Resolutions Revised

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Resolutions Revised

Resolutions, or goede voornemens, are a traditional part of the new year. Around 40% of people in the Netherlands make new year's resolutions, with Gen-Z leading at 64% (NN Group, 2024). Many want to be more active and lose weight. Spending more time with family, being more financially responsible, and working less are other popular goals. But while these improvements sound great, many people fail to even start, or quit after a few months. A study by Bloomberg (2019) showed that most people stop going to the gym after 3 weeks. And a study by Duolingo (2016) found that only around 50% of new year sign-ups still use the app after 30 days. So why do so many people make resolutions, and why do so many fail?

Often, people want to set big goals. They want to go to the gym five times a week or stop eating fast food. This makes sense, as people want to make big changes, but this is often the reason they fail. A study on goal setting by Latham (1968) gives insight into why people fail: vagueness and difficulty.

So, should we think of smaller, easier goals? Not necessarily. The study suggests that people with challenging goals work harder than those with easy goals. Bigger challenges increase performance by creating a sense of urgency and motivation, while easy goals do not push people to do better. But there is a limit to this. Setting challenging goals does not mean setting impossible goals. Doing this sets you up for failure by making the end goal seem too far away. The paper says the goals need only to be "challenging" for people to push harder (Latham, 1968).

But what if you want to achieve big things? To attain big goals, we must look at the second issue, vagueness. A goal like "get fit," "eat less," or "learn a language" is a good final goal, but it lacks specificity. It's important to first set a specific end goal, then create smaller, challenging sub-goals. These sub-goals are easier to track and provide a better sense of achievement. This not only makes goals easier to achieve, but also lets you focus more on the process. If your goal is to get fit, you might set "running a marathon" as the end goal. To stay motivated, you could set "running 1 kilometer more every week, 3 times a week" as a smaller, but challenging, sub-goal.

So, if you made a new year's resolution this year, and maybe have already failed or not even started, use this article to rethink your resolution. Look at the end goal, make it more specific, and create a list of what you need to do every day or week to reach this goal. Set a reminder in your calendar every one or two weeks to check your progress. If you haven’t gotten further, reconsider your sub-goals. Think about why you failed and what you can adjust to reach your final goal. Make the journey rewarding, not just the finish line.

References

  • Triple A
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