As we begin 2024 with a fresh start, millions of people have started their New Year Resolutions: Exercise more/lose weight, spend more time with family/friends, save money, reduce social media time, etc., all excellent goals that are worth striving for, but most will never be completed.
Why is that?
The simple answer is people do not know how to develop their goals. Let’s take for example the idea of losing weight/exercising more. It is most likely the most common New Year resolution that people attempt to complete, but consistently fail to do so. This is because it is a generic goal. What I mean by generic is that there is no substance to this goal. Health and weight loss look different for everyone. Does health mean cutting back on smoking? Walking more? Going to the gym regularly? Or is it losing ten pounds? Getting stronger? Developing muscle tone? The generic goal of exercising more/lose weight can mean anything. Because it can mean anything, it means nothing.
Any goal that you set to be completed should mean something. You need SMART goals.
SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Oriented. Let’s take a look at how SMART goals differ from some not-so-smart goals. We’ll use the generic goal of saving money. Money is one of the biggest stressors in our lives.
Goal: Saving Money
Generic Goal
- Specific: Save Money
- Measurable: Will put money somewhere
- Achievable: Unclear of how much money needs to be saved
- Relevant: It is relevant to good financial health to have savings, but as we don’t know how much to save, we don’t know which expenses to cut back on or where we should be looking for our expenses.
- Timely: We don’t know when we’re supposed to stop saving money. How long does this goal go on for?
SMART Goal
- Specific: Save $1,000
- Measurable: You can see your progress by checking your savings account.
- Achievable: To save 1,000 by December 2024 would require that you deposit about $84 every month. This can be done by cutting back on certain expenses like Uber Eats or reviewing finances and seeing where the expenses lie.
- Relevant: This goal is relevant to your financial health.
- Timely: By completing this goal, you can start 2025 with a nice bit of savings.
See the differences between the goals? The SMART goal has structure to it. We know where we need to be every month to meet the goal, we have a specific amount of money to deposit, and we have a location where the money will live and accrue interest. Whereas the Generic goal remains generic. It lacks an end goal, milestones to be met, and most importantly how much money needs to be saved to begin with. If you’re not sure what the end goal is, how are you ever going to get started? This is where a lot of people get tripped up when setting their goals and this is why most New Years Resolutions fail.
By using SMART goals in your goal setting, you’ll be able to set yourself up for future success while avoiding the common pratfalls that most people encounter when attempting their New Years resolution.
As always, if you or a loved one are struggling is in crisis, experiencing severe emotional distress, or in need of immediate assistance, please do not solely rely on the information provided on this blog. Instead, we strongly encourage you to seek help from qualified mental health professionals or utilize the hotlines here. If you are seeking therapeutic services and do not know where to begin, please consider Psychology Today.
