<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">New Year’s resolutions are notoriously ineffective for most people, so much so that they have become something of a joke in pop culture. In recent years, the subject has spawned memes that are funny but painfully resonate for those of us who have difficulty in sticking to them. There has even been a movement which promotes </span><a href="https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/why-successful-people-dont-set-goals-and-you-shouldnt-either" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">not setting up goals</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span>So here are ways to make a more effective new years resolution.</p>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Evidence for goal setting</span></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are a lot of articles that mention studies done by a group of researchers carried out on a Harvard Business School and a Yale Business School graduating class about goal setting. It mentions how only 3% of the class wrote down their goals and they were ten times as successful as their classmates a decade down the line. Those studies are an </span><a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/27953/if-your-goal-success-dont-consult-these-gurus" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">urban legend</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> perpetuated by motivational gurus and articles that espoused them. However, on a study done by </span><a href="https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/achieving_your_goals_an_evidence_based_approach" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Psychology Professor Dr. Gail Matthews</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the </span><a href="https://www.dominican.edu/academics/lae/undergraduate-programs/psych/faculty/assets-gail-matthews/researchsummary2.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dominican University</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, they found out that those who wrote down their goals achieved a lot more than those who didn’t. So the bottom line is, you should write down your New Year’s resolutions.</span></p>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">The S.M.A.R.T. method</span></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you are a <a href="https://www.trueprofile.io/member/resources/life-lessons-corporate-world" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">corporate employee</a>, you may have been sat down by your immediate manager and asked to set down goals that use the </span><a href="https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">S.M.A.R.T. method</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. It is something that is applicable to New Year’s resolutions to make them more effective. </span></p>
<h3><span style="font-weight: 400;">Specific</span></h3>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can’t just make blanket statements and say I will become richer this 2019. The more specific that you get, the more effective your New Year’s resolution will be. Let’s say that my resolution is to have saved $5,000.00 by the time 31st December comes around. Since I specified an amount, rather than just saying ‘I want to save money this year’ I have given myself a clear objective which I can break down into smaller goals – so I know exactly how much I would need to save from each paycheck to achieve it. </span></p>
<h3><span style="font-weight: 400;">Measurable</span></h3>
<figure class="wp-block-image alignnone size-large wp-image-5446 size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="682" src="https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/03/pexels-photo-1552617-1024x682.jpg" alt="Effective New Years Resolution" class="wp-image-10038" title="Effective New Years Resolution" srcset="https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/03/pexels-photo-1552617-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/03/pexels-photo-1552617-300x200.jpg 300w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/03/pexels-photo-1552617-768x512.jpg 768w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/03/pexels-photo-1552617-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/03/pexels-photo-1552617.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>You can’t hit your target goal if you don’t specify what it is.</figcaption></figure>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Let’s say that you wanted to lose or gain weight, or become healthier this 2019. You need to attach a specific goal to this – perhaps it’s weight loss or achieving a fitness goal like being able to run 10 miles within a specific timeframe. Attach a number to your goal, so that you have a way to measure your success and you can work towards this throughout the year.</span></p>
<h3><span style="font-weight: 400;">Achievable</span></h3>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Let’s go back to my first example of saving $5,000.00. Is it <a href="https://www.trueprofile.io/member/resources/tips-managing-ofw-money" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">attainable for you</a> or is it like shooting for the moon? It’s so much easier to slide back into not having goals if you don’t see any improvement from your starting point. We’re human and we’re programmed to respond to rewards. We get rewarded psychologically if we see ourselves surpassing our set milestones so make sure the goals that you set yourself are achievable, otherwise you’ll become demotivated.</span></p>
<h3><span style="font-weight: 400;">Relevant</span></h3>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Furthermore, your goal should be relevant and important to you. There’s no point in setting goals just because other people are, what you set up to do should be important to you and should create a postive impact in your life or those around you. </span></p>
<h3><span style="font-weight: 400;">Time-driven</span></h3>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s easy to say that a New Year’s resolution should be done within a year. That’s very constricting. You can set a long-term resolution that is achievable in five years, ten years, and so on. The opposite is also true. You can set a New Year’s resolution that’s achievable in a month, in a quarter, or in half a year!</span></p>
<figure class="wp-block-image alignnone size-large wp-image-5447 size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="610" src="https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/03/pexels-photo-1458318-1024x610.jpg" alt="Effective New Years Resolution" class="wp-image-10040" title="Effective New Years Resolution" srcset="https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/03/pexels-photo-1458318-1024x610.jpg 1024w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/03/pexels-photo-1458318-300x179.jpg 300w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/03/pexels-photo-1458318-768x457.jpg 768w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/03/pexels-photo-1458318-1200x714.jpg 1200w, https://production-prod-trueprofile-blogassets-origin.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/03/pexels-photo-1458318.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Write it down!</figcaption></figure>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Write it down</span></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As the end of the year draws in, write down what you want to accomplish. You don’t want the years to go by and not become the best person that you were meant to be. Make a more effective New Year’s resolution now!</span></p>
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