A beginning of a new year is the time when most of us decide to set a personal plan. In such a plan we usually include new personal goals, career goals, and future plans that you want to achieve by the end of that particular year.
But let me ask you one thing. Reflecting on your personal life and your previous goal setting attempts, how many goals have you achieved?
Most of us get in the rush of setting ambitious new year’s resolutions. Do you have this feeling that you want to achieve so much in that year, but then as time passes, you even forget about your commitments? And yes, end up not meeting even half of them?
You’re not alone! It’s not because you’ve decided to quit – after all self-improvement is important for all of us! What I found prevents us from keeping our commitments is a lack of focus and clarity in the goals we set for ourselves.
According to the work by Richard Wiseman, 88% of people that set New Year’s resolutions fail to meet them. This study also showed that if your goal setting activity focuses on developing SMART goals, there is a 22% higher likelihood that you actually achieve your resolutions.
So how can you set and keep your new year’s resolutions to achieve a positive impact on your life and wellbeing?
Why we don’t achieve our goals?
Why we don’t meet our individual goals, even though they seem so valuable and relevant to us at the beginning of the new year? One of the main reasons why we don’t achieve our new year’s resolutions the fact that we write them down (assuming that we do so!) as a generic statement.
For example, when setting goals you may say that you want “to eat healthier”, “exercise more”, “take care of your wellbeing, mental health”, or “improve my self confidence”.
Does this sound familiar?
Such goals are rather generic and not very effective. Without actionable goals the tracking of your progress, ideally on daily basis, is difficult. But on that later.
Effective goal setting and goal writing is a great skill to have in academia. This is because as academics, we often need to set short term and long term goals. This is fundamental to efficient time management and project management, as without deadlines and milestones we wouldn’t be able to measure our progress.
So what strategy should you take this year to set realistic goals that you can achieve with less effort in the long run?
You should set SMART goals
Use SMART goals to set your new year’s resolutions! We discussed what SMART goals are and how you can use them in your research.
