My Psych Board

Every year when New Years rolls around people get a new spurt of ambition to suddenly make themselves better. They make New Year’s resolutions that they’re going to exercise more, drink more water, study more, get that promotion at work…the list goes on and on. But a few weeks later, the vast majority of those people haven’t made any strides toward those goals, and they seem to have lost their motivation to try. Why? Are New Year’s resolutions destined to fail?

Last Year’s Resolutions

Going into 2022, the top resolutions were focused around becoming healthier. On the coattails of the corona virus, that’s not super surprising. The better question, though, is how long do these resolutions last?

Top U.S. New Year's resolutions for 2022

Not super long. After 1 week, about 25% of people give up. And that number continues to drop as time goes on.

Do resolutions really help?

Not all resolutions are a waste of time. Recent statistics show that after 6 months about 46% of people are still holding on to their resolutions and working towards them. Roughly 16% will make it through the whole next year and/or fulfill their original resolution. Imagine if a higher percentage of people could follow through and achieve their goals!

The issue arises when the goals being made are too vague, too hard, or unsustainable over time. Or the person just gets bored with the whole thing. That’s a recipe for disaster! So how can we help make these resolutions stick?

Make SMART resolutions

The acronym SMART can help! And we all know that you’re a smart cookie, so that should be easy to remember 🙂

S- Specific

M- Measurable

A- Achievable

R- Realistic/Relevant

T- Timely

Your goals should be specific. As seen above, the top resolution was “to exercise more”. This might seem SMART, but it could actually be better. A SMART resolution would be “to complete 300 pushups in 90 days”. This resolution is specific in the type of exercise (so there’s no waffling at the gym), it’s measurable by counting the number of pushups done each time exercising is done, it’s (probably) achievable if done in safe increments, it can be broken into realistic segments (maybe 30 pushups a day!, and it’s timely in that it has a deadline (you can’t put it off indefinitely).

Make your 2023 resolutions SMART!

We want to help you stick to your resolutions! Need help coming up with SMART goals? Contact us with any questions you have so we can get you make a plan to tackle 2023 and make it your year! Want to make a goal to study more? Check out our Question Banks and find the best option for you! You’ve got this, and can definitely achieve whatever resolutions you put your mind to!