New Year Smart Resolutions – What to Avoid

‘The journey is the destination’ is a favourite quote regarding New Year’s resolutions, as it highlights the planning and effective monitoring of set objectives needed to reach yearly targets. This article will cover the new year smart resolutions journey – and what to avoid moving towards a destination of personal and professional accomplishments.

At the start of this journey of accomplishment is the need to make goals SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-sensitive), as this will effectively define and direct efforts throughout the year. This SMART approach establishes a goal with a reasonable timescale and growth route, increasing the likelihood of success.

Setting Unrealistic Goals: New Year Smart Resolutions – What to Avoid

The fact that New Year’s resolutions are frequently unrealistic is one of the key causes of their failure. In 2002, a University of Scranton research found that just 8% of those who set intentions for the new year succeeded in reaching their objectives. According to a different 2010 research published in Clinical Psychology, having unachievable objectives might prevent progress and lead to disappointment with goals. As such, defining goals properly within the SMART framework will offer a clearer perspective.

Lack of Specificity

The inability of New Year’s resolutions to be particular is another factor contributing to their failure. The ‘S’ in the SMART framework is on the need for specificity with goals. For example, a goal to ‘read more’ lacks specificity compared to reading 1 hour daily. Goal attainment is more easily accomplished with particular goals than generic ones.

Action step: Provide specific information and metrics for each goal (Who, What, When, Where, and How)

How to make resolutions more precise and actionable.

• Choose clear objectives for the coming year and concentrate on achieving them.
• Create a detailed plan
• Start with achieving small goals around set objectives.
• Obtain the knowledge and assistance needed.
• Recommit daily to set goals, possibly write them down and place them visibly as a call to action.
• Never give up! This aligns with the Nigerian 2024 motto: ‘No gree for anybody,’ refuse to give up on that dream.

Neglecting Goal Planning: New Year Smart Resolutions – What to Avoid

Socrates famously said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”. Wandering through the days, weeks, months, and years without a destination or a strategy to reach that destination is a pathetic situation indeed. To avoid the depressing situation of such outcomes, there needs to be a day-to-day outline for achieving goals; nothing should be left to chance.

Making goals and resolutions without a daily implementation strategy is just wishing on the wind, as there needs to be an adequate implementation system around set goals which will aid their achievement.

Action plan: Make some goals, structure each daily activity to achieve set goals, and stay focused.

How to create a realistic action plan: New Year Smart Resolutions – What to Avoid

An action plan is a document that lays out the tasks you need to complete to accomplish set goals. It also breaks up the process into actionable steps based on a timeline. With a clearly defined starting and ending point assigned to each stage, an effective action plan would help with goal attainment and lay out all the measures required to accomplish them.

Follow these five steps to create a realistic action plan for 2024:

• Set SMART goals
• Outline an implementation strategy
• Set a timeline
• Allocate required resources to each step
• Monitor progress closely

Ignoring Obstacles

Whatever the size, detail, ease of attainment, or possibility of encountering a challenge, there’s always the possibility of encountering a challenge. Being optimistic about achieving set objectives breeds confidence, but there’s the need to have realistic expectations since there will always be obstacles to achieving goals. Therefore, being informed about and ready to handle such challenges is preferable.

Action step: Outline possible obstacles and prepare a suitable strategy to overcome such challenges.

Setting Too Many Resolutions: New Year Smart Resolutions – What to Avoid

A common mistake in resolution-setting is having too many and expecting too much too soon. Everybody wants to learn 25 different languages, 15 new job skills, and eliminate 5 bad habits, but such an approach will deplete our limited supply of willpower within a short time and leave us exhausted and disappointed. Only a finite amount of attention can be dedicated to self-improvement, so having too many resolutions will largely distract and complicate the journey to personal and professional growth.

As such, making a short list of resolutions to accomplish is the best strategy for 2024. The key here is prioritising and choosing essential goals that greatly improve the personal and professional experience.

Action step: Make a list of 15 goals in their order of priority, pick the top 5, and eliminate the rest till those matters of greatest importance have been achieved.

Prioritising Resolutions

Ensure that set targets for 2024 are simple and doable by applying lessons from previous goal-setting wins and failures. This year, prioritise goals accordingly; list them, cross off goals that are not urgent, and then closely monitor progress. Remember to share these goals with an accountability partner to ensure that attempts to achieve set goals for 2024 go beyond the first few months.

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Lack of Accountability

Partnering with an advisor, guide, or accountability partner ensures the right inspiration and drive to help achieve goals. With these in place, the chances of achieving set objectives will significantly improve.

When selecting an accountability partner, choose positive and uplifting people, especially during fatigue and gloom.

Not Tracking Progress: New Year Smart Resolutions – What to Avoid

By reviewing progress weekly or bi-weekly, areas for improvement are quickly identified, and excuses can be transformed into possibilities. When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and highlighted, the rate of improvement accelerates. Most of what appear to be obstacles are presumptions, unfounded conclusions, poor assessments, overanalysing, and old viewpoints. Consistency with resolutions is achieved with the help of a history of successes. As such, tracking and measuring progress will highlight the small wins that fuel the journey of resolution success.

Tools and methods for monitoring goal achievement

Goals can be tracked using various tools, from basic worksheets to sophisticated scheduling applications. Select a solution that simplifies monitoring and helps with improvement over time.

A goal-setting tool ideally allows for progress tracking towards SMART goals, KPIs, and OKRs.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

• A SMART goal is a goal achievement guide with specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound goals.
• A KPI (Key Performance Indicator) can help individuals determine if they’re progressing toward their objectives.
• OKR (Objectives and Key Results) is a goal-setting method that helps teams and individuals define goals and devise a way to measure them.

Examples of software that aids in monitoring goal achievement are Data Box, Lattice, goals.com, click-up, goals on Track, etc.

Giving Up Too Soon

Accept responsibility for mistakes made and continue toward the next assignment. Avoid giving up too quickly; if a study session is missed, make up for it the next day and continue the journey. A few small errors shouldn’t ruin the year-long goal.

Celebrating Small Wins

Even though these tiny accomplishments might not seem like much at first, acknowledging and celebrating them can greatly influence self-image, drive, and optimism. Celebrating little victories is essential to individual development and continued drive toward achieving goals.

Setting rewards for reaching specific objectives can be beneficial as motivation can fade gradually without them. Rewards can range from clothing items to vacations, depending on the objective accomplished.

Conclusion: New Year Smart Resolutions – What to Avoid

Meaningful decisions are flexible. They need space for evaluation and revision to be useful and effective as situations change.  Create a strategy for reviewing the resolutions again, tracking progress and adjusting as needed. Resolutions have more sustainability when they align with personal and professional growth. Plan ways to align the new year’s goals with professional growth to ensure that objectives support career progression.

Let’s adopt intentional goals as we start this new year. By doing this, we improve our chances of achieving these objectives and adding to a greater story of constructive change throughout humanity.