You’ve heard the phrase “New year, New me”, right? With the new year comes change, and people have been taking advantage of the opportunity to become a ‘new person’ for time immemorial. A New Year’s resolution is a goal that you set for yourself for the coming new year. There are many different resolutions that you can make, but there are multiple beneficial methods for making a resolution that you can fulfill, which will be explained in the following article.
Do’s and Don’ts
There are a couple of mistakes people tend to make when fashioning their resolutions, so here are a few of the Do’s and Don’ts when setting your goal:
- DO Keep your goal’s wording specific, so you know what to focus on. It will do the work for you by telling you exactly what to do.
- DO Hold yourself accountable. It can help to have someone to critique you as you work toward your goal, but if you don’t have someone to help you will have to keep yourself on track.
- DO Start small and work from there. It will help keep your stress minimal and ease you into achieving a larger-scale goal.
- DON’T Make your goal broad. If your goal is to “get fitter”, it will be much harder to stick to than “Go for a 10-minute jog once every week from April to July”.
Steps to creating an achievable goal
The first step to making your New Year resolution is to figure out what you’re setting it for. Are you setting your goal because you need to get work done? Whatever your goal is, the next step is making your goal SMART. In other words, is it Specific? Your goal should be distinct enough that you can’t find loopholes. After that, is it Measurable? If you don’t have a way to confirm that it’s been accomplished, you won’t have something to aim for. Next, is it Attainable? Attainable means “able to be brought about or reached successfully.” Will you be able to achieve your end goal? To add to your Specific, Measurable, and Achievable resolution, is it Relevant? Strictly speaking, is it important to you? So far, your goal should be going pretty well, but to have the best resolution you can, is it Time-bound? Namely, does your goal have a specific start and end point? If your New Year’s resolution is SMART, then the only thing you have left to consider is your motivation. Are you making your goal because you want to? If so, then you have the determination and the goal you need for the New Year!
Example
Julienne Risotto wants to draft a resolution that keeps her focused while doing her schoolwork. The first thing she comes up with is “I want to stay focused on my schoolwork.” Then she remembers that they had taught her how to set a SMART goal in school and revises her resolution:
Specific: I need help focusing on Math.
Measurable: I always have at least two pieces of homework for Math.
Attainable: I work best with short breaks, so I’ll plan for some.
Relevant: Math is important to me, and focusing on it will help me improve my grades.
Time-bound: I’ve found that I work best in hour-long intervals.
SMART resolution: After I get home from school I will go to my room and work on my math homework for an hour. I’ll take a five-minute break, then finish my homework. I can listen to music while I work, but I’ll silence my phone.
You can make a SMART resolution in the same way. All you have to do is ask yourself if it’s Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound and if you have the motivation to see your New Year resolution through.
Happy New Year!
Sources:
Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?q=steps%2Bfor%2Ban%2Bachievable%2Bgoal&rlz=1CAHTBP_enUS1126&oq=steps%2Bfor%2Ban%2Bachieva&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgBECEYoAEyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRiPAtIBCTIwOTYzajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on#:~:text=5%20Steps%20to%20Setting%20Successful%20Goals%20%2D%20Alivio,%E2%80%BA%205%2Dsteps%2Dto%2Dsetting%2Dsuccessful%2Dgoals. Accessed 11 Dec. 2024.
Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?q=steps%2Bfor%2Ban%2Bachievable%2Bgoal&rlz=1CAHTBP_enUS1126&oq=steps%2Bfor%2Ban%2Bachieva&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgBECEYoAEyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRiPAtIBCTIwOTYzajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on#:~:text=5%20Steps%20to%20Setting%20Successful%20Goals%20%2D%20Alivio,%E2%80%BA%205%2Dsteps%2Dto%2Dsetting%2Dsuccessful%2Dgoals. Accessed 11 Dec. 2024.
Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?q=steps%2Bfor%2Ban%2Bachievable%2Bgoal&rlz=1CAHTBP_enUS1126&oq=steps%2Bfor%2Ban%2Bachieva&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgBECEYoAEyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRiPAtIBCTIwOTYzajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on#:~:text=5%20Steps%20to%20Setting%20Successful%20Goals%20%2D%20Alivio,%E2%80%BA%205%2Dsteps%2Dto%2Dsetting%2Dsuccessful%2Dgoals. Accessed 11 Dec. 2024.