If you didn’t make any resolutions, you’re not alone. According to the Marist College poll, 44 percent of Americans have no plans to make any resolutions. The remaining 56 percent may not set achievable goals.

Goals are tricky.

The first thing to remember is that a goal can be made any time, any day, and if the goal turns out to be ineffective, it’s okay to revise and begin again. Even more important, a goal or resolution needs to be positive, and doable.

Many people vow to exercise more, which is why gym memberships spike in January. By March, attendance is down to it’s usual numbers, and the gym has your money.

There are other ways to exercise. For example, stand up paddling is a rigorous workout by anyone’s standards. Do it two or three times a week, for the joy of it.

Many people make resolutions that require a total lifestyle change. Over time, this can be a positive process. But committing to everything at once dooms us to failure. Researchers say that the reasons resolutions fail is because we focus on things that, for various reasons, we haven’t been able to do before. “I resolve to exercise.” Okay, what’s stopping you?

Often the resolution gives us instant gratifications that we’re doing the right thing, but when we go to the gym, we don’t enjoy it. Muscle tone doesn’t appear after two weeks, and the gang wants to go for a beer after work. Or you need to stop by the store. Before you know it, automatic responses sabotage the resolution to exercise. But wait, maybe the guy meditating has the right idea. We need to focus on a specific task. Put it in the calendar. “I’m not just going to exercise. I’m going to go to the gym Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and stand-up paddle on Saturday.” May as well be ambitious. As you keep your appointments with yourself, they become a habit. And six months later, you’ll have a habit and toned muscles.

Resolutions are about setting goals.

Let’s use switching to a Mediterranean Diet as an example of goal-setting.

Successful Goal Setting requires five attributes. The goal must be:
1. Specific — I will eat better by following a Mediterranean Diet.
2. Measurable — I will measure how well I’m doing by keeping a food diary.
3. Achievable — I will purchase fruits and vegetables on a weekly basis, and learn how to prepare them.
4. Realistic — We have local Farmers’ Markets and a good health food store that sells local produce.
5. Timely — I start my new Mediterranean Diet today.

If you want to achieve your goal, be S.M.A.R.T. about it.

And do it because it’s what you want to do, not what you should do.

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ILLUSTRATIONS:

Cartoon of meditating man by Vectortoons. Creative Commons Attribution.

The Acrian C. “Ace” Israel Fitness Center at Yale University. Public Domain.

Woman Stand up Paddle surfing by Bill Ebbesen. Creative Commons Attribution.

Mediterranean Diet Foods by g.steph.rocket. Creative Commons Attribution.

S.M.A.R.T. illustration by Author.

Goal Setting Basics.

Georgene Huang. “4 Ways to Make Your Career Resolutions Stick in 2018.” Forbes. Jan 6, 2018.

Melissa Matthews. “New Year’s Resolutions 2018.” Newsweek. Dec. 28, 2017.

Claire Maldarelli. “Why Your Brain makes New Year’s Resolutions Impossible to Keep.” Popular Science. Dec 16, 2016.

Katie Uniacke. “8 Things to Remember Before Setting 2018 New Year’s Resolutions.” A Conscious Rethink. Dec 6, 2017.

The post Be S.M.A.R.T This Year first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Here it is – my first blog of 2017. Ouch! Still hurts to write the new date. As the illustration points out, it seems 1913 was only the day before yesterday. But time marches on and so does another year of celebratory rituals.

Rituals are closely related to routines, and one of my regular routines is to get away from my computer to walk by the sea. I’m not always sure this is good for me. I could be just on the verge of a fascinating plot point, but I tell myself I must go outside and see actual people. Sometimes I see something even better — in this case the Honu, or green sea turtles, I saw last week.

Not all routines are good, of course — which is probably how the custom of New Year’s Resolutions began. I will spare you the historical details. The point is, for some reason a new year marks the perfect time to RESOLVE to stop dancing above my neighbor’s apartment at 1:00 a.m. But will I? Perhaps I could dance in toe shoes instead of tap shoes…or maybe do a soft-shoe routine. Would that work?

Or, I RESOLVE to clean out the garage…except I found these really cool glass bottles and maybe I could use them for perfume bottles if I cleaned them out.

Ellen DeGeneres has a good routine about that sort of resolution and its cousin procrastination.

PROCRASTINATION

In short, Resolution’s cousin

Procrastination can destroy anyone’s resolve.

Actually, Resolution as a term for setting goals isn’t a good word to use, because we generally expect to break our Resolutions within two months and are seldom disappointed in that assumption. A few years ago I started using the term Revolution instead. As in, it would take a revolution for me to clean out the garage.

But wait, there’s a better way. A S.M.A.R.T way.

S.M.A.R.T has nothing to do with aggressive Resolutions or Revolutions. It uses a kinder term – goal-setting. Kinder because using the S.M.A.R.T. System you can’t fail. Well, you can if you want to. Check out this video featuring Smart Goal Man.

Smart Goal Man is mildly irritating, but he does make a S.M.A.R.T. point. Heh heh. In order for a Goal or Resolution or Revolution to succeed, it needs to be:

Specific or it can’t be achieved;

Measurable or we won’t know if we achieved it;

Attainable, because if my goal is to rapell down the Matterhorn

it isn’t going to happen, ever.

Realistic, see Attainable

Timely which I interpret as a goal that will or won’t happen

within a defined time period.

So, let’s take that from the theoretical to the actual.

I Resolve to Reach the Following Revolutionary Goal by the end of 2017:

Completed manuscript for MALICE: The Case that Scandalized 1883 Calcutta.

Will I succeed? Hmmm….We’ll know by this time next year.

What are your goals for 2017? Leave a comment.

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In case you’re wondering, G. T. Doran came up with the term S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting in 1981.

Images:

New Year Baby, 1913. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons

Bottle Collection by Russ Pollanen. Creative Commons Attribution. Wikimedia Commons.

Other illustrations by Author.

Resources:

Personal Goal Setting: Planning to Live Your Life Your Way. Mindtools.com

Golden Rules of Goal Setting: Five Rules to set yourself up for success. Mindtools.com

Michael Ditton. Start Smart Goals Setting. Goal Setting Basics

Doran, G. T. (1981). “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives”, Management Review, Vol. 70, Issue 11, pp. 35-36.

Will Meek. How to Set Goals. Psychology Today. Aug 25, 2013

The post S.M.A.R.T. GOALS for 2017 first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.