A Science Based Approach to New Year’s Resolutions

The start of a new year is often a time of self-reflection — a time to reevaluate one’s habits and behaviours, and make plans for the year ahead. The new year can be very stressful and overwhelming, especially with the influence of social media and the seemingly constant stream of content highlighting everyone’s goal-setting habits. Thankfully, there is a lot of science that can be utilized to support the development and execution of effective new year’s resolutions. It’s important to note that it’s not only about if and when one sets a new year’s resolution, but how it is created and the intention behind it. Not all resolutions are created equally! Here are some tips to create science-based new year’s resolutions that will help you to achieve your academic, personal, professional and health goals!

Evaluate the Areas of Your Life

The first step towards creating a new year’s resolution is to reflect on the past year. Think about the various areas of your life, such as health, relationships and professional development, and try to evaluate your current progress. Here are some guiding questions to ask yourself:

1. In what areas of my life did I excel in during the last year?
2. What areas of my life did I struggle in during the last year?
3. What are my long-term goals for this area of my life?
4. What are my short-term goals for this area of my life?
5. How do I want to challenge myself in the coming year?

How to Set Effective Goals

Once you have decided on the areas that you want to prioritize improving in, it is time to set goals! The following science-based principles can be used to make realistic goals for yourself.

Approach-Oriented Versus Avoidance-Oriented Goals

In their 2020 study, Oscarsson et al. investigated whether study participants were more successful with their new year’s resolutions based on if they had set approach-oriented or avoidance-oriented goals. Approach-oriented goals are guided by the possibility that once conducted, the action will have positive effects and avoidance-oriented goals are created with the intention of evading a negative outcome (Elliot, 1999). When asked to reflect on their progress, 58.8% of those who made approach-oriented goals said they were successful, as compared to 47.1% of those who made avoidance-oriented goals (Oscarsson et al., 2020). Evidently, the mindset with which we make goals is just as relevant as the goals themselves. When making new year’s resolutions, set them with the intention of improvement rather than

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

The S.M.A.R.T. framework, first described by George T. Doran in 1981, is a very popular method of goal-setting that has been used in the media and evaluated in scientific literature since its initiation. The S.M.A.R.T. acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Assignable*, Realistic* and Timely (Doran, 1981). Therefore, the S.M.A.R.T. framework can help you to make goals that are highly individualized and realistic to your lifestyle.

*Although the original framework created by Doran (1981) used “assignable” as the criterion for the “A” in S.M.A.R.T., “achievable” is also commonly used depending on the source material. The same principle also applies to the criterion used for the “R” in S.M.A.R.T., where the term “relevant” may be used instead of “realistic”.

Putting it All Together — An Example of How You Can Implement These Strategies in Your Everyday Life

Here is an example of how you can put these goal setting strategies into practice when making
your new year’s resolutions:

1. Evaluate the areas of your life that need improvement: I want to improve my sleep schedule.
2. Creating a goal with positive intentions: I want to improve my sleep schedule to improve my attention, cognitive functioning and alertness.
3. Applying the S.M.A.R.T. framework:

• Specific — I want to improve my sleep schedule by having a consistent bedtime
• Measurable — I want to sleep for 8 hours each night by going to bed at 11 pm and waking up at 7 am.
• Achievable** — I will achieve this goal gradually by going to bed 10 minutes earlier each night until I reach 11 pm.
• Realistic — I have determined that going to bed 10 minutes earlier each night is reasonable with my schedule.
• Timely — I will adhere to this schedule for 2 months.

**For the purpose of this example, “achievable” was used in place of “assignable”.

Closing Remarks

Using science-based approaches to cultivate new year’s resolutions is sure to help you reach your goals and aspirations this year. Happy goal setting!

References

Doran, G. T. (1981). There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write managements’s goals and objectives. Management Review., 70(11), 35–36.

Elliot, A. J. (1999). Approach and avoidance motivation and achievement goals. Educational psychologist, 34(3), 169–189. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep3403_3

Oscarsson, M., Carlbring, P., Andersson, G., & Rozental, A. (2020). A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals. PLoS One, 15(12), e0234097. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234097