Forget New Year's Resolutions … Let’s Talk SMART Goals

The psychology behind New Year’s resolutions is faulty at best. Resolutions can not lead to sustainable behaviors because change is a process. It requires motivation that turns into action that leads to change, not just a simple snapping of the fingers. Did you know that 80% of resolutions are abandoned by February? But why?

1.     Your behaviors are not just simple habits. Your behaviors have deep roots. Your behavior is a complex product of your environment as well as your genetic makeup.

2.     Avoidance is tricky. When you avoid something your anxiety decreases, when you face a fear and tackle something, your anxiety tends to increase. However, once you do face the thing that you have been avoiding you do have a decrease in stress. However, in order to face the things you have been avoiding you do have to tolerate a short term increase in anxiety. This can be difficult.

3.     Giving up behaviors that make you feel better is difficult. The most common resolutions have to do with giving something up…fast food, smoking, drinking just to name a few. However, just giving these up is not the answer. We need to replace those behaviors with positive coping skills. Without doing this we are essentially swimming upstream.

Here is a better solution. Set up a few SMART goals. What are SMART goals? SMART stands for

S- Specific. State what you will do utilizing action words.

M- Measurable. Provide a way to evaluate preferable utilizing data.

A-Achievable. Make sure it is something within your scope that is possible to accomplish.

R-  Reliable.  Makes sense within your life.

T- Time-bound. State when you will achieve it by, specific time or date.

For example an appropriate SMART goal would be: “I will call my mother 2x a week in order to develop an improved relationship with her.” Why is this SMART?

Specific: I will develop my relationships with my Mom.

Measurable: I will call my mom twice per week.

Achievable: I talk to my mom regularly, and we always say how it’d be nice to talk more.

Relevant: I want to deepen my social ties, feel more loved and supported in my life, and support those I love.

Time-bound: I will stick to this plan for 3 months, then re-evaluate and plan my next steps.

For more information on SMART goals, schedule a session at Sugar Loaf Mental Wellness where all of our therapists are trained in this form of goal setting…and may even use it themselves 😊