Do new year resolves work?

Oh really, absolutely, frankly and actually. Well!!! These are some exclamations expressed about forming new year goals. Some feel they are just a waste of time. Others feel they are a great opportunity. Many would just take the middle ground and say “it depends”.

Most countries and religions celebrate the coming of the new year. That celebration is partly because they are there to witness the passing of another year and partly because a new year is lying ahead to do things that are still undone is a fact.

No matter which school of thought you belong to starting another year does mean something to someone. It is like birthdays. You can imagine another year coming or you can feel another year going by.

The younger and the more educated generation does want to make new year commitments. New year’s resolutions statistics and trends 2024 quoted by Lark Allen state that adult ages 18 to 29 make up the biggest group that made at least one resolution. Of those ages 30 to 49, 31 percent made a resolution, and just 21 percent of those 50 and above committed to a resolution.

Majority of these age groups who do not make resolutions, do not believe in them or feel that they will not be able to keep these commitments.

The older groups are just too cynical or feel more nostalgic about the past than the future. Only about 9% people really end up pursuing and managing to fulfill their commitments. With such a low achievement rate it is but natural that new year resolves remain more of a wish list. That is not to say that it is an exercise in futility.

Let us look at how to follow 5 rules to make and keep new year commitments:

Rule#1- Personal and professional goals— If you cannot manage yourself, you cannot manage others, you cannot manage work, you cannot manage life. That is how it is. All our lives we are focusing on the external things- the people who do not understand you, the children who do not listen to you, the colleagues who do not cooperate with you. To get others to do all that for you, you need to get yourself in order.

Imagine the amount of planning and effort we make in our work life. We set goals. We make appointments. We monitor. We get feedback. We try to better it. Imagine the lack of planning and effort we make in managing ourself. We ignore our health. We let our moods take over.

We struggle to find time for our most important relationships. That is where most work needs to be done. We need to focus on self-management and self-development. We need to do it with the same or more zeal and effort we put in our professional goals. The problem is not that new year goals are just a ritual, the problem is that we do not treat them the way we plan, organize, follow up and improve on our professional commitments.

Rule#2-Think big, start small— Some people dismiss new year goals as just big talk that is too difficult to walk. This is true and false. True; if the talk is not a thought-through think. False; if the big chunk is divided into small parts. Thoughts have to be imagined. Imagination has no limits. If thoughts were small they would not excite.

But thoughts have to be reined in. These reins are of feasibility, do-ability, ability, capability and acting upon it. Action is the test. That is why start really easy and small. Most people form goals of losing weight and then just do not take steps to start it. If you are reducing calories do not start by saying I will only have 1000 calories a day.

Start with eating better like having more proteins rather than carbs. If you want to walk start with trying to walk more in you room, climb stairs instead of taking the elevator, get dropped a bit away from the shop to walk to it. If more knowledge is the goal read a few paragraphs on the topic, see a short video on it. Start with the least effort steps.

Rule#3— Writing is doing-One of the main reasons that new year resolves become new page document is that they are just in the mind never really penned down weekly or followed up. There is no such thing as a mental follow-up. Mind is a forgetful person. It has to be repeatedly told, shown, messaged to make it consistently do something over a period of time.

Again on the professional front, try meeting targets, achieving goals, delivering results without a daily, weekly, monthly written down action plan. You will fail. Precisely, the same applies to personal goals. Follow the TIL principle, i.e., ‘Think, Ink, Link’. Think what needs to be done today, then write it. Research shows written goals have a much higher chance of being acted upon than just thoughts.

When you write consider the words. Instead of saying “I should avoid fatty foods”; write “A delicious tomato soup in the afternoon”. The idea is to bring positive pictures that trigger action. What to avoid can be a list made separately but to have daily or weekly RTA, that is resolves to action, the positive works wonders.

Rule#4— Cheating is norming-New year resolves have the DR factor i.e., dejection/rejection factor very high. You are excited. You dream. You commit. Then the daily grind takes over. The fog. The blackouts. The fights. The breakdowns and breakups. The old norm devours the new norm.

Back to square one. Remember when you miss a week or weeks in exercising or being positive or eating less, no worries. Cheating, missing, skipping are ok. They do happen to everybody. The only difference is that the pull to re-continue has to triumph over the push to re-cheat. That part requires for your mobile to give you irritating reminders, for your diary to carry forward undone stuff and for your obstinate pop ups to continue.

Rule#5— Consistency over proficiency-New year resolves like most others do not need special proficiency in anything but one. That one is consistency. Consistency does not mean perfection. It means action spread over 365 days.

In these days, you may lose time, frequency, progress, but you do not lose the act. You may not achieve anything for 3 months but you see progress in 5 months. Be kind to yourself. If you are not, you will avoid yourself. Avoidance will lead to discontinuation. That is why persistence and consistency are more important than talent and intelligence.

The sin is not in not achieving your new year goals but the sin is in not pursuing them even if they seem more far-fetched than before. For in their far-fetchedness (365 days) lies the opportunity to stop, stumble, fall flat, gather, pick up and step up to continue on the self betterness journey.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024