Rethinking Resolutions

What if we didn’t make New Year’s resolutions, but instead made lifetime resolutions? Nearly 45% of Americans start the New Year with great intentions to make positive changes in their life. Of those people, only 8% typically succeed in their goals. That is great news for the 8%, but what about everyone else that wanted to make personal improvements and didn’t succeed? It doesn’t take long for the months to fly by and for those fresh new goals to become a distant memory.

So let’s change how we think about resolutions.

This year, while you are thinking about what you want to accomplish, set out to make a true behavior change. If you change your behavior instead of small, short term changes, the impact will continue for many years versus a few months. For example, you might want to lose weight or build up your savings. Start with setting a long-term goal (e.g., five years from now) and then break it into smaller pieces (e.g., in six months). Having a long-term goal and realistic smaller steps to get there will help you make lasting life changes.