Why New Year Resolutions aren’t Stupid

Welcome to mid-February. According to a large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions Published in December 2020 in the National Library of Medicine, ?“One week into the new year, 77% of participants had maintained their resolutions; the number decreased to 55% after one month, 43% after three months, 40% after six months”*. So there's a 55+% chance you have already dropped your new year's resolution.

“New year, new you” often gets a bad rap because people often approach goal setting entirely wrong. Everyone has heard of SMART Goals, but the problem with smart goals is you end up focused on the result you’re hoping for at the end of the year and not the actionable input that leads to those results. For example: Let’s say one of your goals is to read 24 books this coming year. Sure, that goal is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and well as time-bound; ticking all the boxes of a SMART goal. You can even break it down further to track your progress at each monthly milestone. Surely, that seems like a perfectly fine target.

The problem with this goal is you haven’t actually put a plan together to achieve that objective, you just pulled a number out of thin air that “seems” realistic. What evidence do you have that 24 books is a realistic goal? Perhaps in years past you have kept track of the total books you’ve read and you have in fact read 24+ books, even without a set goal. That may be true, but how do you know that’s realistic for this year? How much reading time do you need to plan for and allocate in your day to achieve this target? ?

To answer this question, what you need to do is set up a short experiment and establish a hypothesis. If I commit to setting aside 30 minutes a day, am I likely to read 24 books in a year? Now we have a math problem in front of us, not a pie in the sky ideal.

The first part in the equation is assessing your reading speed, so let’s set up a simple time study. Set a timer, pick up a typical book in your collection, and read for 10 minutes. How many pages did you read? Let’s say you aren’t a speedy reader and your average reading speed is found to be about 2 minutes per page. Now how many pages are in an average book? Google says ~250. Now that you know how many pages you read per minute, ask yourself, how many minutes are you willing to set aside in your day to block out just for reading? And now we are prepared with an evidence-based approach to answer the question, if I read 30 min a day, will I reach my goal of 24 books this year?

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30 min per day / 2 minutes per page = 15 pages per day

15 pages read per day x 365 days in a year = 5475 pages

5475 pages read over the course of a year / average book size of 250 pages = 21.9 books

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Now we know that we know based on our average reading speed and estimated daily commitment, 24 books this year was in fact an unrealistic goal.? What we’ve done is broken down our goal into the variables that are within our control (time spent reading) vs the constant (reading speed) that’s unlikely to change. We identified the action that can be dialed up or down, in this case it’s total minutes per day. After we identified what variable we have the most control over, we completed a simple time study as a representative sample, then extrapolated that statistic across the course of a year.

?What happens if you modify your commitment to 35 minutes per day? Would an extra 5 minutes per day result in hitting our 24 book goal?

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35 min per day / 2 minutes per page = 17.5 pages per day

17.5 pages read per day x 365 days in a year = 6387.5 pages

6387.5 pages read over the course of a year / average book size of 250 pages = 25.6 books

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Even though I just showed you a better way to set realistic goals, why is “total books read” the target objective? Why not let your goal be a simple commitment to read 30 minutes a day and celebrate every time you keep that commitment regardless of total pages or books read? Why do you want to commit yourself to read every day? Is it because you love learning? Do you enjoy reading as a healthy form of escapism? Does it unwind your mind and allow you to get better sleep? What’s your why? Why is reading so important to you? How will that continued practice add to your life? These same questions can be applied to any goal you are thinking about setting for yourself.

Along those same lines, I would encourage you to ask, where is your sense of self in this practice? For example: I read because I know myself to be a visual based learner. I learn best by reading and formulating a rich image in my mind. If I listen to an audiobook or watch a documentary, the content rarely sticks. I see myself as someone who loves to learn and apply new skills. Therefore, the best way for me to grow and learn is to read. This is why I look forward to reading and it never feels like a chore.

New Year goals are not bad and not achieving them doesn’t make you a failure. You’ve just approached goal setting superficially. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with looking back at your past year with critical analysis and reviewing in what areas you want to grow. I don’t think it’s at all silly to have motivation or excitement for the new year as long as you take the time to understand why each goal matters to you and what you gain each time you practice it. Choosing to make a goal and commit yourself to practicing it is not stupid.

So set your goals, then break it down into its simplest form. Because ultimately it’s not about how many books or even pages you read, it’s recognizing that every moment you spend doing something you know deep down is important to you, you are committing your time and energy to a practice you value. You are what you consume. We don’t diet anymore; our food choices are a lifestyle. So, make a lifestyle out of your goals.

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* "A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals" Published online Dec 9 2020 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7725288/

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