How to Make S.M.A.R.T. New Year Resolutions
Hello, and welcome to 2022.
The New Year invites us to enjoy a fresh start by making some improvements in our lifestyle, and we do this in the form of a New Year resolution. Great idea!
The drop-out rate is, however, lamentably high. According to Strava, the American internet service for tracking exercise, around 80% of us who’ve made New Year resolutions will have dropped them by mid-February. This is in part due to waning motivation—I’ll be writing about how to avoid that in my next post—and in part due to a failure to set out your resolution in a winning manner, which is today’s topic.
A clever way to set out your New Year resolution is to use the S.M.A.R.T. method, an approach dreamed up in 1981 by George Doran, a former director of corporate planning for the Washington Water Power Company in America. Doran was interested in helping management teams set successful goals and objectives, but here’s how you can map his strategy onto your own resolution:
S: Be Specific. Write down your goal, defining it as clearly as possible, then show it to your partner or good friend. Ask them how they would go about achieving this goal, and how they would measure progress. Adjust your wording accordingly to make sure you’re clear.
M: Set a Measurable Goal. What is your target? How can you measure it? For example, rather than ‘get up earlier’, resolve to ‘get out of bed by 6.30’. Instead of ‘lose some weight’, tell yourself you’ll ‘lose half a stone’.
A: Create an Achievable Goal. Again, explain your goal to a friend or your partner. Do they think this is realistic for you, or do they worry that this intention would stress you unduly? Friends are more objective than we can be: adjust your goal if necessary with their help.
R: Set a Goal That’s Relevant for You. Avoid any resolution that’s based on what you ‘should’ do. ‘Should’ goals are designed to please others or to make you look good in others’ estimation; they’re not coming from your heart. Choose goals you’d ‘love’ to achieve, those that are for your own satisfaction rather than for the satisfaction of others.
T: Set a Realistic Time Limit. Start by estimating how long you think it will take you to reach your goal. Then—because we’re generally unreasonably hard on ourselves—add 50% to your estimate. Now break the overall resolution into smaller achievable weekly steps.
There you have it. A resolution that affords you a real chance of success!
Until next time,
Linda