Easing the Pressure of Goal-Setting
It’s that time of year! The time everyone is thinking about New Year’s resolutions! Many people jump on the goal-setting train only to become a statistic. Did you know approximately 9% of people who make resolutions at the start of the year actually stick with them the entire year (Howley, 2024)? More staggering is 80% of resolution-setters quit on their goals by the end of February! Interestingly, the second Friday in January has been dubbed “Quitter’s Day” in the fitness world. Some of the reasons people fail is because they set goals that aren’t realistic for them, they don’t think through a strategy of how they’ll reach their goals (so they lose motivation), and/or they set goals that require them to change an ingrained habit (habits are hard to change!) (Barnes, 2024).
So how do you put yourself in that 9% stat category of sticking to your goals? Try picking a goal framework to give you some sense of structure. Goal frameworks are designed to get you thinking intentionally about your goal. They provide a structure that requires you to think through the HOW you’re going to achieve a goal, and they reveal if your goal is feasible for you. Yes, SMART goals may be the most popular, but it may not be the best fit for your goal as they can be too rigid, tedious, and overwhelming (Pietsch et al. 2024). One of my favorite goal frameworks is the SBR technique (Hanson, 2015). This method starts by you identifying the result (R) you want to see happen and when you want to see it achieved. Be specific and focus on one result when possible. Next, think about your situation (S) at the time that you will be working on this goal. What resources do you have access to? What is missing that could help you? How much time and effort will you realistically be able to put into this goal? Finally, given your situation, what behaviors (B) and actions do you need to take to achieve that result? List them out. Put your focus on those behaviors and actions. That’s your process steps. Occasionally you will want to re-assess if your situation has changed, are your behaviors/actions working, and if the result you want is still what you want. SBR gives you more flexibility, and it can seem less daunting, but you still want to make sure you have a way to tell progress and you are specific. So, give that a try and see how it works for you!
References
Barns, T. (2024, January 11). New Year’s resolutions: Why do we give up on them so quickly? Baylor College of Medicine News. Retrieved from https://www.bcm.edu/news/new-years-resolutions-why-do-we-give-up-on-them-so-quickly
Hanson, B. (2015, November 9). The SBR model: Situation x behavior = result. Athlete Assessments. Retrieved from https://www.athleteassessments.com/sbr-model/
Howley, E.K. (2023, December 23). Why most New Year’s resolutions fail. U.S. News & World Reports. Retrieved from https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/why-new-years-resolutions-fail
Pietsch, S., Riddell, H., Semmler, C., Ntoumanis, N., & Gucciardi, D. F. (2024). SMART goals are no more effective for creative performance than do-your-best goals or non-specific, exploratory ‘open goals’. Educational Psychology, 44(9-10), 946-962.