Actuating a New Year's Resolution

Frohes neues Jahr! Happy New Year, friends :). Another year has now begun, and the traditional season for celebrating and reflecting upon the past year has effectively come to an end. For better or worse, the collective focus of the good people of planet Earth now seem turned toward the future.

Accompanying this turn "toward the future" is a desire for change and transformation, sometimes embodied in a goal (or series of goals) and called "New Year's Resolutions." I've encountered a number of people the last few days making such resolutions, their extent and nature varying across a very wide spectrum indeed, reminding me for the umpteenth time how fascinating human beings can be.

Often, such resolutions involve the cultivation of a good habit, the elimination of a bad habit, or both in a single package. At its heart, the purpose seems to involve the creation of a positive change in a person's life, and by extension (or primarily) perhaps the lives of others as well.

It's an interesting idea, though statistics suggest it doesn't often work. According to Scott H. Young, a writer for Lifehack.org, New Years' resolutions have a 15% success rate (or an 85% failure rate, depending how you prefer to interpret the numbers). For whatever reason, the goals people make for themselves often fail to take root, leading to frustration, apathy, and a potentially-positive habit left undeveloped.

Mr. Young suggests that many resolutions fail because the maker relies on will-power--rather than a plan--to ingrain a habit until it sticks.

A post on myGoals.com echos the need for a plan, suggesting that resolutions gain "resolve" when they involve, "clear steps that can be put into action." This implies that making a plan involves breaking a resolution down into smaller goals. On top of that, the post suggests a "year round" approach, in that "New Year's resolutions should be nothing more than a starting point...Resolutions are not set in one day, but accomplished with a hundred tiny steps that happen throughout the year."

Leo Babauta of Zenhabits.net would likely support this idea (even if he no longer supports the notion of goals and resolutions). As his recent post suggests, "Instead of creating a list of resolutions this year, create a habit."

Mr. Babauta's approach focuses on cultivating a "spiral of success," one habit at a time. Keeping it at one, he says, makes it "more manageable." "One habit is doable" he says, "15 habits are too hard." The ideas is to put all your focus into making a single habit stick, so that 1.) you'll have started a habit and accomplished something potentially beneficial, and 2.) the experience and success of starting one habit may give you knowledge and confidence for starting others. As Amy Chau (author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) suggests, success generates confidence, and thereby the potential for future success. Giving yourself a single goal simplifies the process of acquiring that confidence. It also, according to Mr. Babauta, gives you the greatest probability of success.

In sum, a successful New Year's Resolution appears to be a start rather than an end. Its success seems to depend on a well-conceived and flexible plan, which is broken down into manageable portions and allowed to spread over the course, if need be, of an entire year. Focusing in on a single goal or habit is one way of channeling your energy and raising the probability of success. Some thinkers believe this early success generates useful confidence and know-how for later projects, forming the foundation of a "virtuous cycle" or a "spiral of success."

Perhaps they're right and perhaps not. In either case, I wish you all a very happy New Year, and much luck in 2012. And of course, Happy Sunday, friends :)