Beat the Odds with your Resolutions
It’s that time of year–research has shown that by the third week in January, most people have abandoned their New Year’s Resolutions. It’s estimated 23% of people quit their resolutions by the end of the first week, 43% of people by the end of the first month and only 8% of people keep their resolutions through the year. 😮
New Year’s resolutions aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, and I get it: it can feel like kind of an arbitrary time to start new. That said, it is a new year and a fresh start–not just for you but for (many cultures of) the world, so I personally believe there’s a lot of value in using the momentum of the calendar to help create or accelerate you towards the change you are looking for in your organization. (In fact, it’s the second best time of year to make a change with leading your team!) Reflecting is one of the most important tools in any leader’s toolbox, and given how naturally the change of the calendar lends itself to reflection, introspection and a clean slate, I like it. (Gretchen Rubin calls this the strategy of the clean slate.)
While reflection on its own doesn’t necessarily mean you need to take an action step or resolve to change, it’s a natural outgrowth to me: “I did a great job exercising last year and I really want to keep that up!” “I let my finances get away from me and I don’t want that to happen again this year.”
Over my many decades of using the new year as a fresh start, both for me personally and professionally as well as for the teams I lead, there are a couple stumbling blocks I see that lead to people abandon their resolutions at the rate of 92%(!) through the year:
Your resolution and plan doesn’t consider all the elements needed to make it a success. By this I mean that they have considered some, but not all–and certainly not enough– of the factors that can make the difference between making a resolution and keeping it.
Let’s take a popular resolution: you want to exercise more. People say that, they resolve to do it, and in fact, they wake up on January 1 and go for a run. But by mid-January, it’s sputtering out. Turns out, depending on getting up to run before you go to work can mean running the dark, which may not feel safe. It’s also cold in many parts of the world, and without the right gear it can be really uncomfortable. It only takes one uncomfortable run where you don’t quite feel safe to bag the whole idea. Sure you could join a gym–but maybe there’s not time to actually stop and go by the time you have to be at daycare for pick-up, or the class you really like conflicts with a standing meeting there’s no way you can move.
Accountability is elusive. Sometimes people rely on their own willpower or desire, but willpower is a limited resource. Other times they may ask their partner or best friend to hold them accountable, but that can be a recipe for disaster (do you really want your bestie to be asking you “so did you go for that run this morning or not?” or your partner nudging you out of a cozy bed on a cold morning?!). Resolutions can feel personal too, so often there needs to be careful consideration: how can you build in mechanisms that will help you be accountable to reaching your goals that feel right for what you are trying to do? It’s one reason people will hire external coaches, or join group programs–investing in this kind of resource can compel people to follow through (“well, I spend the money so I might as well…”). It’s critically important to carefully consider what will work, how you respond to expectations (your own and others!) and build in accountability that will work. I am working on making 2024 the year I welcome big love into my life: I’ve been single for 5.5 years and I am ready for an amazing romantic partner. I know that given the inevitable ups and downs of dating, this will get discouraging: so I have an WhatsApp chat with a handful of single friends who have the same goal, and we are all reading some books about it and meeting weekly on Zoom to talk about our progress in what we’re doing and discovering about ourselves along the way. I know I need that, and for this goal, this accountability felt right. (I’m also telling people about it to increase this accountability ☺️.)
These examples are both individual resolutions, but examples abound with the teams you lead. Launching an initiative without a plan for investing others, training, monitoring and follow-through is all too common–and when you are the boss, it can be difficult to figure out how to build in accountability structures.
With any kind of change you’re planning, that’s why it’s critical that the plan is thought-through. It doesn’t have to be perfect (side note: making a perfect plan can often delay us from actually doing the work, so beware!) but it should consider all the anticipatable elements. You also want to think about how progress will be monitored and how you can be held accountable to doing the work, even if if it’s just putting a reminder in your calendar on the last day of every month that says “To what extent did you make progress on X goal this month?” or emailing me to tell me what you want to achieve.
This can be hard work, which is why people sometimes want to bring in an outside expert–and why I do the work I do. If you are interested in learning more, please book a call to chat–I’d be happy to share more insight. In the meantime, may the odds be ever in your favor with your resolutions!