2020 Goals and Resolutions — There Is Room for Both
As an employee friendly workplace architect, organization culture, workplace climate, goals and resolutions are part of my daily world. Like organization culture and workplace climate, goals and resolutions are related, but separate concepts. Since both sets of these terms are not synonyms, they cannot be used interchangeably.
Typically this time of year, considerable ink and electrons are expended around the issue of people making resolutions for the coming year. Since January 1, 2020 will also mark the beginning of a new decade, we are likely to see resolutions being made for the coming 2020 decade.
The owner of one of the Facebook groups I belong to recently asked group members what resolutions group members were making for the coming year. I replied that I don’t make New Year’s resolutions because they don’t work.
Research into resolutions has revealed that “only 8% accomplish them.” (Prossack, 2018) Researchers have concluded that 25% ditch their New Year resolutions after just one week and 29% after just two weeks. After just one month, 36% have ditched their New Year resolutions and nearly 50% of resolutions are ditched by the six month mark. As a result of these research results, January 17th has been designated as Ditch the New Year’s Resolution Day. This is significant since January 17th is just two weeks after January 1st, or the day when New Year’s Resolution are set.
Resolutions fair so poorly because they are generally very broad and vague. Resolutions are also not actionable. On the other hand, SMART or SMARTER goals are specific, measurable, time focused and as a result actionable. This makes goals much more actionable than resolutions. Goals can also be further broken down into smaller goals or sub-goals to make them actionable for a specific period of time (such as 90 days) or linked to specific projects. SMART or SMARTER Goals are both manageable and trackable, therefore helping you to stay on focus. How do you measure and track a resolution?
I didn’t realize it until my reading today, but my social media group post about resolutions vs. goals reflects how much our thinking is still dominated by the 16th century either/or paradigm. I was promoting goals over resolutions, but not both. While reading a blog post today about someone’s resolutions for 2019, I realized that my thinking needed to be upgraded to the 21st century paradigm of and/both. There is room for both resolutions and goals.
Barbara Huson stated in her blog post that her 2019 resolutions were: “Write another book. Create a home study course. Visit my kids more frequently. Get away with my hubby. Yoga class at least 3 times a week.” (Huson, 2019) But she also wrote something that caught my eye and made me stop reading and think. She wrote: “But when I reviewed the list, I was surprised by my reaction. Instead of being pumped up, I felt uninspired. Huh? These were things I deeply desire, achievements that would surely feed my soul. Why wasn’t I excited?” (Huson, 2019.) These sentences got me to thinking about the role of dreams and desires in our life.
Since they are vague, resolutions are actually dreams and desires. Having dreams and desires in our life is important. They most certainly have their place. And there is nothing wrong with that. The value of dreams and desires depends upon our expectations of them. If we expect making resolutions will change our behavior or help us to move forward towards our desired outcomes or results, we are likely to be setting ourselves up for failure and disappointment. Setting SMART or SMARTER goals is a much better strategy for moving the needle.
The question is which is more likely to move us to action? The research suggests it is SMART or SMARTER goal setting. But even setting goals will fall short unless we take action and have a plan in place to guide us. How are you planning on taking action in 2020? Got your plan ready to go?
Reference:
Huson, Barbara. 2019. A Radical New Way of Making New Year’s Resolutions. Available electronically at: https://www.barbara-huson.com/new-years-resolutions/?inf_contact_key=90a7180e1eaa0f0a59752391dda71653680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1. Accessed: December 18, 2019.
Prossack, Ashira. 2028. This Year, Don’t Set New Year’s Resolutions. Available electronically at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashiraprossack1/2018/12/31/goals-not-resolutions/#7168e5d83879. Accessed: December 18, 2019.
©2019. William McPeck. All Rights Reserved.
