How are you faring on your resolutions?
Making resolutions is easy, but keeping them appears not. What if there were tools and technique that we could apply to better our accomplishments?
Hello! Greetings from Bangalore.
We are (already) a month into 2025 and I thought this a good time to ask about your new year resolutions. You did make a few resolutions, didn’t you?
So… what were the resolutions you made for 2025?
And how are you faring on them?
No! These are not rhetorical questions. I really want to know. So why don’t you please write in to me with some — if not all — of your resolutions for the year, and tell me how you have been progressing along. Pretty please?
Speaking of resolutions, did you ever wonder why do we make them? Who and when first came up with this? Digging around the cyberverse, I found that the habit of making resolutions can be traced way back to the Babylonians in 2,000BC. That’s over 4,000 years back! It appears that the ancient Babylonians believed that if they kept their promises, their Gods would bestow them with favours over the next year. And if they failed to live up to their promises, well… nobody really wants to face the wrath of the Gods, do they?
There is of course another reason I ask, and that I ask today — after exactly a month of the coming of the New Year. Something tells me that you may be struggling with some of your resolutions. It may well be that you have even forgotten a few of your resolutions. Have you?
Don’t worry! You are not alone. Various researches found that nearly 45% of the respondents claimed to have made new year resolutions. Unfortunately, up to 23% of the people quit on their resolutions by the end of the first week itself, while a whopping 43% of them quit by the end of January! In fact, as per a study by Baylor College of Medicine this call-it-quits number could be as high as 88%!
So if you have realised that you have not been diligent in pursuing your resolutions, you can at least take some consolation from the vast majority who too have failed in their pursuit. Then again, there appears to be a special set of 6-8% of the populace who are able to trudge on with uncommon grit and determination and follow through on their resolutions. And achieve them.
What is it that they are doing that we are not? Is there a way to learn their approaches and apply the same to our benefit?
The answer is in realising the true weight of Stanley Hall’s words,
“Man is largely a creature of habit, and many of his activities are more or less automatic reflexes from the stimuli of his environment.”
We need to identify the traps that are hindering and preventing us from following through on our stated intent. Based on this realisation and our intended resolutions, we will need to proceed to create a new habit or break an existing habit — a process that invariably involves both processes. Two books that can guide and help us immensely in this cause are:
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do and How to Change by Charles Duhigg
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. by James Clear.
Another of my favourite books in this area, albeit with a focus on helping others achieve their goals, is Susan Weinschenk’s How to Get People to Do Stuff: Master the Art and Science of Persuasion and Motivation. I highly recommend that you check out these books and gain from the actionable wisdom shared in them.
Another aspect that is known to help the realisation of resolutions is the act of setting goals that are achievable. Some of you from the corporate world may already be aware of the importance of setting “SMART Goals” to ensure they are actionable. SMART is an acronym that reminds us that any goal that we set for ourselves should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely, making them so much more grounded, tangible, and in that sense, actionable and realisable.
While tools and methods are dime to a dozen, I believe it is all a matter of the mind. As I wrote some years back, one should not only want change, but should also be wholly and truly ready for it. Visualisation techniques and mind control methods go a long way here, which I have written about before and will continue to write in the future too.
So tell me, really. Is there one or more resolutions that you made that you are facing issues sticking or seeing through? Are you struggling with finding time or commitment to fulfil your resolution? I will be happy to guide you with specific approaches that help you achieve your resolutions and craft a better version of yourself.
I look forward to hearing from you.
In good thoughts,
Nakul Shenoy
References:
History.com: The History of New Year’s Resolutions
Almanac.com: How Did the Tradition of New Year's Resolutions Start?
SNHU.edu: What Are New Year's Resolutions and Do They Work?
Forbes.com: 5 Steps For The 94% Who Abandon Their New Year’s Resolutions
Atlassian.com: How to write SMART goals