I recently saw a church sign that read something like, “May all your troubles last as long as your new year’s resolutions.” It’s humorous, of course, but it also makes us consider what use our new year’s resolutions are to begin with.
New year’s resolutions have gained the reputation of being short-lived and rightly so. The devotion to them is usually shallow, and when we make them, we usually don’t follow through. In fact, according to Ashira Prossack writing for Forbes, “Studies have shown that … only 8% [of people] accomplish [their resolutions].”
Since new year’s resolutions often have to do with losing weight, January is known to be the busiest month for gyms as people take a stab at exercise without the necessary commitment. That fact alone is telling of the ephemeral nature of new year’s resolutions and their negligible impact on our health.
Since short-lived new year’s resolutions are clearly limited in their effectiveness, it behooves the public to make long-term commitments, to stick to them and perhaps not to set our sights too high. Otherwise we run the risk of becoming discouraged; only to quit altogether.
Jeremy Hood, a Corporate Wellness Consultant for a paper mill, expresses his concern with new year’s resolutions.
“The biggest issue I see with ‘resolution’ exercisers is they are so caught up in what they used to be able to do that they can’t focus on the goal and bettering themselves where they are,” Hood said. “This leads to discouragement and often time makes people quit altogether or at least until next year. Making exercise a part of everyday life is a much better option.”
A helpful component to part of this long-term mindset, according to Forbes, is to replace new year’s resolutions with goals “because goals are specific, whereas resolutions tend to be broad and vague.”
In the College of Public Health, we learn to make SMART goals – ones that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-sensitive. These guidelines help ensure our goals are reasonable, and they make achieving the desired outcome more realistic than a half-hearted dream.
Setting goals like these may well be the avenue towards better health that we are looking for. If we implement them toward the vision of better health, we will likely find it much easier to maintain a habit of exercise throughout the year. When we do so, we will find our society healthier and more satisfied with our commitments, since, as Hood reminds us, “With exercise, consistency is key!”
