Your Best Year Yet: Build resolutions backed by SMART goals

UNION, Mo. – Is it your New Year’s resolution to achieve your New Year’s resolution? Studies show that nearly 80% of people who set a New Year’s resolution fail within the first few weeks.

Why is that? We often set goals that are too vague, unachievable or idealistic. Common resolutions include exercising more, eating a better diet, losing weight or saving money. While these might all be good intentions, they don’t give us a clear path to success or even an indicator of how success would look. Creating a “SMART” goal is one tactic we can use to give us a better chance of achieving our goals.

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/Relevant and Time-bound.

Specific. Describe exactly what you want to do. Eating healthier is a good idea, but not specific. But saying “I want to include more fruit with breakfast” is getting more specific.

Measurable. Consider how you can measure your progress and create accountability. This would change our example to “I plan to have one apple or banana with breakfast each morning this week,” which is something you can measure.

Achievable. Think about what you will need to achieve the goal. Do you have the resources, or do you know where to find them? Back to our fruit example. Would it be helpful to find healthy recipes for breakfast items that use fruit? Would shopping seasonal produce be more budget-friendly and give you a higher-quality product? Include these details as a part of your final goal.

Realistic/Relevant. It is a lot easier to accomplish things we want to do and can do than to accomplish the things that we feel we should do. For any goal, consider how much or how often you can realistically do something and how much you want to complete that task. Instead of starting off by having a piece of fruit with breakfast every day of the week, including fruit with breakfast four days a week might be more realistic.

Time-bound. Add a time frame to your goal. Is it for a week, a month or longer? Setting a time frame gives you a marker to work toward; then you can decide to continue your work or switch to a new goal.

If you’ve already set that goal for the new year, be sure to check in with yourself on how it is going and if you need to make modifications to have a better chance of success in the long run. Remember, we are focused on progress, not perfection.

Adapted from: New Year’s Resolutions: Why Do We Give up on Them So Quickly?, Baylor College of Medicine, How To Create New Year’s Resolutions That Last! Colorado State University College of Health and Human Sciences.

Maria Calvert is a University of Missouri Extension field specialist in human development based in Franklin County and serving the counties of Crawford, Franklin, Gasconade, Lincoln, Montgomery, St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve, Warren and Washington.