I’m going to work out, eat healthier, lower my stress level, and reduce my screen time. Everyone has set some idealistic goals for the New Year, but few of us have completed them. Why is this? 

Let’s take a look at the common goals mentioned at the beginning of this article. Do you notice a pattern? These goals are all very vague with no timelines, targets, or actions to go with them. It’s easy to look at these goals and envision a perfect execution, where you go to the gym every day after school or skip scrolling through Instagram all the time. But the truth is, without a plan to get you where you want to go, those goals will just stay dreams.

This is where SMART goals come into play. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, and lays out the framework for a great goal. 

First, get specific. A vague goal like “I want to get in shape” makes it hard to take steps to achieve it. By honing in on the specific results you want to achieve, like running a 5k, learning how to swim, lifting weights, or training to do a pull-up, you gain a starting point to work from. From there, you can lay out the specific steps you need to take, such as learning proper pull-up form, joining a running group, or signing up for a swim class.

Second, you need a way to measure your progress towards your goal. If your goal is to reduce the time you spend scrolling on social media, you might use your phone’s screen time report to break down how much time you spend daily, weekly, or monthly.  Then, you need to define what success looks like for each step of your goal. If your goal is to reduce your time on social media, consider what percentage of your time you spend on your screen now and what you want it to be. After that, set targets that you can reach, such as “reduce my time on Instagram by 20% compared to last week”.

Third, your goals should be actionable. This means that you, not someone or something else, have control over the steps you need to take to reach your goal. One of the common resolutions that fails this test is getting a boyfriend or girlfriend. There are actions you can take to improve your chances of success, but in the end, your goal relies on another person’s actions to succeed. Taking actions that you control and improving yourself leads these goals to come true on their own, without the pressure of a resolution.

The realistic part of the SMART acronym can sometimes be the hardest part. While an important part of setting goals is to push yourself, your goals should be achievable. Winning a marathon or becoming the valedictorian may be a noble goal, but if you have never run before or have a low GPA, you are setting yourself up to fail.  Instead, aim for improvement, not perfection. You could focus on running a mile or turning in your assignments on time instead. The improvements you actually succeed at will surpass an unattainable goal you failed to reach.

Finally, your goals should have an end date. A year seems like a long time-frame when setting and starting goals, which can often cause people to procrastinate working towards their goal. By giving yourself smaller goals to work towards that are time-bound within your larger target, such as “run a mile in under 10 minutes by the end of January” or “eat a vegetarian dish two times this week” you break the larger task down into smaller, measurable steps that make you feel successful when you complete them. This can also motivate you by making you feel like you are actively achieving your goals instead of always pushing for something more. 

Furthermore, people change over the course of a year. You may not notice it as it happens, but you end the year with new experiences, values, and beliefs that you couldn’t have predicted. You change, and your goals should too. If you start the year off aiming to run a 5k by the end of the year, but have to stop running because of an injury and start playing pickleball with your friends instead, it may seem like you failed to reach the goal you had set. In reality, you just couldn’t predict what would happen, and you found a different activity that brings you joy. 

This can be highly frustrating, and it makes some people feel like giving up on setting goals altogether. Fortunately, I have a couple of suggestions to stop this cycle. First, try setting goals for seasons and have a winter, summer, spring, and fall goal instead of one for the whole year. This helps you have more achievable and time-bound goals, as well as allowing you to adapt to new situations and interests you may discover throughout the year. You could have completely unrelated goals, such as calling your grandparents more often in the winter and learning how to make food in the fall, or you could set a theme for your year. 

A theme is a one or two-word phrase that encompasses the types of goals you want to set for the year. For example, a year of connection could include goals such as writing letters to family and friends, reducing your screen time, learning a new skill from a grandparent, or making a new friend. Or you could have a year of wellness, where you learn how to cook, join a running club, start doing yoga, or improve your mental health. Other theme ideas include “adventure”, “health”, “nature”, “mindfulness”, “activisim”, or “learning”. The beauty of themes is their flexibility; your ideas of what “wellness” or “connection” mean can change throughout the year, and as long as you feel your life has improved in those areas, you have been successful.

Overall, stereotypical New Year’s Resolutions typically fail for 3 main reasons: they lack specifics, need a narrower time constraint, and don’t account for the fact that you will change throughout the year. By using the SMART goal acronym when planning your resolutions, setting seasonal goals that account for changing interests, and using a theme to guide sets of smaller goals, you can set yourself up to smash your goals this year. Happy New Year!