Yearly Review: A Better Way to Make a New Year’s Resolution
Evidence-based alternative to setting yearly goals
Deeply ingrained in the fabric of the personal development ecosystem is the New Year’s Resolution…
But… Why?
When did we decide that the best way to have a happier, more productive year was to concoct a half-blind guess as to what we want a year from now and what we should do to get it?
I’m going to argue why you should never make another New Year’s Resolution ever again and offer an evidence-based alternative to setting yearly goals in a way that accounts for happiness, changes over time, and sustainability.
Humans are (really) bad at looking into the future.
As a species, we are absolutely terrible at seeing the challenges of the coming year. We are also very optimistic about how many challenges we will face in a given year, that can easily interfere with our precious New Year’s Resolution.
I know many people, including myself, had big plans when setting their goals for 2020…
Something as simple as your car breaking down could throw your goals out of alignment but a global pandemic breaking out and putting millions into physical, mental, and financial hardship can really shift how you think about setting goals for the long term. You shouldn’t bet on things going your way.
Psychology research indeed suggests that the more desirable a future event is, the more likely people think it is. When the sociologists Edward Brent and Donald Granberg studied wish fulfillment in U.S. presidential elections between 1952 and 1980, they found that 80 percent of each of the major candidates’ supporters expected their preferred candidate to win by a ratio of around four to one. “People distort their perception of an election’s closeness in ways that are consistent with their preferences…”
Clearly, we always WANT the best outcome to happen… but because our psychology PLANS for the best thing to happen, we need to take more control of our goals. This brings me to my next point…
New Year’s Resolutions fail because they are dependant on too many outside factors.
The classic trope of writing “Get 6-pack abs in 2021” only to wind up one year later wondering how you’ve only been to the gym 4 times in the span of 365 days is still all too real for some people. (But definitely not me… that definitely wasn't my 2021 resolution…)
These resolutions often fail because they are stated as output goals rather than input goals.
You could rephrase the 6-pack dream above to be more specific and under your control with the input goal:
“Develop a consistent and sustainable gym habit in 2021.”
And you could get even more specific by breaking down the input goals:
“Develop a consistent and sustainable gym habit in 2021.”
1. Go to the gym 5 times per week
2. Track calorie and protein intake
2. Get 8 hours of sleep per night when possible
New Year’s Resolutions often become output goals because they are nonspecific and too long-term to be within your control. By using input goals you can give yourself more control over the outcome, giving you a higher likelihood that you will actually achieve your goal.
New Year’s Resolutions don’t account for changing goals/interests.
If your motivation or interests change over the course of the year, what point is there for you to complete the goal? You should strive for happiness and fulfillment rather than strive to tick a bullet-journal checkbox on a goal you made a year ago.
We learn, we change. So shouldn’t our goals change too?
I know this is a hot-take in the personal development space but: It’s okay to abandon a goal if your interests change. It is an intrinsic human tendency for our interests and motivations to change over time and it doesn’t reflect on how hard you can “grind” and “hustle”.
It’s okay to be wrong about what you wanted.
You’re much more likely to find what you truly love if you’re okay with abandoning goals that no longer serve you in order to prioritize things that bring more peak positive moments.
How to Conduct A Personal Yearly Review
An Alternative to the Chaos of New Year’s Resolutions.
Instead of taking a shot in the dark, you can use evidence from the past year to find out 5 things that will give you clarity of what you want. (This exercise only takes around 20 minutes to do for yourself and I highly, highly recommend doing it.)
Wins (Things that went well)
Write down the big successes of the last year and order them by which had the greatest impact on your life.
How could you replicate these successes?
What lessons did you learn?
2. Loses (Things that didn’t go well)
Write down the biggest failures of the last year and order them by which had the greatest impact on your life.
What could you have done to prevent these failures?
What lessons did you learn?
3. Positive Peaks
Write down which people, places, or activities had the largest positive impact on your life. (Most positive emotional peaks)
This is helpful to reflect on as you can see things through the lens of what makes you the happiest rather than the traditional New Year’s Resolution mindset of self-improvement and productivity, which can sometimes hide the things you really love doing.
4. Negative Peaks
Write down which people, places, or activities had the largest negative impact on your life. Try to be honest with yourself here as you’ll need this information for the next step.
5. Most Valuable Activities (80/20)
The Pareto Principle (aka The Law of the Vital Few) states that 80% of outcomes are created by 20% of actions and this rule applies to everything you do in your life.
Identify which 20% of people/activities account for 80% of your happiness and which 20% account for 80% of your negative feelings.
Prioritize and cut out as needed. This can be difficult but is always beneficial.
Bonus: Compare your Personal Yearly Review to the previous years
Do the same things still interest/motivate you?
Are you getting more productive year over year?
Are you getting happier year over year?
This exercise has changed my entire process for setting goals and every time I do it I get a clear sense of what makes me happy, what makes me unhappy, and shows me which things are actually impacting my life the most so I know where to focus my attention. Let’s abandon the concept of New Year’s Resolutions and use evidence from our own lives to find out what we should be striving for.