Thanks to my concert teaching spin classesI have a front row seat to a reliable annual phenomenon: my classes packed for the first few weeks of the year as people make New Year's resolutions – but by mid-February I'm back to teaching normal-sized groups of people who are grateful that the “January joiners” are gone. However, I'm always sad to see new faces go because I do I think it's possible to set a New Year's resolution and stick to it, even if it's not the norm.
There are plenty of self-improvement goals you can set heading into the new year, both in and out of the gym, but no matter what you're trying to do, it's important to have an implementation strategy that will ensure you actually achieve it. One way to better prepare yourself for success is to add “hints” to your solutions. Here's why it works and how to do it.
How to Link Your New Year's Resolutions to Signals
The more specific your goals are, the better they will turn out. This is true for almost everything, which is why I recommend SMART goals for everything. from studying to map your personal productivity plan. For those unfamiliar, a SMART goal is a clearly defined goal that includes specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound elements, such as: “I will cook four meals a week every week for the first three months of the year, and then determine if I can add more or if I should stay at four meals.” You can already see how much better this is than “I'll start meal prepping this year,” but SMART goals are just one option and we have work to do.
If you wake up on Saturday morning and want to organize your living space, you'll have more success identifying the room you want to clean than just trying to “clean the house,” right? When it comes to New Year's resolutions, this specificity is important because you're planning for 12 months of change and you'll need some sort of road map. Instead of saying you've decided to “eat healthier,” you should identify what's missing from your diet and then drill down into it: “I want to eat 10 more grams of protein every day,” for example.
This is where the tips will become valuable. Research shows that adding a cue—literally, a set trigger for action—to your goals can help you achieve them better. On a smaller scale, I have recommended this approach using what I call “accumulation of habits“, which you can do by attaching a habit you want to develop (such as answering all your outstanding emails every day) to a habit you already have (such as brewing and drinking your morning coffee). You practice a new habit while maintaining the old one, and over time, the new habit also takes root.
We rely on automatic processes to carry out routine activities in our daily lives, such as how we simply automatically turn on the coffee pot when we wake up or grab our keys when walking out the door. In such cases, waking up and walking out the door is actually a signal that signals to our brain that it is time to complete the second half of the process. Building decisions around signals will also help them become second nature. Here are some examples:
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If your New Year's resolution is to save a certain amount of money by December, phrase it something like this: “When I spend X dollars, I will transfer Y dollars into savings.”
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If you want to be more productive at work, try turning on Pomodoro Technique to the resolution: “When I have worked for 25 minutes, I will take a five-minute break.”
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“When I sit down at my desk, I answer all the new emails.”
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“When my meetings are over, I will spend five minutes meditating.”
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“When work is finished, I’ll put on my sneakers and go straight to the gym.”
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“When the news ends at 6:00, I’ll call my mom.”
This approach combines the specificity needed for realistic goal setting with the proven method of habit accumulation, setting you up for more success than the vague desire to “exercise more” or “call home more” ever could.
What are your thoughts so far?
Why Prompts Work for Achieving New Year's Resolutions
There are several reasons why tying your decisions to existing signals will help you stick to them. First, you create these automatic processes in your brain, essentially forcing your subconscious mind to act whenever your trigger occurs. Yes, it will take a few weeks of conscious effort, but you will already know When you have to act on your new habit, and that's half the battle.
Working this way also leaves less room for error. If you don't have a clear schedule and prompts, you can easily forget to complete a new task or even actively avoid it. Setting calendar reminders can help here too, as a push notification can further emphasize that it's time to get started, and a visual reminder that you need to do something can prevent you from double-booking. If your cue to go to the gym is at 5, it will take you a few weeks to get into the habit of declining an invitation to go out for drinks after work, so blocking it out on your calendar every day after work will help you stay on track. However, you need to set yourself up for success by taking a few steps to make sure your signal and action are feasible. In the example above: “When work is finished, I will put on my sneakers…” – you need to put the sneakers in your bag for them to work. If you have to walk home between the office and the gym, you may not be so easy to get back and complete your workout. My goal over the past few months has been to do more morning exercise. I did a lot of lifestyle restructuring to make this possible, but among the most important steps The night before, I lay out my workout clothes, sneakers, and gym gear so when I wake up, all I have to do is put them on and go.
Stick to your cues, but give yourself some space in the first few weeks. You may find that the time you set doesn't fit with your existing schedule. You simply can't achieve a goal if you can't make it work. Research shows that if you follow the tips method, it will take on average about two months to form a habit, so use this time to note what works, what doesn't, and what can be changed. For example, if you have a goal to be more connected to friends and family, you might align your call home signal with the time you spend doing the dishes each evening, only to find that you are too tired in the evening or eat out too often for the signal to stick. Switching the signal to call home when you get in the car to head to work in the morning may work better. Just make sure you stick with it once you figure out the best time.
