It is common for people to ring in the new year by creating a list of habits, experiences, or overall changes that they want to establish over the next twelve months. We call them resolutions and people always seem eager to share their lists.
These lists are usually related to weight, finances, reading habits, etc.
- “I’m going to lose weight.”
- “I’m going be better at spending money.”
- “I’m going to read more books.”
We often find ourselves quitting our New Years resolutions within the first three months stating, “there’s always next year.”
So how do we create resolutions that are actually going to stick? We create resolutions that are SMART.
SMART Resolutions
Forming SMART resolutions does not mean that they are deemed proper by an IQ test, but that they follow the acronym SMART. That means your resolutions are:
- S: Specific
- M: Measurable
- A: Achievable
- R: Relevant
- T: Timely
This is an acronym that people often use for goal-setting and what are resolutions? Resolutions are merely goals that we create for the new year. They are goals of things we want to improve on ourselves or change about ourselves over the next 365 days.
(What should resolutions not be? They should not be expectations we place on ourselves to try to encourage immediate and lasting change. Understand that resolutions should take some time to reach. Remember to be patient and to keep at them.)
Specific
To start, you should create a resolution that contains precise information. Here you want to add the who, what, when, where, and how. You might not have a who, what, when, where, and how for each resolution, but you want to try to use these short questions to create your resolutions. For example:
- “I want to lose weight” turns into “I will lose 20lbs by Christmas by eating vegetables daily and drinking 80oz of water every day. I will weigh myself weekly and track my nutrition in my journal.”
- “I’m going to be better at spending money” becomes “I will save 5K by New Year’s Eve by setting up a direct deposit into a savings account and depositing $100 each paycheck.”
- “I’m going to read more books” transforms into “I will read one book each month in 2019 and track each book on my Goodreads account.”
You can see that by asking yourself those short, simple questions about your resolution, you are already more invested in it and more likely to accomplish it.
Measurable
We want to make sure that we are adding a form of measure to our resolutions.
- “I will lose 20lbs by Christmas by eating vegetables daily and drinking 80oz of water every day. I will weigh myself weekly and track my nutrition in my journal.”
- “I will save 5K by New Year’s Eve by setting up a direct deposit into a savings account and depositing $200 each paycheck.” (Checking your bank statements each month can be a form of measuring.)
- “I’m going to read one book each month in 2019 and track each book on my Goodreads account.”
Having measurable resolutions helps keep you focused. You can watch your growth as you work hard on your goals and you stay motivated when you see the pay off of your hard work.
Attainable
Sometimes we get so excited with our New Year resolutions that we don’t take the time to consider if the goal is entirely attainable.
- “I’m going to lose 75lbs.”
- “I’m going to save 24K.”
- “I’m going to read 100 books.”
For some, those resolutions are very easy to accomplish.
Maybe you are already planning on doing a gastric bypass, and you know your eating habits are going to change so it will be easy. But perhaps you weigh 175lbs, and you want to weigh 100lbs. It’s not going to be quite as easy to lose those 75lbs, and you might be risking your health during the process.
Maybe your annual income is 150K, and you can easily afford to put $2,000 into your savings each month. But will it be that easy if you are bringing home 50K each year?
Do you consider listening to audio books as “reading” a book? Are you able to complete an audiobook in a day or two? Are you a speedy reader and get through 8-10 books a month? Or are you a slow reader who takes two months to read a book, and you aren’t considering audiobooks as a part of your reading resolution.
We often get discouraged when we feel like we are failing. So creating a resolution that isn’t realistic is going to set us up for failure from the beginning. We want to make sure our resolutions are going to make us feel proud of our accomplishments. So our goals need to be attainable.
Relevant
When I listed the ‘W’ questions earlier in the Specific section, I don’t know if you noticed that I left one out. That was “why.” That wasn’t because it wasn’t important. It is essential to add. And if you want to write it down when you are writing out your resolutions, by all means, please do.
It is so important that our resolutions will serve a purpose to us. Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to save $5,000 this year? Why do you want to read more books? Why are your resolutions important to you?
Have you been depressed about your weight and you finally want to do something about it? Are you wanting to buy a house and that is how much more you need for your down payment? Do you get pleasure from reading and in the past you feel like you aren’t taking enough time for yourself?
What personal feelings are you attaching to your resolution?
Tying emotions to your resolutions and understanding how accomplishing these goals will make you feel, is very important. Doing this will help you be consistent with them and not push them off till next year.
It will make it that much more meaningful when you end the year when you have accomplished your resolutions.
Timely
How long is it going to take you to reach your goal? Is this a resolution that you expect to last all year? Or is this a resolution you believe you can accomplish long before your next New Years Eve? You want to add that timeline to the goal when you set it. When we set deadlines for our goals, it encourages us to take action.
- “I will lose 20lbs by Christmas by eating vegetables daily and drinking 80oz of water every day. I will weigh myself weekly and track my nutrition in my journal..”
- “I will save 5K by New Year’s Eve by setting up a direct deposit into a savings account and depositing $100 each paycheck.”
- “I will read one book each month in 2019 and track each book on my Goodreads account.”
Creating a timeline to go along with your resolution creates some accountability to the resolution. When you carve out how long you want to take to accomplish a goal, you establish a commitment to yourself. And your timeline also creates a benchmark to help determine if you are on track.
What are you going to have to do to reach your goal if you have only lost 5lbs by September?
What changes are you going to have to make to reach that $5,000 in savings after you had to withdrawal a deposit or two over the year to help pay a bill?
What if you are only half way through your book for the month and you have three days left to read it?
Giving Yourself Grace
As you spend your year trying to keep your new year resolutions, remember to give yourself grace. There are going to be times that you stumble or you might even fall completely, but if you remember to give yourself some grace, getting back up won’t be so hard.
PS: Remember, that it is completely okay to change your goals or completely abandon them if you feel that they are no longer serving a purpose in your life. Just remember to give yourself some Grace.
