Three Mistakes to Avoid This Year

An article about New Year’s resolutions this time of the year is like holiday music. Some people love it, some people hate it. And by the end of the season, everyone hates it. But just like holiday music, which nobody likes to play in March, this is the only time we can talk about them and remind ourselves why.

Resolutions are promises we make to ourselves that next year we will be different in some way. We will experience growth, improvement, and other good things. The cheerleaders will give you information about how to make your goals stick this year. The cynics will tell you should give up or not even bother with setting resolutions since they are doomed to fail. However, when you look at the research more closely, the evidence suggests that the people who make resolutions and commit to them are also the ones who achieve them. People who successfully achieve their goals tend to avoid making these three mistakes:

1. Too many. Setting too many goals at once, especially if these goals are new additions to your life, is risky. New and important goals may require a significant degree of change in habits, a significant amount of knowledge and willpower, and significant engagement in monitoring. Because there are already several ongoing goals in your life, adding a large number of resolutions will make it easier to forget them, neglect them, or abandon them. What is an optimal number? My recommendation is three goals in three different life domains (for example, one goal about physical health, one goal about social life, and one goal about professional development).
2. Too vague. A cursory search suggests that the most favorite goals, the ones that make the top lists consistently year after year, include exercising more, eating healthier, and reading more books. These goals sound clear but they are extremely vague. “This year I’d like to exercise more” could mean anything from I will work out one day more this year than last year to I will add variety to my workouts to I will prepare for competitive races. To avoid being vague in your goals, use a system like SMART to make your goals more specific, and therefore more achievable. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. This method could be a litmus test for the success potential of your resolution.
3. Too frivolous. The whole process of setting resolutions is marked with a sense of lightheartedness and frivolity. We may set our goals among friends and family and between wine and dessert. We may choose goals that are generally appealing but they have no real grounding. We may create a goal, just to fill in the blank, which will make it easily forgettable. To put forth the effort and honor the commitment to a goal that we make for ourselves, it is important to choose wisely. Take the time to think about the type of change or addition that you would like to make in your life. Choose something that will challenge you and take you out of your comfort zone, even if for just an inch or two.

There are many benefits to setting New Year’s resolutions, and nothing special about them. Resolutions are just like any other goal we set. However, the end of the current year, and the beginning of a new one, provides almost a natural time marker to reset the clock, revisit our goals, and rewrite some of that life narrative that we have been struggling with and hoping to change.