LIVING WELL: BETTER NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS BY GOAL SETTING

Living Well: Better New Year’s Resolutions By Goal Setting

Better New Year’s Resolutions By Setting Goals

New Year’s is a natural time to take stock and make a fresh start, which is why New Year’s resolutions are so popular. But making a resolution and keeping a resolution are two different things: how often do abandon our resolutions, even within the first few months of the year? What’s the key to making our resolutions last?

One alternative is to use a method called SMART Goals. Introduced in the business world, it’s increasingly popular for personal goal setting as well. It. By changing your mindset to focus on an ambition or dream, you may experience greater impact than resolving to eliminate or change something in your life.

Setting SMART Goals

Make Goals Specific: Set out exactly what you want to accomplish. Think of this as the mission statement to your goal; don’t set out how you are going to achieve the goal, but what specifically you want to achieve.

Make Goals Measurable: You can make your goal more tangible by deciding how you’ll determine your progress to your goal. How will your success be measured?

Living Well: The Important Practice of Self Care 

Make Goals Attainable: Understand your limitations by creating goals that are challenging, but possible. Think about the tools and resources that are available to you to help you accomplish your vision. Your goals are meant to inspire you, not to leave you feeling discouraged!

Make Goals Relevant: Your goal has to make sense for you. It needs to fit in with your broader lifestyle. Unless your goal is to completely change your lifestyle (see point 1 above), make sure that your goal works for you.

Make Goals Time Specific: Give yourself a deadline! It doesn’t have to be within the year, in fact, it’s a great idea to have less than 1 year, 1-year, 5-year and 10-year goals. Tip! It can be easier to start with your 10-years goals and work backwards.

Read more about SMART Goals:

For more information about this alternative to New Year’s resolutions, read this article:

Locke’s Goal-Setting Theory