New Year's resolutions are pointless. Here's why you should make one.

[Nick M.]

So after being here on the forum for just over a year, I wanted to write this up and share it with many of my friends and family. Thought I'd share it here, too (even though it's probably preaching to the choir and not directly aimed at TFF members). Enjoy!

----

New Year’s Resolutions are Pointless.
Here’s why you should make one.
It’s about that time of year, again. The time of year where you swear to exercise every day, eat healthily, lose weight, pick up a new skill, or control your spending. Which means in a couple of weeks it will be time for you to abandon those efforts and go back to your normal life.

It’s quite a popular fact that many New Year’s resolutions fail.

Actually, almost everyone fails at their New Year’s resolutions. Only 8% of people succeed. Most people quit by January 12th. That’s astonishingly bad.

Researchers believe that this is for several reasons:

• Goals are too lofty
• Resolutions aren’t specific
• People focus on the result, not the daily action
• …and many more reasons

But in my opinion, most New Year’s resolutions don’t fail because people do them wrong. But rather, the simple idea of a New Year’s resolution sets you up for failure. Here’s how to overcome that.

Most people set goals because it’s the new year
Duh…

That’s the point of these ritualistic resolutions.

With a new year comes a new beginning and a new you. At least that’s what most people think when they set resolutions.

Yet, that has one huge flaw…

Change is not a decision or a destination. It’s a process
Let’s look at the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Specifically, what you need to do to achieve them.

1. Diet or eat healthier (71%): First of all, define why you want to diet. Your diet determines your results, and there are hundreds of “healthier” diets. Then you have to stick with that diet. It takes 3 weeks or more for your gut biome to get used to the diet (meaning 3 weeks before you’ll even like the diet), and often several months before you achieve long-term results.
2. Exercise more (65%): It takes 2–3 weeks before you start to feel good from exercising. Until then, it’s often painful and discouraging. And again, for long-term effects, it usually takes several months of exercise.
3. Lose weight (54%): Losing weight is a combination of diet and exercise. Though you can easily lose 5–10 pounds of water weight quickly, it often takes months to see long-term weight loss. Are you catching a pattern here?
4. Save more and spend less (32%): Depending on your current finances, it can take quite a while for your financial situation to improve. But let’s say you are already good financially and want to build strong habits. Well, habits take 21–60 days to form (depending on which scientific research you cite).
5. Learn a new skill (26%): Learning a new skill takes time. To be competent, it often takes 20 hours of practice. Before then, you won’t find it especially rewarding. Being decently good takes 100 hours. Being good enough to teach others takes 1,000 hours. If you practice an hour every day, it will take you weeks to become competent and months to become decently good.

Are you noticing a pattern? Change takes time. The quickest change takes two weeks (14 days). But usually, change takes months or longer. Yet most people give up their resolutions after only 12 days. No wonder 92% don’t succeed!

So when you set a New Year’s resolution and are imagining the “new you,” you have automatically failed. You’re viewing change as an event, not a process.

Focus on the process, and the change will come.

Here’s why you should set a New Year’s resolution
Change and self-improvement is a constant process. You’ve probably gathered that by now.

But it’s the new year. So should you set a New Year’s resolution? Yes.

Just because it’s the new year doesn’t mean you shouldn’t set a goal. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t become a better, healthier, smarter person. Setting a goal is the first step to getting better.

Just don’t set a goal because it’s the new year.

Make a New Year’s resolution because you set goals and achieve them. It just happens to be the start of the year. There's no reason to wait until after the new year to get started.

----

There are already several threads about New Year's resolutions here on the Forum, so if you want to post your goals ("proclamations"), put them here:

EXECUTION - What will you accomplish in 2020? <-- Well did u?

Not a New Year's Resolution thread, but a mere proclamation of what you will accomplish in 2020. List one thing, or many. Whatever you resolve to do. Please keep your proclamation measurable! Lose weight is not measurable, lose 50 lbs is! Start a business is not measurable, sell X units is...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

And if you want to read another rant, read this thread:

MINDSET - RANT - New Year's Goals are Stupid

Just a quick rant. Not just for this forum, but society in general. This forum has recently been flooded with 2020 goals. They started a few weeks ago. The second December started, people started setting their goals for 2020. Here's the problem with that: Having a procrastination mindset that...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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[SEBASTlAN]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT7dBk3BNPw

 

[PizzaOnTheRoof]

Your dog doesn't know, nor care that it's a new year...

How about an anti-resolution?...

"This year will be another year having accomplished nothing. I will go to work and come home to watch TV the way I did all last year. 365 days from now, I will feel the pain and regret of having wasted another year of my already short life..."

...F*ck man...I DON'T want to be that guy...

(sounds of a scratching pen on paper)

 

[WJK]

So after being here on the forum for just over a year, I wanted to write this up and share it with many of my friends and family. Thought I'd share it here, too (even though it's probably preaching to the choir and not directly aimed at TFF members). Enjoy!

----

New Year’s Resolutions are Pointless.
Here’s why you should make one.
It’s about that time of year, again. The time of year where you swear to exercise every day, eat healthily, lose weight, pick up a new skill, or control your spending. Which means in a couple of weeks it will be time for you to abandon those efforts and go back to your normal life.

It’s quite a popular fact that many New Year’s resolutions fail.

Actually, almost everyone fails at their New Year’s resolutions. Only 8% of people succeed. Most people quit by January 12th. That’s astonishingly bad.

Researchers believe that this is for several reasons:

• Goals are too lofty
• Resolutions aren’t specific
• People focus on the result, not the daily action
• …and many more reasons

But in my opinion, most New Year’s resolutions don’t fail because people do them wrong. But rather, the simple idea of a New Year’s resolution sets you up for failure. Here’s how to overcome that.

Most people set goals because it’s the new year
Duh…

That’s the point of these ritualistic resolutions.

With a new year comes a new beginning and a new you. At least that’s what most people think when they set resolutions.

Yet, that has one huge flaw…

Change is not a decision or a destination. It’s a process
Let’s look at the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Specifically, what you need to do to achieve them.

1. Diet or eat healthier (71%): First of all, define why you want to diet. Your diet determines your results, and there are hundreds of “healthier” diets. Then you have to stick with that diet. It takes 3 weeks or more for your gut biome to get used to the diet (meaning 3 weeks before you’ll even like the diet), and often several months before you achieve long-term results.
2. Exercise more (65%): It takes 2–3 weeks before you start to feel good from exercising. Until then, it’s often painful and discouraging. And again, for long-term effects, it usually takes several months of exercise.
3. Lose weight (54%): Losing weight is a combination of diet and exercise. Though you can easily lose 5–10 pounds of water weight quickly, it often takes months to see long-term weight loss. Are you catching a pattern here?
4. Save more and spend less (32%): Depending on your current finances, it can take quite a while for your financial situation to improve. But let’s say you are already good financially and want to build strong habits. Well, habits take 21–60 days to form (depending on which scientific research you cite).
5. Learn a new skill (26%): Learning a new skill takes time. To be competent, it often takes 20 hours of practice. Before then, you won’t find it especially rewarding. Being decently good takes 100 hours. Being good enough to teach others takes 1,000 hours. If you practice an hour every day, it will take you weeks to become competent and months to become decently good.

Are you noticing a pattern? Change takes time. The quickest change takes two weeks (14 days). But usually, change takes months or longer. Yet most people give up their resolutions after only 12 days. No wonder 92% don’t succeed!

So when you set a New Year’s resolution and are imagining the “new you,” you have automatically failed. You’re viewing change as an event, not a process.

Focus on the process, and the change will come.

Here’s why you should set a New Year’s resolution
Change and self-improvement is a constant process. You’ve probably gathered that by now.

But it’s the new year. So should you set a New Year’s resolution? Yes.

Just because it’s the new year doesn’t mean you shouldn’t set a goal. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t become a better, healthier, smarter person. Setting a goal is the first step to getting better.

Just don’t set a goal because it’s the new year.

Make a New Year’s resolution because you set goals and achieve them. It just happens to be the start of the year. There's no reason to wait until after the new year to get started.

----

There are already several threads about New Year's resolutions here on the Forum, so if you want to post your goals ("proclamations"), put them here:

EXECUTION - What will you accomplish in 2020? <-- Well did u?

Not a New Year's Resolution thread, but a mere proclamation of what you will accomplish in 2020. List one thing, or many. Whatever you resolve to do. Please keep your proclamation measurable! Lose weight is not measurable, lose 50 lbs is! Start a business is not measurable, sell X units is...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

And if you want to read another rant, read this thread:

MINDSET - RANT - New Year's Goals are Stupid

Just a quick rant. Not just for this forum, but society in general. This forum has recently been flooded with 2020 goals. They started a few weeks ago. The second December started, people started setting their goals for 2020. Here's the problem with that: Having a procrastination mindset that...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

I keep saying it -- I love this season and the process of setting goals. I get to do a review of what worked last year and then decide what direction I'll take this coming year. Yes, most people's goals don't work for them. They have no realistic plan for making those wishes happen. I bake my baby steps into my daily routine. I know, I know. I sound like I'm OCD. Maybe -- but that's how I get from A to B. Some of my goals for 2020 are very short and sweet. Others are complicated, multi-year whales. It all comes to daily routines and habits.

 

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[A_Random_Guy]

My take:
1. Have a realistic goal.
2. First, plan out the resources you need to achieve your goal.
3. Then, research about people who already succeeded in that goal previously. Find out how they did it.
4. Make a plan for the coming 2 weeks, detailing everything you do each day.
5. Follow it. Even if you can't complete a daily goal, just adjust your plan and keep progressing.

For example, my goal for the month Jan, 2020 would be to complete College level mathematics.
1. It is a realistic goal, many have done it in shorter time.
2. I already enrolled in 2 online courses I will follow. I have 2 reference books(hard copy) to practice as well. I have also checked the syllabus covered and verified that the same syllabus is covered in my resources. In addition to the above, I also have the class notes of a senior who did extremely well in the exam I am preparing for.
3. Most of the toppers recommend starting with the basics and midway, attempting online tests to keep revision up-to-date with learning. Then keep learning further and appearing for tests consecutively.
4. I've gone through the books, marked the portions important to read. Will make a plan on 28th or 29th of this month.
5. Will do.
I recommend people who want to learn a new programming language or something to know their resources and plan out what to do before actually starting to learn. This gives a much clearer vision.

 

[Seniorpreneur]

I keep saying it -- I love this season and the process of setting goals. I get to do a review of what worked last year and then decide what direction I'll take this coming year. Yes, most people's goals don't work for them. They have no realistic plan for making those wishes happen. I bake my baby steps into my daily routine. I know, I know. I sound like I'm OCD. Maybe -- but that's how I get from A to B. Some of my goals for 2020 are very short and sweet. Others are complicated, multi-year whales. It all comes to daily routines and habits.

It might work if people setup just a single goal then focus on it with specific actions to make it happen.

 

[Here]

I keep saying it -- I love this season and the process of setting goals. I get to do a review of what worked last year and then decide what direction I'll take this coming year. Yes, most people's goals don't work for them. They have no realistic plan for making those wishes happen. I bake my baby steps into my daily routine. I know, I know. I sound like I'm OCD. Maybe -- but that's how I get from A to B. Some of my goals for 2020 are very short and sweet. Others are complicated, multi-year whales. It all comes to daily routines and habits.

I used to do this. And I accomplished way more.

I was big into journaling then, and as part of my journaling routine I focused on a new topic each day of the month.

Day 1 was monthly goals. Day 2 a reflection on how I’m doing health wise. Day 3 on how I feel about my writing progress. Etc.

I gave it up because I found that it was ramping up my anxiety. I was a lot more driven, but I was so angry with myself when I didn’t hit my goals.

These days I’m doing a lot better anxiety wise. I’m thinking of starting with it again.

 

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[WJK]

It might work if people setup just a single goal then focus on it with specific actions to make it happen.

You say it will work for one goal? I have several goals for next year. Some I started this year and last year...
1. I'm opening another new business. It's been in the works since last summer. The paperwork for the surety bond and the insurance is on my desk. Then I can finish the other start-up steps. The sister business was moved to our new location on Labor Day weekend. This should be a good year for this venture.
2. I'm paying off a short-term, blanket commercial loan on my investments. I started making extra payments during September 2018. I've cut the principal by 2/3rds since then. I plan to have it all paid off by the end of 2020. I will continue to record each payment that I make in my daily log and on my candlestick chart.
3. Every day this coming year, I'm going to throw away, give away, or straighten out stuff in my house and in my businesses. I don't care if that action takes 2 seconds or morphs into an all-day job. It's a line item on my daily log where I will record what I did each day. That's 365 baby steps toward being more organized and more comfortable. By the way, I've already started this goal, so that will add a couple of weeks of my effort in 2020.
4. I have a whiteboard in my office for long term projects and improvements for my real estate investments -- things like finishing rehab projects -- and building stuff like roofs and such. I have a daily whiteboard that I use for the current project with my workmen. That information is used for my morning construction meetings and trips to get materials.
5. My IT guy just rebuilt my database for my trust deed business. This coming year, I'm going to regularly do property research to be ready for 2021. I know my new business will take the oxygen out of the room for the first year of its life. But, post-start-up I want to buy more RE trust deeds. Therefore, I will do the first-step research in 2020 to be ready to continue the following year. And yes, I may hire someone to help me with that research. One way or another, it will be completed.
6. I will be spending at least an hour every working day of 2020 on my bookkeeping. That's at least 5 hours per week and more as necessary. I haven't found anyone who can do that job and keep everything straight between the various rentals and businesses. And yes, that activity will be recorded in my daily log.

That's just a few of my major goals. I have other side goals that need attention. Did I say that I've been retired from my career for about 20 years?

 

[WJK]

I used to do this. And I accomplished way more.

I was big into journaling then, and as part of my journaling routine I focused on a new topic each day of the month.

Day 1 was monthly goals. Day 2 a reflection on how I’m doing health wise. Day 3 on how I feel about my writing progress. Etc.

I gave it up because I found that it was ramping up my anxiety. I was a lot more driven, but I was so angry with myself when I didn’t hit my goals.

These days I’m doing a lot better anxiety wise. I’m thinking of starting with it again.

Do it again, do it again... We like it, we like it...

 

[Seniorpreneur]

You say it will work for one goal? I have several goals for next year. Some I started this year and last year...
1. I'm opening another new business. It's been in the works since last summer. The paperwork for the surety bond and the insurance is on my desk. Then I can finish the other start-up steps. The sister business was moved to our new location on Labor Day weekend. This should be a good year for this venture.
2. I'm paying off a short-term, blanket commercial loan on my investments. I started making extra payments during September 2018. I've cut the principal by 2/3rds since then. I plan to have it all paid off by the end of 2020. I will continue to record each payment that I make in my daily log and on my candlestick chart.
3. Every day this coming year, I'm going to throw away, give away, or straighten out stuff in my house and in my businesses. I don't care if that action takes 2 seconds or morphs into an all-day job. It's a line item on my daily log where I will record what I did each day. That's 365 baby steps toward being more organized and more comfortable. By the way, I've already started this goal, so that will add a couple of weeks of my effort in 2020.
4. I have a whiteboard in my office for long term projects and improvements for my real estate investments -- things like finishing rehab projects -- and building stuff like roofs and such. I have a daily whiteboard that I use for the current project with my workmen. That information is used for my morning construction meetings and trips to get materials.
5. My IT guy just rebuilt my database for my trust deed business. This coming year, I'm going to regularly do property research to be ready for 2021. I know my new business will take the oxygen out of the room for the first year of its life. But, post-start-up I want to buy more RE trust deeds. Therefore, I will do the first-step research in 2020 to be ready to continue the following year. And yes, I may hire someone to help me with that research. One way or another, it will be completed.
6. I will be spending at least an hour every working day of 2020 on my bookkeeping. That's at least 5 hours per week and more as necessary. I haven't found anyone who can do that job and keep everything straight between the various rentals and businesses. And yes, that activity will be recorded in my daily log.

That's just a few of my major goals. I have other side goals that need attention. Did I say that I've been retired from my career for about 20 years?

Great Stuff! Keep an eye on your health and don't burn out. The original post said that only 8% of the people who make these NY resolutions succeed. You rank inside the magic number of 8. Congrats!

 

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[WJK]

Great Stuff! Keep an eye on your health and don't burn out. The original post said that only 8% of the people who make these NY resolutions succeed. You rank inside the magic number of 8. Congrats!

Yeah, I do have stretching and exercise on my daily list too.
I don't worry about burning out. I worry more about running out of time. I'll be 66 soon, and I'm feeling fine. Every dog has his day. This is my day.
I've raised two families -- my kids and then later my stepkids. All are grown and doing well. I took care of my mom for her last 10 years. She died a very happy woman. I made and lost fortunes in real estate -- working really hard long hours to take care of everyone. I went to college and earned 4 college degrees including my doctorate. I spent some of those younger years as a trophy wife -- married to an older, powerful man. I hated being treated like a plaything, so I didn't stick around for very long.
Now I get to do what I want to do, the way I want to do it. I've earned my freedom.