With New Year’s Day fading in our rear-view mirror, there are many people grappling with the resolutions they made for self-improvement.
Of course, you don’t need to have a New Year’s resolution for self-improvement, but the calendar change provides the psychological timing to put a plan together and “get a fresh start.”
Research shows that every year, millions of people around the world begin self-improvement projects at the start of the New Year. Creating healthier personal habits leads the list of things that people want to change. Surveys show that losing weight, eating healthier, exercising more, quitting smoking, and moderating alcohol consumption are the most common wishes.
These top health improvements are followed by wanting other lifestyle enhancements including traveling more, reading more, getting more sleep, getting a better job, becoming more organized, and saving money. Then there are more personal goals like being nicer to others, having more fun, and trying to get out more.
People often poke fun at resolutions made at the beginning of the year because they have such a high chance of failure. In reality, though, the rate of failure is not any greater than resolutions made at other times of the year because people often don’t plan properly to be successful. Making significant changes to long-standing habits is challenging at any time of year and requires proper goal setting and awareness of the specific action steps needed for success.
This is particularly true if the habits are pleasurable or involve immediate reinforcement. Our brain is built to value immediacy over long-term benefits which may lead to addictive-like behavior around food, alcohol, use of chemicals and other quick and pleasurable rewards. In other words, the human brain is innately programmed to prefer having one cupcake right now over feeling slimmer and healthier in a few months!
That is why proper planning is so important to help overcome this powerful human tendency. Planning and goal setting serve to move the reward of the future-forward in time so that it is in the present and can compete more effectively with immediate pleasure. A good plan breaks the ultimate objective down into smaller parts so that progress can be rewarded incrementally.
In selecting a goal, it is helpful if there is a strong emotional investment in the outcome. It has been said that it takes “willpower” to resist behaviors that scuttle goals, but a more positive view is that it takes a strong “desire” to stay on track and reach a goal.
Really wanting something makes a great difference in creating success compared with doing something because you are supposed to or because it is healthy. Motivated people are more likely to reach their goals, but it’s well-chosen goals that help to motivate people.
It is also important to specifically define what you want to accomplish and to make it tangible enough that it can be measured. Make sure to choose a goal that is realistic and achievable, otherwise, it will only cause frustration. You are likely to be more successful if you define the specific actions or behaviors you need to achieve the goal. In other words, ask yourself, “what do I actually need to do to accomplish this goal?”
There are some tricks that can help to move us towards our goal starting with writing the goal down along with the set of action steps needed to reach it. Break the goal down into pieces or smaller goals and set rewards or reinforcement for completing each “mini-goal” as you go along.
An example might be someone who wants to lose at least 20 pounds of excess weight in three months may have action steps of eating lower carbohydrate foods and avoiding sugar each day. Their smaller goal may be to lose at least two pounds per week which is verifiable by regular weigh-ins. Every week that they meet this goal, they reward themselves by putting fifty dollars into a jar to save for a cruise at the end of three months if they are successful!
It can help to visualize what you and your life will be like when you complete your goal and letting other people know what you are trying to achieve. Some studies have suggested that not only writing your goal down but saying it out loud and even drawing a picture of it can help program the brain to act accordingly.
Remember that “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and that fundamental changes in our behavior take time and repetition. Finding ways to increase your desire for meeting a goal and getting help in organizing and monitoring progress can also help you be successful!
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This article was written by Scott E. Smith, Ph.D. who is a freelance contributor who writes the Psychology column, which appears every other Wednesday in The Capital. He is a licensed clinical psychologist with Spectrum Behavioral Health with offices in Arnold, Annapolis and Crofton.