Don't Make New Year's Resolutions: Try this Instead!

Are New Year’s resolutions effective?

I used to live near a fitness center.

Without fail, every January 1st the parking lot was completely packed with cars. So much so that they hired valets to fill every inch of the lot.

People were coming out of their cars with the best intentions. This was going to be their year to get fit!

However, as the days and weeks of January marched on, the parking lot became less and less crowded. By the end of February, the valets were gone and the parking lot was back to it’s normal level.

All those resolutions that started with a bang faded away.

Has this ever happened to you?

Have you set resolutions time and time again only to feel like a failure because you didn’t stick with it?

You are not alone!

It’s said that less than 10% of people who make resolutions are actually able to carry them out.

So this year, we’re going to do something a bit different…

This year, we’re NOT going to set resolutions!

Instead, we’ll create achievable and actionable goals. They are known as S.M.A.R.T. goals and I’ll get to more details on that in a moment.

“What’s wrong with resolutions?” you ask.

New Year’s Resolutions Statistics

According to US News & World Report, 80% of New Year’s resolutions are abandoned by mid-February.

It’s not that we don’t have the will-power or the best of intentions when setting resolutions.

The cards are actually stacked against us when trying to change our lives with resolutions.

Let me explain…

Why we make and break New Year’s resolutions

The beginning of the year essentially draws a line in the sand.

It’s not that anything is different than the day before, it just allows us the mental opportunity to make a fresh start.

That inspires us to think of all the ways we want to change and improve our lives in the coming year.

So then why do so many of us fail at keeping our resolutions?

The problem is that resolutions such as, “I’m going to exercise more” or “I’m going to eat healthier” are just too big, explains Susan Weinschenk, Ph D, at Psychology Today.

Instead, we need to focus on bite-sized achievable goals such as “this week I’ll take the stairs at work instead of the elevator” and “I’ll eat salads for lunch all week.”

See how these goals are actually achievable?

They are known as S.M.A.R.T. goals.

According to motivational guru Brian Tracy, SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time sensitive.

So rather than saying “I’m going to lose weight,” write down a specific activity that you can measure, do in a short amount of time, is relevant to you, and has an end date.

By choosing to take the stairs all week instead of the elevator, you’ve given yourself a bite sized goal that you can actually achieve.

In fact, you can create trackers in your bullet journal or planner to note your progress.

Here are some fitness tracker ideas and weight loss tracker ideas. Want to see even more trackers? Click here.

By seeing the success of the small goal, you’ll be able to keep moving forward and challenging yourself with another goal…and another… and so on.

Think of your goals as a game. It helps keep the goals motivating and fun.

Set Your Goals Now!

I’ve created 6-page Sweet Goals Planner to help you set goals and achieve them this year!

This is a free PDF printable that you can download and use for all of your goal tracking.

It includes a 4-part goal setting workbook as well as weekly and daily planning pages.

Sweet Goals Planner

Part 1: Review the Past Year - You’ll take a few moments to look over all that you have achieved this year as well as things that didn’t work. This provides the opportunity to identify what you want to stop doing, start doing, and continue in the coming year.
Part 2: Values and Talents - What is important to you and what are the gifts you can share with the world? Also, what are the things you do that bring you pure joy?
Part 3: Goal Brainstorming - Write out all your goals and dream. Dump them onto this paper and it doesn’t need to be neat or pretty. This is a place to just get all of your goals down on paper; you can streamline them later.
Part 4: Goals Worksheet - Print out enough copies of this page for each of your goals. A good amount of goals is 5-10 at any given time. Here is where you will apply the SMART goals technique and list out all of the tasks needed to complete your goal.
Weekly Planner - You can use your planner or bullet journal for this page as well as the next. I created these in case you don’t have a planner, you can still achieve your goals with these pages! Write down some of the tasks from each of your Part 4: Goals Worksheets so you can start tackling your goals a little each week.
Daily Planner - Next, you’ll take the tasks you assigned in the weekly planner and jot them down on your daily page to make sure you can work on the tasks of the day along with all of your other daily to do items.