Try This to Set New Year’s Resolutions You’ll Actually Keep

It’s that time again: time to pull out the planners and chart a course for the new year.

For many people, setting New Year’s resolutions is an enjoyable process. It can be exhilarating to think of all the big things you plan to achieve. There is a sense of hope and possibility around this time that can difficult to recreate later in the year.

For others, this time of year is full of anxiety, disappointment, and even shame. Maybe you didn’t accomplish everything you wanted to over the past year. Perhaps you’re reminded of a resolution you’ve repeatedly set and failed to keep. You may feel so overwhelmed by your immediate challenges that it’s difficult to take a step back and think about the bigger picture.

Here’s some good news: failing to achieve goals doesn’t mean you are a failure. Setting goals isn’t necessarily something you’re good at right out of the gate; it is a skill you need to be practice and develop. Regardless of your past results, you can use certain strategies to set more realistic and meaningful New Year’s resolutions this time around.

I’ve previously written about finding goals which actually matter to you and the deeper meaning behind the most common health and fitness goals. Today I want to discuss goal setting from another angle: how the types of goals you set affects whether you make lasting changes.

Outcome Goals vs Habit Goals

We are all familiar with outcome goals:

• I want to lose 70lbs.
• I want to gain 15lbs of lean muscle.
• I want to deadlift twice my bodyweight.
• I want to run a sub 4 hour marathon.

All of these are worthy goals. Unfortunately, we ultimately don’t have much control over whether we achieve them because we cannot control exact numbers or outcomes.

What we can control are our actions and behaviors. That’s why I often work with clients to turn their outcome goals into habit goals.

A habit goal focuses on the actions you take to support your desired outcome. Accomplishing a habit goal is totally within your control because you are the one who decides whether you’ll take positive action every day.

Let’s look at the first goal listed above – wanting to lose 70lbs – and break it down into habit goals. What does it take to lose 70lbs? What habits do I need to develop to make this goal a reality?

• Consistently eat fewer calories than you consume (ultimately this is most important)
• Exercise regularly, preferably mixing strength training and cardio
• Averaging at least 7 hours of sleep every night
• Managing stress

These are the “big rocks” you need to move to lose a large amount of weight. But these are still too vague to make much of a difference in your daily life. So the next step is to break these down into a handful of smaller practices.

Let’s just look at the first bullet point, consistently eating in a caloric deficit. I’ll list the two nutrition practices which made the biggest impact on my journey to lose 70 lbs years ago:

• Logging my food every day to gain an awareness of how much food I was eating and make sure I wasn’t consuming too many calories. (Read more: All About Food Logging Parts 1, 2, and 3)
• Cooking my own meals at home most of the time so I could control the quantity and quality of my food. (Read more: How I learned to cook and you can too)

Once you’ve broken down your big rocks, your list should consist of things under your direct control. Cooking and logging my food were behaviors I could do every day to move the needle closer to my ultimate weight loss goal.

Instead of focusing on the number of pounds I wanted to lose, I focused on consistently nailing these new habits. Every day I checked those boxes, I could feel good about my choices. Although I couldn’t know exactly how much weight I would lose, I knew I would progress as long as I kept practicing these habits.

The Power of Daily Practice

The best habit goals are those you can practice every single day. Bonus points for goals like the two I listed above which you do multiple times per day.

It takes practice and patience to build new habits, especially if you’ve been set in your old ways for a long time. The more exposure you have to new positive changes, the more success you will have.

One of the best parts about setting habit goals is learning to love the process of self-improvement. It’s so easy to get hung up on numbers or fall prey to quick fixes when your only goal is to reach a specific outcome. You do whatever it takes to get where you want to go without considering whether your approach is sustainable. Once you reach your goal, it’s easy to fall back into your old ways and ultimately end up back where you started.

On the flip side, practicing habit goals helps you write a new script and make lasting changes. Even if you never reach the exact number or outcome you were hoping for, you will be better off than where you started. You learn what works for you and what doesn’t. You find ways to enjoy training, cooking, and whatever else you’re doing as opposed to just viewing them as means to an end. This is where the magic of lasting change happens.

One of the most powerful habit goals you can set in the new year is to become a more consistent exerciser. Getting in the gym on a regular basis benefits not just your physical health but also your mental health and sense of identity. Now is the best time to figure out how to make exercise a staple of your routine. If you’re struggling, check out my 4C System Course. I created this free 5-day email course to help busy professionals get more consistent with exercise. Sign up using the box below and you’ll receive the first lesson right away.

Have a happy new year and here’s to your good health!