A “New Year’s Resolution” is a goal you set at the beginning of the year with the hope of achieving it by the end of the year.
According to survey results on this Discover Happy Habits website, around 30% of the people they interviewed set a goal for the new year. Other websites I looked at say 40-45% of people make a resolution. But I’m sure everyone makes some kind silent hope for the future, even if they don’t write it down or tell anyone else.
The most common goals include:
losing weight, eating healthy meals, exercising
getting a new job, starting a business
improving your financial situation, paying debts, saving more money
taking a vacation, making more time for family, falling in love
New year goal-setting is an old practice. According to this History Channel webpage, people have been setting new year’s goals for thousands of years.
4,000 years ago, ancient Babylonians celebrated a large festival during the crop planting season in March. During this festival, they swore an allegiance to the ruler, and they promised they would repay their debts. If they did a good job, the gods would bless their harvest. This promise could be seen as a “resolution” to have a good harvest.
2,000 years ago, ancient Romans celebrated the new year by praying to Janus, a two-faced god who looked both to the past and into the future. Statues and portraits of Janus depict him as an old man on one side and as a young man on the other - to represent the old and new year. When Romans prayed and made sacrifices to Janus, they were making an agreement (and a resolution) to have a good year. (Our word for January comes from Janus.)
Many religions also have a night of prayer (sometimes called “watchnight services”) during important religious periods, where believers reflect on their life and make promises (resolutions) to lead a better life in the future. In Judaism, believers reflect on their life during Yom Kippur (a Day of Atonement), and they ask for forgiveness. Muslims also have important eids (holy days), where believers participate in fasting and extended prayers, and they ask for forgiveness.
New Year’s Resolutions became common by the 1700’s and 1800’s. There are records of newspapers using the word “new year resolutions,” and many professional fields (farming, manufacturing, government) had created a “day of accounting,” where they could reflect, pay off debts, update documents, and set new goals.
Unfortunately, over 80% of New Year’s Resolutions fail. There are many reasons for this.
The person may not truly be committed to the goal. They might make a resolution (such as losing weight or eating more healthy) without being prepared to commit to the self-discipline and work that’s needed to achieve the goal. For example, if you want to lose weight, you may need to join a fitness center, hire a personal coach, prepare meals in advance, track your calories, set aside time each day to workout. Without committing to these daily habits, the resolution is not going achieve itself.
The goal is too vague. Even if you are motivated to eachieve the goal, you might not know how to achieve it if the goal is not clearly defined. Just having a goal to “spend quality time with the family” is not clear. How do you know if you are succeeding? Write a specific goal you can work towards. For example, instead of “spending quality time,” try “No cell phones during dinner” or “Play board games once a month” or “Watch five movies at a theater as a family this year” or simply “Have a 30 minute conversation with my parents at least once a week.”
The goal is too large to achieve in one year. Big goals like buying a house, starting a business, improving your financial situation may be unrealistic in one year. Instead, the goal may need to be smaller. For example, instead of starting a business, maybe write a business plan or apply for a business license.
People give up too quickly. Many goals take time to achieve. Losing 20 pounds in January by eating salads and half sandwiches is not going to happen. It may take the full year to lose 20 pounds. But people may become discouraged if they don’t see big results by February or March. Hang in there - there are still 10 or 11 more months to go!
Poor Scheduling. You can’t accomplish all of your goals in January. You may need to spread them out over the year and tackle one or two goals every few months. Organize your closets during the winter, spend time outdoors in spring and summer, take a vacation in the summer, spend time with family in the fall.
Goal-Setting Advice
When I focus on goal-setting with my teams at work, I give the following advice:
Start with your values. Identify things you care about and are important to you. You won’t be motivated to meet your goals for the year if they are disconnected from your values and interests.
Think about many goals in many areas of your life. There are short-term goals, long-term goals, personal goals, professional goals, educational goals, spiritual goals, fitness goals, and many, many more. Brainstorm first.
Select a few goals from each area of your life. Unfortunately, you can’t achieve all your goals at once, so you’ll have to select a few goals you can commit to. Keep it interesting by having different type of goals (personal, professional, family, spiritual, health), but choose only one to three goals from each category.
Identify a specific outcome or end-result for each goal so you know what to work towards and when you have achieved it. Be specific.
Identify specific action steps for each goal. You can’t achieve the whole goal at once. You can perform only a series of actions that will eventually result in an outcome. Identify each action. For example, starting a business may include creating a business plan (list of services, prices, procedures for operation), getting a business license, getting a business loan or startup money, renting an office space, buying equipment, setting up a website, hiring and training employees, etc. When you complete each of these actions, you’ll have a business.
Add each action step into a schedule. Some goals are habitual (such as more family time, more exercise, or more prayer), so you can create space for these activities each day or each week. For example, I like to write on Mondays and Fridays, and I like to spend time with family on the weekends, so I save these time spots for these activities. Other goals may be sequential - you have to do one thing before you can do something else. In this case, you’ll have to identify the best order and how much time each one will take, and you’ll try to assign a period of time for each one. For example, write a business plan in Jan-Feb, apply for a business license in March, look for office space and equipment and employees in the summer, and open doors to your business in September.
When things don’t go well, review your goals and your use of time. You may need to revise your goals or your schedule, or you may need to deal with other things that are keeping you from accomplishing your goals.
I have been writing down these strategies and explaining them in more detail. I may have a booklet or something in the future - stay tuned!
Resolutions
My resolutions each year are pretty similar:
Learn New Things - grow intellectually and professionally, either through classes and workshops or by reading, podcasts, and online videos.
Read & Write - set aside time each week to read and write, look for opportunities to present at conferences and share my ideas with others.
Exercise & Eat Healthy - make good choices about how I use my time and the food I eat.
Spend time with the family. Be in the moment around peope I love, schedule time so I can be around family, attend family events, find activities and things we can talk about, take advantage of little moments, schedule some vacations, don’t work on holidays.
What are your New Year’s Resolutions?
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