In our society, New Year’s resolutions have become a regular occurrence in the introduction to the new year. With the intention that the resolutions be positive and useful, in many cases, these “resolutions” can cause great harm to individuals.
Practices similar to New Year’s resolutions can be dated back to as far as 4,000 years ago or around 2300 B.C. These practices included promises given from the common people to their gods to pay for their debts — if the people kept their word, their gods would favor them for the rest of the coming year. Now practices that are more popular within evangelical Protestant churches, include night services held on New Year’s Eve, where many spend time praying and making resolutions for the new year.
Overall the concept of New Year’s Resolutions causes increased levels of anxiety and depression, decreased self-worth and self-esteem as well as creating more bad habits. In our competitive culture, we have learned that we must push ourselves to succeed and constantly improve ourselves, and if we don’t, we are “lazy.” This idea is not only harmful to our mental health but also to our overall well-being and habits.
The greatest fault when creating goals is the lack of fulfilling said “goals.” All too often, when we come up short or don’t reach the goals that we meant to finish, we criticize ourselves for our faults. We remain in the mindset that there is something “wrong” with us because these goals are not completed in the time that we would prefer. “So much of that [mindset] has to do with the fact that people don’t recognize and sufficiently respect that there are powerful forces at play that are [operating] at an unconscious level that make it hard for us to change,” said Lisa Lahey, Harvard development expert and co-author of Immunity to Change, a book that addresses the key to personal and organizational change. At its core, the problem is our psychological resistance to change as humans. If you have attempted to change a behavior multiple times in the past, but have still come short of finishing it, that is a sign that there is something less superficial that is keeping you from reaching your goal.
Breaking this resistance to change can drastically affect the outcome of your approach to goal setting and completion.
New Year’s resolution goal setting is largely fueled by societal pressure along with a psychological phenomenon called the “fresh start effect,” which is the concept that a specific or important date on the calendar, gives people a sense of a new beginning or clean slate which motivates them to make a positive change. This theory was created by behavioral scientist Katy Milkman, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and the author of the book How to Change. These specific dates can be anything from holidays to birthdays, that spark the idea that change needs to be had. “I think that sometimes people need a fresh starting point, and sometimes having a definitive ‘I’m jumping in. I’m starting here.’ And kind of a fresh turn of the page can be good,” said Derek Macdicken, an AP Environmental Science and AP Biology teacher at Ida B. Wells. “Most of the time New Year’s resolutions are things that people have been wanting to change for a long time, but they haven’t.”
Although New Year’s resolutions are widely harmful to people, some techniques can help when creating goals even if they are not on the first of the year.
Step 1: Be Specific
When making goals it is important to be specific with what you want to achieve. If you have a vague goal with the idea of success, you will never feel that you have really accomplished what you wanted to do, which can lead to the feeling of failure, when in reality it is the opposite. As an example, if one of your goals is “to lose weight,” there is no actual benchmark or goal, so if you lost some weight, you might tell yourself that you could have lost more because of this lack of a stopping point. Making concrete, measurable goals will minimize the the amount of “grey area” and confusion in completing your goal. If you have a hard time, monitoring the progress that you have made, try keeping track with a journal.
Step 2: Make a Plan
As much as we like to think that we can achieve our goals without effort or any kind of plan, this is simply not the case. A goal without a game plan is like trying to bake without a recipe, you can try but you might not have a result that you’d enjoy. When creating a goal, it is important to think about how the goal will be achieved, like an action plan. As an example, if your goal is to keep your kitchen clean, rather than buying sponges and storage containers and hoping that you will achieve the goal, you should plan to spend a certain amount of time after each meal to clean up or designate a day of the week to do a deep cleaning of your kitchen.
Step 3: Make the Goal Enjoyable
Pick a rewarding goal or something you enjoy, as humans are dopamine seekers — this will help you get to your goal. If the goal is something that is not inherently enjoyable to you, pair the activity with watching your favorite show or when you finish an increment of your goal, celebrate the success with a treat. “I feel like people never choose things they like,” said Sophie Weatherill, a junior at IBW. If you do not enjoy the journey or never stop to appreciate the work that you have put into your goal, you may never feel the progress being made.
External motivation is equally as important to achieving a goal as intrinsic motivation. When making goals, it can be difficult to adhere to the goals when there is not someone to hold you accountable to finish the goal. Without a support system, it can make the process very lonely, if you have no one to share your successes with. Telling a friend, family member, or even teacher, is important positive reinforcement and can also help you stay encouraged and motivated when you are struggling. Setting a mutual goal with a larger group of people is greatly helpful to keep each other accountable.
Step 4: Remove Obstacles
Part of keeping your goal is having the desire to work and complete the goal. If you made a goal or if there is an obstacle keeping you from achieving your goal, think to yourself, “Is this worth my time?” and “Is this serving me?” When achieving this mindset, this will allow you to give room for new and attainable goals.
Step 5: Forgive Your Failures
Like anything in life, goals should not be on a pass-or-fail basis. It is important to celebrate the small successes that you make in working towards your goals even if 100% of the success is not achieved. “If you’re setting tough goals, there will always be failure,” said Professor Milkman. Every person has their own life and the time at which they move through it, so comparing yourself and your successes to others would not benefit you or your mental health. If you cannot achieve your goal in the amount of time that you would like, there is no need to scrap the entire goal, try again later. The whole purpose of a goal is to serve the greater good of your well-being, and if said “goal” jeopardizes it, try to rethink the goal.
At its core, New Year’s resolutions aim to help people achieve things that help their overall well-being and health, but unfortunately, they can be quite harmful when approached in a way that does not consider key parts of creating thoughtful goals. The increased amounts of anxiety and depression associated with New Year’s resolutions as well as overall goal-making, causes many to be hesitant to make new goals. Understanding the obstacles and strategies is incredibly important for proper goal-making.
