🎆 How to Set Better New Year's Resolutions
Why approach goals beat avoid goals
2022 has officially begun and I hope you’re all feeling a fresh sense of optimism as you enter the new year. I’ve heard people describe their 2021 in similar terms to how they described their 2020, but at least for me, 2021 was a clear improvement on the dark void of 2020. Either way, there’s no reason to think 2022 can’t be our best year yet.
Although any day is a good day to consider how to enhance your life, people commonly save their goal-setting for this precise moment in the calendar. New Year’s resolutions are a sign of enthusiasm, aspiration, and a wish for personal betterment. So while those feelings are still bubbling away in the first week of 2022, here’s some evidence to help you commit to better resolutions.
✅ Decide what you will do rather than what you won’t do
A study published in December 2020 analyzed the New Year’s resolutions of over a thousand people. The researchers randomly assigned people to one of three groups, but I’ll focus on the first two groups for now.
People in Group 1 acted as a control group who set themselves New Year’s resolutions and discussed their chances of success. Group 2 did the same thing but also had to name a specific person in their life who would support them with meeting their resolutions. In addition, they completed a few additional support exercises during the year.
The researchers categorized everyone’s resolutions. A third of all participants set a resolution related to physical health, which made health improvement the most common goal on the list. In contrast, only 5% of people set a resolution related to mental health, 2% related to personal finance, and 1% related to hobbies. People frequently prioritize their physical health over their mental health, and the participants in this study were no exception (fortunately, staying physically healthy is good for your mental health too).
But what did success look like for each group’s resolutions? Throughout the year, the researchers followed up with participants, asking them how much they had fulfilled or given up on their resolutions. Group 2 were significantly more successful with their goals, with 62.3% of them reporting success at the end of the year in December compared to only 55.9% for Group 1. The support of a friend helped people in Group 2 persevere with their initial intentions.
In a final analysis on the New Year’s resolution data, the researchers split resolutions into “approach” vs “avoid” subtypes. Approach goals involve actively doing something new, while avoid goals involve avoiding or suppressing an old behavior. So, for example, starting a new gym routine would be an approach resolution while giving up smoking would be an avoid resolution.
Overall, people were more likely to succeed with approach goals than avoid goals. With approach resolutions, 59% of people reported success, but with avoid resolutions, only 47% of people successfully resisted their temptations over the long term.
This fits well with the idea that self-control is difficult (one of my previous newsletters discusses this in detail). It’s an effortful process that requires you to break an established habit. When you set plans related to doing something new rather than avoiding something old, you’re less likely to suffer the pains of withdrawal or urge suppression. You can commit to new routines without necessarily needing to overwrite previous routines.
🎓 SMART or not so SMART goals?
You might remember that there were three groups in the study above, not just two. Well, the third group showed an unexpected outcome.
Group 3 in the research project did all the same things that Group 2 did but they received even more comprehensive support from researchers during the year. They received extra info and helpful exercises by email, and they were also taught the practice of SMART goals. SMART is an acronym that communicates good goal-setting principles. Although it originally comes from the world of management, it has shown some efficacy in other disciplines like healthcare too. To set SMART goals, you need to make sure your goals are:
Specific: come up with concrete targets and develop detailed plans. Vaguer goals are harder to meet.
Measurable: try to avoid excessively subjective goals that are difficult to assess. Come up with clear indicators of progress so you can actively see and monitor how you’re improving.
Achievable: set goals that have a reasonable chance of success. Ambition is important but don’t let it create unrealistic expectations.
Relevant: make sure your goals are clearly aligned with your overall hopes. You should have a step-by-step plan, where each step gets you closer to your desired endpoint.
Time-bound: set realistic timelines that will keep you on track without overwhelming you.
Even with this education in SMART goal-setting, people in Group 3 didn’t perform as well as Group 2 in succeeding with their New Year’s resolutions. In fact, they performed no better than the control participants in Group 1.
It’s not obvious why Group 3’s additional support didn’t translate into a benefit. It could be that SMART goals don’t always work so well, or it could be that people in Group 3 were more likely to notice their failures since their goals were more specific and measurable than the goals that the other groups set.
In any case, people saw the greatest success with their New Year’s resolutions if they simply set approach-oriented goals and assigned themselves an accountability partner to support them along the way. So these are good places to start in setting your own resolutions.
⭐️ Takeaway tips
Set approach-oriented goals: For your own New Year’s resolutions, focus on what you will do rather than what you won’t do. It’s common to want to give up an existing temptation or bad habit, but consider whether you can frame your goal in a more positive way. For example, instead of “giving up chocolate”, commit to eating vegetable sticks whenever you fancy a snack instead.
Set goals with a friend: Accountability is important so set goals together with a buddy and periodically check in with each other on how well you’re doing. Making commitments in front of friends and family helps to boost motivation since public failure has a higher cost than private failure.
Try SMART goals: In this study, SMART goals didn’t work so well, but that’s not necessarily because they’re a bad idea. If you’re interested in trying SMART goals for your New Year’s resolutions, you can check out this NYT piece containing some practical advice.
💡 A final quote
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca
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📬 I love to hear from readers. Reach out any time with comments or questions.
👋 Until next time,
Erman Misirlisoy, PhD
I love this Erman! Particularly changing our thinking/wording on how we achieve something, doing instead of not doing. And LOVE the quote at the end, good article👏🏻