How to Rescue Your New Year’s Resolutions

Reframe your resolutions and make a road map to achieve them.

By the third week of January, many people feel their New Year’s Resolutions start to fade.

It’s not too late to rescue your 2022 resolutions. This article shows how to reframe resolutions to increase success. It uses the story of a writer, Courtney, to illustrate the resolution reframing and support processes and points to resources with examples for other self-improvement resolutions.

His resolution was to write more in 2022.

The New Year is a chance for a fresh start.

In his article Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail, Tony Robbins tells us that

We look at New Year’s Eve not only as a celebration of the year, but a chance for a fresh start — that’s why we create resolutions.

According to Forbes article 4 Reasons To Make New Year’s Resolutions (Even If You Don’t Keep Them), “about a quarter of Americans will make resolutions, and most people think they’ll accomplish them — 20% in fact. Most people are optimistic, with 86% expecting 2022 to be the same or better than 2021. And the younger people are, the more optimistic they are about the future.”

The most popular resolutions relate to self-improvement — weight loss, healthier living, sleeping better, being happier, exercising, stopping smoking, and reducing drinking. Other popular areas are advancing careers and improving relationships.

We believe the new year will bring us the willpower to achieve our resolutions. Willpower is essential, but achieving resolutions boils down to changing behaviors. It needs a process to reframe the resolutions and a road map to guide us through the ups and downs of changing habits.

Review the current situation to reframe resolutions.

We declare resolutions when we are unhappy about the current situation. Still, we don’t have time to think about what’s needed to change it. Answering a few questions will help reframe resolutions in ways that stand a better chance of success:

1. Current situation: What are we unhappy about the current situation? What is causing the unhappiness?
2. New desired situation: How would the new desired situation look? This should be the base for the description of a resolution.
3. Behaviors to change: What behaviors would we need to change to achieve the new situation?
4. Involved parties: Does the change involve only changing our habits, or are there other people who need to come on board to succeed?
5. Consequences of not changing: What would happen if we don’t change the current situation?
6. Long-term consequences: What are the long-term consequences of achieving our resolution?

A few years back, Courtney decided to become a writer to keep his brain busy and reduce the risk of memory loss. Of course, there were other reasons — the satisfaction of publishing and learning new things, engaging with his readers and other writers. His answers to the above questions were:

1. Current situation: I’m unhappy that I’m not using the full potential of my brain. The frequency of my Medium publications makes me unhappy. I’ve been writing a novel, but I haven’t progressed significantly in the last year.
2. New desired situation: publishing more frequently in Medium and finishing the novel’s first draft is a more accurate description of my 2022 resolution.
3. Behaviors to change: I need to change the habit of writing sporadically and without consistent word or time limits.
4. Involved parties: I can change my writing habits and I need to negotiate time priorities with my family.
5. Consequences of not changing: If I don’t change the current situation, I risk memory loss and living in perpetual dissatisfaction with my writing aspirations.
6. Long-term consequences: I’ll prolong my mental and physical health and share my past experiences, research, and analytical skills with my readers. I’ll make a difference in the lives of the readers of my novel.

A road map assists people in achieving resolutions.

Once we clarify what would happen if we don’t change the current situation, we are ready to make an unwavering commitment to achieving the resolutions.

The Psychology Today article The Only Way to Eat an Elephant: How we set our goals has everything to do with whether or not we achieve them, says that

Desmond Tutu once wisely said that “there is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.” What he meant by this is that everything in life that seems daunting, overwhelming, and even impossible can be accomplished gradually by taking on just a little at a time.

A road map is a list of goals that would take us from the current to the desired situation. Like in any other planning process, goals should be SMART. That’s an acronym coined in the journal Management Review in 1981 for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

The answers to the questions above would prepare Courtney to establish his SMART goals.

Specific goals are clear, not vague: publishing one article in Medium every week and finishing the novel first draft by June 30, 2022.

Measurable goals are verifiable: every week Courtney publishes an article, he will achieve his weekly goal. He will also reach his goals if the novel first draft is ready by June 30, 2022.

Achievable goals are realistic and need a way to help Courtney know if he’s on target to reach the goal. The number of articles per week and June 30, 2022, may be realistic considering his time availability and family demands. He needs to establish metrics — a specific number of hours and words per day required to write an article per week and finish a novel draft of 50,000 words. These metrics will help him know if he’s reaching his goals.

Relevant goals really matter to Courtney because they’re good for his brain and memory health and writing aspirations and he’s bringing people into his life who will reinforce his resolutions.

Time-bound goals give Courtney realistic time frames to achieve the goals — June 30, 2022, for the novel draft and publishing an article every Wednesday.

It’s not too late to rescue your New Year’s resolutions.

Use the processes discussed above to reclaim your resolutions, even if they seem to be fading and you are starting to feel some frustration.

1. Review the current situation and answer the six questions to reframe your resolutions. Maybe the original New Year’s resolutions don’t change much. Still, answering the questions will clarify why and how you want to change the current situation and what other parties are involved. You may also realize that you were too optimistic during New Year’s Eve. You declared many resolutions and you have to prioritize them.
2. Make a list (road map) of the goals that will guide you to achieve your resolutions. Define the corresponding metrics or indicators to help you know if you are on target to achieve these goals.
3. Although not discussed before, other involved parties committed to supporting your resolutions may be helpful. You may want to enroll some trusted people in supporting the achievement of your goals.
4. The articles cited here are excellent resources for examples of reframing your resolutions and establishing SMART goals for self-improvements, advancing careers, and improving relationships. These are the links again:

Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail — Tony Robbins.

4 Reasons To Make New Year’s Resolutions (Even If You Don’t Keep Them) — Forbes.

The Only Way to Eat an Elephant: How we set our goals has everything to do with whether or not we achieve them — Psychology Today.

How to Make (and Keep) a New Year’s Resolution — The New Your Times.