The smart way of setting goals that you should try
Illustration by Sage Blackwell.
We’ve all heard that New Year’s resolutions are nearly impossible to keep, and yet so many of us set these goals each year. This season, the Martlet set out to investigate the science behind resolution-making, and figure out this question once and for all: is there a better method of self-improvement?
After one month, only a quarter of people who make New Year’s resolutions keep them, according to Columbia University. I’m sure we can all think of goals we dreamed of accomplishing, only to abandon our plans once our daily lives got busy again in the new year.
Psychologists argue that one of the main reasons our resolutions fail is because we set goals that are too grandiose, lofty, or sweeping. They explain that humans aren’t designed for drastic changes that happen overnight — we’re wired for small, deliberate actions that we can reasonably accomplish.
For this reason, experts devised an acronym for goal-setting that is proven to make resolutions easier to attain. To illustrate, let’s pretend that our friend wants to write in their diary more this year. They can accomplish this by using the SMART goal method, which was invented in 1981 and was originally intended for use in business management.
S – Specific
“Writing more often” isn’t very specific, so it’s too vague to decide whether or not this resolution could be successful or not. But by setting the goal of writing one page per day for a year, this is something bite-sized that our friend is more likely to stick to.
M – Measurable
Again, writing one page per day is measurable, because it can be counted easily. When our goals are measurable, we are more likely to follow them. For our friend, the unknown of simply writing “more” can make the task seem much more daunting. Our friend can easily track whether or not they have achieved their goal each day, making daily challenges seem more manageable
A – Achievable
Goals need to be reasonable in order to be successful. Our friend knows that they have enough time at the end of each day to write in their diary, so writing one page is perfectly achievable for them. While it might not sound as glamorous as writing more detailed pages, or adding another daily log, our friend is more likely to follow the simple goal. It’s better to stick to something that might seem bland, than to fail at a loftier target.
R – Relevant
Any goal that you set for yourself and are motivated to achieve is probably relevant to your life somehow. If it weren’t, you wouldn’t be interested. Since our friend finds a lot of relief in diary writing, it makes sense for them to want to do this more often.
T – Time-bound
Timeliness matters because it takes the specific, daily task we’ve created, and situates it in the bigger picture of your life. For our friend, they might create monthly check-ins to monitor progress, but since the resolution is for a year, they can use that benchmark to measure if they succeeded or not.
Recent research regarding New Year’s Resolutions has also found that goals that are approach-oriented are more successful than those that are avoidance-oriented. For example, we’re more likely to keep goals like “doing yoga” or “walking daily” than goals like “stop watching TV” or “spend less time sitting down.” Ideally, SMART goals should be aimed at doing activities rather than cutting them out of your life.
It’s human to struggle, even with improving yourself. Hopefully, setting a SMART goal can help you accomplish your resolutions this year, without abandoning them when the semester starts getting hectic. I know I’ll try.
