At the end of every year, many people will evaluate their last 365 days and look towards the next year as an opportunity to change, grow, learn, and improve. New Year’s resolutions are often made but rarely kept and for those that do, there is some research behind why it works.

A large study published in 2020 with over 1000 participants determined what type of resolutions and goal setting were more effective for success. The key to New Year’s resolutions is really simple but does require a different mindset for setting them.

The 2020 Study: Unveiling the Secret to Successful Resolutions

A comprehensive study from 2020 examined over 1,000 individuals to determine effective resolution strategies. The findings suggest a simple yet surprising key to successful goal setting. The study separated individuals into three groups. The first two were given to choice of their New Year’s resolution. The third group was taught about effective goal setting and instructed to avoid any restrictive goals such as not eating sugar or not staying up past 10. After 1 year the researchers found that individuals in group three had a 58% success rate of keeping their New Year’s resolution compared to 47% of those in the other groups. Why was this successful? Well, there are a few important parts to how the goals were set.

Approach vs. Avoidance Goals: A Paradigm Shift

First, when the third group was asked to create their goals the participants were instructed to only create additive or approach goals. These are New Year’s resolutions that involve adding a positive healthy habit. Things such as adding a 30-minute walk to each day or drinking a gallon of water each day. When we avoid things, we tend to think of or ruminate on the restriction rather than the growth.

The Power of SMART Goals

The second important aspect of the third group is how they set their goals. SMART goals are a method of goal setting that has shown great success. While the New Year’s resolutions are healthy additions, the goals are not lofty or overly complicated. SMART goals help you organize the process and help with accountability. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Oriented. Let’s break this down a bit more.

Below is another way to consider your goals with a list of questions:

1. How specific is your goal? There are good goals and there are great goals but there are never any bad goals. For example, “I want to get healthy” is a great goal but it is not specific. Same with “I want to lose 30 pounds” is a great goal but it too is unspecific. Smaller steps make a big difference. Goals setting here is more like the ToDo list.
2. How do you know you are reaching your goal? There is a lot of debate on how often you should weigh yourself. A lot of people watch the scale to measure success. Unfortunately, this is bad personal parenting. While the weight is important what should be recognized are the successful steps you have taken. This is how we measure. Every goal should always be measurable. This means we use numbers like keeping track of ounces of water, times we worked out, or hours of sleep. If the goal is to “get healthy” these are the ways we measure the change.
3. Are you capable of achieving your goal? This one gets a bit confusing because it is similar to a goal being realistic. Is the goal you’re setting in a timeline possible with the skills and resources you have? For example, ” I want to lose 20 pounds in a month” is a lot different than wanting to lose 5 pounds in a month with your current lifestyle. Another could be “I want to travel to Paris this year” but you don’t have any vacation time. This too is unnattainable.
4. How realistic are your goals? Working two jobs and raising a family might keep you from working out every day with your busy schedule. This is where personal honesty comes into play. The bonus here is that goals can grow. If you start by adding two workouts a week, you might find that you are more motivated to arrange your schedule so you can add one more after a few weeks. If your goal is not realistic then you are setting yourself up for failure.
5. How much time are going to need? This is a tricky one because we often think a New Year’s resolution comes to a close by the end of the year. But in reality, we are better off setting shorter incremental goals than long-term goals. So if I want to “get healthy” I can add those pesky vegetables each day for one week. Then after a week evaluate what kept this from happening and make new goals or challenge yourself with even more goals.

Pitfalls of Goal Setting

Based on the orientation of SMART Goals for New Year’s resolutions, there are some things to think about. Vague goals are real resolution killers. When we can’t get specific then we are more likely to procrastinate on our goal. They can also be rather disappointing. Another important part of setting goals is letting someone know what you are doing. This provides accountability and can help you determine the reality of your goal.

The Golden Ticket of SMART Goals

Almost everything I do with my clients in therapy is working on some form of goal. The most important part of a goal is evaluating if it worked. While we can take a New Year’s resolution and turn it into a series of SMART Goals, they’re useless if we don’t make modifications over time.

The best questions to ask when you get to the end of your time-oriented goal is did the goal work? If the answer is no it is not a sign of failure but a place of growth. Evaluating goals to determine why they were not successful is the cornerstone of living. We learn from failure and failure develops creativity.

Another question to ask is “What did I do to make the goal work?” There may be something we did differently that we can add to other goals. The point is that we always want to review both failures and successes to move forward.

The Power of Support

While we can create New Year’s resolutions and apply SMART goals all day long, one of the most significant factors is getting the support you need. Finding a partner to work out with is helpful. Setting goals to accomplish with a friend is fun. And if the change you need is related to your mental health, going to therapy is a great option. I work with a lot of people to find the right type of goal. It is the cornerstone of therapy. If there is no direction then you are not really going to therapy. Going to a therapist does not mean you have depression or anxiety. Therapy can help with procrastination too. Starting a New Year’s resolution can happen on any day and using SMART goals with additive habits is a win.

If you want to learn more, please reach out and we can discuss. I wish you all the best on your New Year’s resolution regardless if it is January 1 or December 31.