I Resolve...

 
According to several online articles, we humans stay pretty consistent about our new year’s resolutions. The top ten seem to be: Exercise more, Lose weight, Get organized, Learn a new skill or hobby, Live life to the fullest, Save more money / spend less money, Quit smoking, Spend more time with family and friends, Travel more, Read more.

Sadly, we’re also pretty consistent in how well we keep them. According to one study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, only 46% of people who made New Year’s resolutions were successful. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s that high.

From my own experience in setting any new goal, I’ve found three major reasons for this lack of success.

The first? Not making “S.M.A.R.T.” goals. Smart goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-sensitive. “Reading more” is vague (not specific). How much more? How will I measure it? Can I achieve it? How will I even know I succeeded if I don’t know how much I read last year?

For a resolution such as “Read more” to prove effective, you need to first keep tabs on how much you read. I keep track of every book I read in the back of a notebook, by title, author, and month read. (This also helps my aging brain recall whether I’ve already read something!) Once you’ve kept track for a year, you know that if you want to read more the next year, you need this year’s list to be longer than last year’s. How specific will you be? If you read 46 books in 2022 like I did, shooting for 50 seems reasonable. For those who easily read 100 books a year, 50 is a joke. But far too high if you read only ten last year. The goal needs to be not only measurable but attainable for you.

Then, you must answer more questions. What will you give up in order to create more reading time? Does this goal align with your life’s purpose or does it simply sound like a good idea? Finally, what’s your end date? If you want to read 52 books in 2023, you know you need to average one a week to stay on track. If you read only one a month from January through July, do you really think you’ll cram the remaining 47 books into the last five months of the year? Make a plan.

The second way we set ourselves up for failure is not writing down our resolutions. Let’s say you plan to decrease sugar from your diet, making it achievable by allowing sugar every third day. By writing that down, you clarify what you wish to achieve and force yourself to make choices. You establish intention and provide yourself with a guiding light when opportunities come your way, such as a cupcake on a no-sugar day. When faced with something requiring a yes or no, you can hold it up to the light of your resolutions and find your answer. Writing your goals out also helps you see how far you’ve come when, down the road, you can look back, see what you’ve accomplished, and celebrate. For similar reasons, we need to tell at least one other person our goal—we all understand the power of support groups who cheer one another on.

A third reason we don’t succeed is quitting at the first setback. Declaring yourself a failure and giving up when you take a puff of a cigarette or skip your exercises is a sure road to defeat. Don’t throw in the towel because you blew it today. Start again tomorrow! If you don’t believe you can do it on your own, ask God for help. Lamentations 3 tells us, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are NEW EVERY MORNING.”

So, pick one goal. Write it down. Make a plan. Tell a friend. Don’t give up. Lean on the Lord. You can do it!