magazine issue 2 2007 / Issue 2

Implementing New Year’s Resolutions

• written by Suzanne van Gils

Third, reaching your goal is going to be tough. Therefore you will need a good plan. Start with formulating your goal concretely. Research has shown that it is easier to reach your goal if you have set yourself implementation goals(Gollwitzer & Schaal, 1998). For example, if you want to exercise formulate where you are going to do that, when you want to do it, how are you going to get the money to pay for it. Most importantly, make a plan for times in which things get hairy. What are you going to do if you are invited to a party on your exercise night? Make sure you have enough arguments to persuade yourself to not give in to temptations at these moments.

Part of the plan is to set yourself subgoals. If your goal is to visit your family more often, set yourself the goal of visiting your family on Tuesday of the current week. If you manage to do so, you can increase your subgoal to visiting your family every Tuesday. Make sure that your road to goal attainment goes step-by-step. The tricky part in setting subgoals is that you might mistake your subgoal for your final goal. Reaching your subgoal may make you feel like you do not have to continue to pursue yoursuperordinate goal (Fishbach, Dhar & Zhang, 2006). However, if you managed to stop eating candy for a week, it does not mean that you do not have to exercise to keep losing weight. Keep in mind that you only have made a small step towards your final goal, you are not there yet!! 

Fourth, set yourself punishments, distractions and rewards. The next paragraphs will discuss each of these in detail. With regard to punishments, make sure you do not punish yourself too hard. Therefore, choose tasks you do not like as a punishment. For example, if you do not exercise when you actually planned to do it make yourself do the dishes for fifteen minutes (make sure you really have to do something you detest or it will not work). By applying such punishments you will be penalized when you do not comply with your plans. This might reduce the guilt you feel over not being able to execute your plan.

For distractions, provide yourself a list of things you can do when you have difficulty sticking to the plan. Distractions are especially useful when you have to quit a habit that you usually perform at home. When you quit smoking make sure that you have a book to read or some candy to eat, when you long for a cigarette. Distracting yourself during difficult times will make the attainment of your goal easier.

Finally, reward yourself! When you manage to fulfill (part of) your goal buy yourself a present, take a long shower, go to the movies or anything else you like. It is important to realize that you’re on your way to success before you try to reach the next goal. If you want to lose twenty pounds, do not expect yourself to be able to do that in a short period of time, but reward yourself for every two pounds you lose. However, do not reward yourself by allowing yourself to perform the habit you try to overcome! Be tough on yourself with regard to the attainment of your goal, but be kind to yourself in other domains. Rewarding yourself with an hour of nail-biting when you have just managed to quit for a week is not a good reward and will probably not make you feel proud of yourself. As said before, rewarding yourself for reaching a subgoal is fine but always keep your superordinate goal in mind!

By sticking to the strategies listed above you should be able to finally achieve those goals that are still on your to-do list of resolutions that you made last New Year. You might even find yourself having a hard time making up New Year’s resolutions, for all your goals of the past year might be implemented already. Good luck!

References

Baumeister, R.F. & Heatherton, T.F. (1996). Self-Regulation failure: An overview. Psychological Inquiry, 7, 1-15.

Fishbach, A., Dhar, R., & Zhang, Y. (2006). Subgoals as substitutes or complements: The role of goal accessibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 232-242.

Gollwitzer, P.M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54, 493-503.

Gollwitzer, P.M., & Schaal, B. (1998). Meta cognition in action: The importance of implementation intentions. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2, 124-136.

Sheldon, K.M. & Kasser, T. (1998). Pursuing personal goals: Skills enable progress, but not all progress is beneficial. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24,1319-1331.

General background

Geen, R.G. (1995). Human Motivation: A Social Psychological Approach. Pacific Grove, CA. Brooks/Cole.