to achieve. Once this is achieved, both the amount of time spent walking and the frequency of the activity can be gradually increased.

Tip 4: Have a plan

A new goal can often seem daunting especially once the enthusiasm wears off (which can happen much sooner than you think). Circumstances get on the way, motivation levels drop, and the temptation to quit may be too difficult to resist. Having a plan, however, may be a good way to keep us on track. Rather than relying on remembering our goal, or finding the time or the motivation, it is much better to plan our steps in advance; this will help turn our goal to a habit, and this will make it easier to continue. For example, my goal of reading one book a week may seem quite daunting at a first glance. However, my plan is to read on my daily commute to work (2 hours a day x 4 times a week = 8 hours of reading a week).

Tip 5: Keep track and review your goals and resolutions

Finally, it is important to keep track of your progress towards reaching your goal. I personally prefer keeping an old-fashioned diary (with the books that I read). Last but not least, at the end of the year, I reflect on the year gone by, review my progress and re-set my goals for the next year.

To follow my travels around the world, simply subscribe to the Traveling Psychiatrist (just click on the menu on the left hand side).

Happy New Year and good luck with your New Year’s resolutions!

Alex

(the Traveling Psychiatrist)

P.S. A shorter version of this post was first published on the Psychreg blog.