At the beginning of every year, people often make New Year’s resolutions, hoping to better themselves during the year. But unsurprisingly, these resolutions do not usually last long.
According to a 2023 poll by Forbes Health, most New Year’s resolutions only last within two to three months. For that reason, we need to reevaluate how we create and keep our New Year’s resolutions by making them both measurable and achievable. If not, there is no reason to make them in the first place.
In my own life, I struggle with New Year’s resolutions. My goals for the past few years have been to read and socialize more, but because these goals do not include specific ways to follow through and track progress, they are difficult to attain and feel overwhelming. Therefore, I have had the same resolutions year after year with little progress.
This phenomenon of failing New Year’s resolutions is not new. Since the early 1800s, people have made New Year’s resolutions, but even then publications satirized the concept and criticized people for using their resolution as an excuse to engage in unhealthy habits during December, according to Merriam-Webster. These themes are still true today, which shows that people have always struggled to take their New Year’s resolutions seriously.
Based on people’s obvious struggles with New Year’s resolutions throughout history, it sounds rational that the concept as a whole can be deemed useless. However, New Year’s resolutions still have the potential to bring about change, but only if people reevaluate how to create a goal that outlines clear ways to meet it. After all, if a New Year’s resolution is a reflection of someone’s hopes for the future, they should actually work to make that hope a reality. One method that people can use to improve the resolutions made is to make it measurable and specific.
For instance, fitness related New Year’s resolutions are incredibly common, but resolutions like “I will run more often this year” or “I will get a gym membership” are difficult to follow because of vagueness. Instead, creating a goal that can be measured and evaluated as a result is beneficial. A better resolution would be: “I will run one mile every three days, taking breaks on the weekends.”
Additionally, these goals should be achievable. According to the Baylor College of Medicine, people benefit from starting small with their New Year’s resolutions. Trying to meet a goal that appears larger than life is daunting, but progressively making smaller changes in your life with the bigger goal in mind feels more practical.
These methods of making achievable New Year’s resolutions relate to the concept of SMART goals. According to ProjectSmart, the acronym SMART, which stands for specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-related, was created by George T. Doran, a former director of corporate planning at a water company, as a way to create achievable business goals. While the idea of SMART goals were created with a business perspective in mind, it works to help people reflect on whether or not their goals are attainable and well thought out, which can be useful when creating a New Year’s resolution.
Because we are a month into 2025, there is a great chance that many people have already broken their New Year’s resolutions, but that does not mean that the new year is the only time these goals can be made. If you want to improve yourself throughout the year, reworking your New Year’s resolution to be achievable, measurable and something you can ease into will make a difference in how you accomplish it. Otherwise, making resolutions is pointless.
