A Solution to your ny's resolution

by Esaw Adhana, Reporter

Culture

3… 2… 1… HAPPY NEW YEAR! Even though 2023 has just begun and so much has already happened — from fourteen Speaker of the House votes to a new honeybee vaccine, many of us have already broken our resolution for this year (or never set one to begin with). So, the question that I sought out to address as we kicked off the new year was: Why is that? Are we setting goals that are unrealistic for us to reach, or are we just so apathetic and lazy that no matter what, we are doomed to fail? Maybe it’s a mixture of both. Regardless, I set out on a quest to answer this question and describe the steps you can take to create, stick to, and fulfill your New Year’s Resolution.

 A study from Scranton University revealed that although 77% of participants maintained their resolutions for the first week, this number dropped to a meager 19% two years later. They documented fourteen “slips” (direct breaks in resolution) on average across the twenty-four months, usually caused by a “lack of personal control, excessive stress, and negative emotion” (Norcross and Vangarelli). When people set goals without real thought or intention, they are bound to fail. Here’s how to improve your resolution: just be SMART.

By “be SMART”, I mean making your goals SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely). The acronym, popularized by George Doran, a former Director of Corporate Planning for Washington Water Power Company, helps highlight some of the most important criteria to help reach any objective in life at any scale. 

Specific refers to making sure the resolution has a clear goal in mind. There is a clear “destination” that you are trying to reach. For example, saying, “I want to go to the gym three times per week every week” is better than, “I want to exercise more.” According to a statement from psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert, setting overly vague goals is one of the biggest reasons that people fail their resolution.

Measurable refers to making a goal trackable — a good resolution should allow you to constantly track your progress. For example, saying, “I want to run a faster mile” is good, but, “I want to time myself and run a sub-eight minute mile” is better because you are able to accurately assess how you are doing on every run (creating an incentive to do better).

Attainable and Realistic go hand-in-hand, but they are both super important in making goals. We hold high standards for ourselves, but this makes us push ourselves too hard. When we set goals that are out-of-reach, it demotivates us, thereby making us more likely to quit. For example, if your goal revolves around making money or being more financially secure, it’s critical to evaluate how much you can realistically spend and save.

Timely can simply refer to having a deadline for your goal, which, for most resolutions, will be December 31st (but it doesn’t have to be!). I also like to think of it as setting mini-deadlines for each step. As I mentioned with the Measurable criteria, you should be able to track your goals with daily, weekly, or even monthly boxes to check off and help keep you on track. 

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the various authors in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Kamiak High School or The Gauntlet. 

Sources

Abadi, Mark. “A Psychotherapist Says There Are 3 Common Reasons so Many People’s New Year’s Resolutions End in Failure.” Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/new-years-resolutions-failure-advice-jonathan-alpert-2018-12. Accessed 28 Dec. 2022.

Doran, George. There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management Goals and Objectives. 1981, https://community.mis.temple.edu/mis0855002fall2015/files/2015/10/S.M.A.R.T-Way-Management-Review.pdf.

Norcross, J C, and D J Vangarelli. “The resolution solution: longitudinal examination of New Year's change attempts.” Journal of substance abuse vol. 1,2 (1988): 127-34. doi:10.1016/s0899-3289(88)80016-6