How to Succeed at Goal Setting (aka New Year Resolutions)
Empty bullet points on new year resolution page
New Year resolutions and goals are one and the same! With the arrival of the New Year, there is an onslaught of resolutions to “do better” at life. It might be related to your personal health and fitness, use of social media, or, your professional situation. Maybe it’s time to take active steps to find a new career path. Or, simply enrich the path you are on. Whatever the goal (aka resolution) we all struggle to stick with the determination of January 01. In my work as a career coach, I spend a lot of time helping clients identify their goals and then map out a path to achieve them.
According to Forbes Health, in a survey of US adults completed in December 2023, the top resolution for 2024 was improved physical and mental health fitness. What astonished me is that in that same survey, only 20% of respondents reported keeping themselves accountable when trying to stick with their resolutions. More on that later.
Why is it that making behavior change is so difficult? How do we change what might seem like a lofty idea to a concrete goal?
Success at achieving your New Year resolutions or ANY goals depends on being SMART. This is a widely used acronym related to goals and behavior change. The letters stand for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Without these criteria, our long-standing (or default), comfortable behaviors and priorities, re-emerge and doom our efforts to succeed.
My success with personal and professional goal setting has been a mixed bag (I’ve never been a New Year resolution fan). Let me use a recent goal as an example. As with any profession, keeping current with the literature is an ongoing challenge. For years, my intention to spend 2 hours each Friday for scholarly journal reading were often sabotaged by end-of-the-week higher priorities. Instead, I’d spend 20-30 minutes whenever I could squeeze it in during a busy week of parenting, working, and taking care of my physical and mental health.
Recently I set a goal to spend time each day reading a book related to entrepreneurship. To accomplish this, I went through the SMART process beforehand.
Specific
First, I had to decide that this was a high enough priority. Was I willing to actively take steps to incorporate this new behavior into my routine? After all, 30 minutes out of an already busy workday was possibly a bit lofty. Convinced that I had the resolve to stick with a goal related to moving my business forward, I set a specific goal: to devote 30 minutes each weekday to read a book (not a journal article).
Before settling on that goal, I had to consider what barriers might get in the way of focused reading for 30 minutes each weekday? And what did I need to do to remove or minimize them? For me, it meant identifying a time during the day when I would be most likely to sit and read without distraction. To help cement the behavior, I attached it to an existing routine – while sipping my morning coffee, I would sit and read. Just read. No music, no laptop or phone nearby. Just the book, a light (since in northern New England it is still dark at my designated reading time), a quiet place to sit, and of course, coffee. You might wonder – what did I let go of? What was the trade-off? For me, less time spent reading the daily news online. That switch has forced me to be more selective about what I read when I am catching up on the news.
To help make your goal specific, consider:
What will you (the who) do and by when?
Where will the effort happen?
How will it happen?
Why does this matter?
Measurable
The value of having your goals measurable is that you can track your process and hold yourself accountable. Identify how you will measure your progress. What criteria or indicators will you use? In my example, this was pretty clear cut. By the time I was preparing my breakfast, I either had or had not been reading. It is also easy to track my progress at the end of each week. It is a measurable goal.
Why is it important to measure, or track, your progress? Achieving goals provides a sense of satisfaction, or positive feedback; in other words, a reward. That reinforces the likelihood that the change resulting in achievement of your goals is sustainable.
Some people find it helpful to enlist the support of a buddy to hold them accountable by scheduling a regular check-in on your progress. Others hire a coach. Simple Health Partners is here to help you. Choose whatever system works for you.
Achievable
Do you have the resources needed to attain your goal? Do you have the required knowledge and skills? Do you have the time, money and/or equipment? Check – I had everything in place to makes this an achievable goal. The biggest barrier had been establishing a routine and sticking with it. The temptation was great to scroll through news feeds in the early morning while drinking coffee. To enhance the likelihood that I would sit down and read each morning, I had the current read on the couch waiting for me the next morning. And before I got out of bed, I would remind myself of the commitment to change my early morning routine.
Relevant
Why is this goal important? How invested in achieving the goal are you? How will it change your current situation? Having recently joined the world of entrepreneurship after a career of leadership in state government and academia, I need to acquire new knowledge and skills; mostly the language of business and using online media platforms. Moving my consulting business forward matters a lot to me. So carving out time for focused reading is highly relevant. Think about your goals and/or New Year resolutions. How important are they to you? How will achieving the goal make your life better?
Time-bound
Here is the question – by when will you have done what? Rather than set a goal to read a certain number of entrepreneurship- or business-related books each month (for me a formula for failure), it is far more realistic for me to put the goal in the time-bound context of minutes each day and which days of the week. I like to reserve my weekend morning reading for personal and pleasure material, not professional content.
Re-visit Your New Year Resolution (aka goal)
Now, step back and look at your New Year resolution(s), or better still – a goal that you have set for yourself. Does it meet the SMART criteria? What have been your biggest challenges when trying to achieve goals? If you need some assistance with your goal setting and/or accountability, contact us Simple Health Partners.